PlestyLib

PlestyLib is the core Python library of PLESTY, a platform for automating lab measurements. Code built on it comes in three kinds, each a module of its own:

• a device controls one instrument;
• an experiment runs a measurement with devices and records it;
• an analyzer turns recorded data into a result.

PlestyLib gives each kind a standard shape, so every instrument is driven the same way and every measurement is recorded the same way. It provides:

1. Base classes for devices, with parameter and operation systems, status snapshots, and serving a device over the network
2. Connections to instruments: serial, VISA, TCP/IP, and Thorlabs APT controllers (including those Kinesis has bound to FTDI's D2XX driver)
3. Command solvers that translate standard calls into an instrument's own protocol, such as SCPI
4. Experiments: a standard command line, run folders on a shared data disk, resuming, stopping, and a journal of every run
5. Analyzers, HTML reports, and a viewer that plots a measurement live or replays it afterwards
6. Test helpers for all three kinds of module

Full documentation: https://docs.plesty.net/plesty-lib/.

Requirements

• Python 3.12+

Installation

Install from package index:

pip install plesty-lib
# or 
uv add plesty-lib

Optional dependencies

Features that need a heavy or platform-specific package keep it out of the base install and behind an extra. Without the extra the feature raises an ImportError naming it; nothing else is affected.

pip install "plesty-lib[gui,record]"
# or
uv add "plesty-lib[gui,record]"

For development, install from source and sync the dev dependency group:

uv sync --group dev
# or
pip install -e .
pip install plesty-sdk

Quick Start

1. Create a device class from a base device

from plesty.lib.device.base_visa_scpi_device import BaseVisaScpiDevice


class PowermeterDevice(BaseVisaScpiDevice):
	def __init__(self, address: str):
		super().__init__(address)
		self.register_config("POWER", dtype=float, read_only=True, command="MEAS:SCAL:POW")
		self.register_config("WAVELENGTH", dtype=int, unit="nm", command="SENS:CORR:WAV")

2. Use the device

# replace the serial number P0000001 with that of your own device
address = "USB0::0x1313::0x8078::P0000001::INSTR"

with PowermeterDevice(address) as dev:
	print(dev.identity())
	print(dev.query("POWER"))

The documentation's quick start continues from here: serving the device over the network, using it without the instrument, then an experiment and an analyzer.

Architecture Overview

A device is built in layers, and a module's author only writes the lower ones:

1. Traffic manager: the connection to the instrument (serial, VISA, TCP/IP, APT)
2. Command solver: maps standard calls to the instrument's protocol
3. Synchronous device: the class the author writes, with its parameters and operations
4. Provided by PlestyLib: the asynchronous wrapper, the network server, and a client that drives a remote device with the same calls as a local one

An experiment then drives devices through those clients, and an analyzer reads what the experiment recorded. Concepts explains how the parts fit together.

License

Plesty is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 or later (LGPL-3.0-or-later). See the LICENSE file.