Python bindings for libarc2

Introduction

This library presents a python interface to the low-level libarc2 library used to interface with ArC TWO™. Most of the user-facing facilities of libarc2 are present in this library. That being said, pyarc2 itself is still relatively low-level and a general understanding of the internals of ArC TWO is required.

Use

pyarc2 maps most of the functionality of libarc2 so the API translates fairly transparent. Most of the interaction with ArC TWO will be through the Instrument class that encapsulates the implemented functionality of libarc2. The library will keep being updated as new functionality is added. For instance to read the current between two channels you can write

from pyarc2 import Instrument, find_ids

# low voltage channel (typically grounded)
LOWV = 7
# high voltage channel
HIGHV = 33
# read-out voltage
VREAD = 0.2

# Get the ID of the first available ArC TWO
arc2id = find_ids()[0]

# firmware; shipped with your board
fw = 'arc2fw.bin'

# connect to the board
arc = Instrument(arc2id, fw)

current = arc.read_one(LOWV, HIGHV, VREAD)
print('I = %g A' % current)

Additional functionality

pyarc2 can also be used to implement new plugins based on libarc2. Access to the lower level object is done via Instrument::inner() and Instrument::inner_mut(). These plugins can fully leverage libarc2 functionality but require some familiarity with Rust and the libarc2 API.