pytesdaqx

pytesdaqx is the Python acquisition and instrument-control framework used for TES detector readout. It supports continuous and finite NI-DAQmx acquisition, TES and SQUID control, YAML-defined sequences, and raw-data recording in Zarr or legacy HDF5. Zarr is the default for new acquisition configuration files when run.file_format is omitted. Supported Python versions are 3.11 and 3.12. Python 3.10 is not supported: the required zarr>=3 has no published wheel/sdist for 3.10.

Documentation

The user manual is in docs/. Start with:

• Installation
• Quick start
• Configuration files
• Command-line tools
• Terminology
• Data format
• Developer guide

To build the documentation website locally:

python -m pip install -e '.[docs]'
mkdocs serve

Minimal local test

python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'

pytesdaqx-validate-config \
  --hardware examples/configuration/basic/hardware_fake.yaml \
  --run-setup examples/configuration/basic/run_setup.yaml \
  --acquisition-config examples/configuration/basic/acquisition_background.yaml

pytesdaqx-run \
  --hardware examples/configuration/basic/hardware_fake.yaml \
  --run-setup examples/configuration/basic/run_setup.yaml \
  --acquisition-config examples/configuration/basic/acquisition_background.yaml \
  --backend fake

The fake backend exercises configuration resolution and acquisition orchestration without contacting hardware.

Development

Run the repository tests with:

pytest -q

Architecture, extension points, hardware support, testing, and release practices are documented in the developer guide. The maintained example configurations are described in examples/README.md.