PyVISA command-line utilities

PyVISA is a Python frontend for the VISA library that enables controlling all kinds of measurement equipment through GPIB, RS232, USB and Ethernet among others interfaces.

If you are following the development of PyVISA you might have seen that we have recently made the visa module executable to provide a few useful utilities. To try this, you need to update to the latest PyVISA:

$ pip install -U https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa/zipball/master

First, we now provide a simpler way to get debug information:

$ python -m visa info
Machine Details:
   Platform ID:    Darwin-10.8.0-x86_64-i386-32bit
   Processor:      i386

Python:
   Implementation: CPython
   Executable:     /Users/grecco/envs/lantz/bin/python
   Version:        3.2.3
   Compiler:       GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)
   Bits:           32bit
   Build:          Apr 10 2012 11:25:50 (#v3.2.3:3d0686d90f55)
   Unicode:        UCS2

PyVISA Version: 1.6.1

Backends:
   ni:
      Version: 1.6.1 (bundled with PyVISA)
      #1: /Library/Frameworks/visa.framework/visa:
         found by: auto
         bitness: 32
         Vendor: National Instruments
         Impl. Version: 5243392
         Spec. Version: 5243136
   py:
      Version: 0.1.dev0
      ASRL INSTR: Available via PySerial (10.8.0)
      TCPIP INSTR: Available
      USB INSTR: Available via PyUSB (1.0.0rc1). Backend: libusb0

Notice also that more useful information is given, including details about the different backends (in this case ni and py).

Another utility is the VISA shell which was taken from the Lantz project. It provides a way to list, open and query devices. It also allows you to get (and in the near future set) attributes. The shell has in-built help, autocomplete and

$ python -m visa shell
Welcome to the VISA shell. Type help or ? to list commands.

(visa) list
( 0) ASRL2::INSTR
( 1) ASRL1::INSTR
(visa) open ASRL1::INSTR
ASRL1::INSTR has been opened.
You can talk to the device using "write", "read" or "query".
The default end of message is added to each message
(open) attr
+-----------------------------+------------+----------------------------+-------------------------------------+
|          VISA name          |  Constant  |        Python name         |                 val                 |
+-----------------------------+------------+----------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| VI_ATTR_ASRL_ALLOW_TRANSMIT | 1073676734 |       allow_transmit       |                  1                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_AVAIL_NUM   | 1073676460 |      bytes_in_buffer       |                  0                  |
|      VI_ATTR_ASRL_BAUD      | 1073676321 |         baud_rate          |                 9600                |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_BREAK_LEN   | 1073676733 |        break_length        |                 250                 |
|   VI_ATTR_ASRL_BREAK_STATE  | 1073676732 |        break_state         |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_CONNECTED   | 1073676731 |                            |          VI_ERROR_NSUP_ATTR         |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_CTS_STATE   | 1073676462 |                            |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_DATA_BITS   | 1073676322 |         data_bits          |                  8                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_DCD_STATE   | 1073676463 |                            |                  0                  |
|  VI_ATTR_ASRL_DISCARD_NULL  | 1073676464 |        discard_null        |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_DSR_STATE   | 1073676465 |                            |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_DTR_STATE   | 1073676466 |                            |                  1                  |
|     VI_ATTR_ASRL_END_IN     | 1073676467 |         end_input          |                  2                  |
|     VI_ATTR_ASRL_END_OUT    | 1073676468 |                            |                  0                  |
|   VI_ATTR_ASRL_FLOW_CNTRL   | 1073676325 |                            |                  0                  |
|     VI_ATTR_ASRL_PARITY     | 1073676323 |           parity           |                  0                  |
|  VI_ATTR_ASRL_REPLACE_CHAR  | 1073676478 |        replace_char        |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_RI_STATE    | 1073676479 |                            |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_RTS_STATE   | 1073676480 |                            |                  1                  |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_STOP_BITS   | 1073676324 |         stop_bits          |                  10                 |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_WIRE_MODE   | 1073676735 |                            |                 128                 |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_XOFF_CHAR   | 1073676482 |         xoff_char          |                  19                 |
|    VI_ATTR_ASRL_XON_CHAR    | 1073676481 |          xon_char          |                  17                 |
|     VI_ATTR_DMA_ALLOW_EN    | 1073676318 |         allow_dma          |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_FILE_APPEND_EN   | 1073676690 |                            |                  0                  |
|    VI_ATTR_INTF_INST_NAME   | 3221160169 |                            | ASRL1  (/dev/cu.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync) |
|       VI_ATTR_INTF_NUM      | 1073676662 |      interface_number      |                  1                  |
|      VI_ATTR_INTF_TYPE      | 1073676657 |                            |                  4                  |
|       VI_ATTR_IO_PROT       | 1073676316 |        io_protocol         |                  1                  |
|   VI_ATTR_MAX_QUEUE_LENGTH  | 1073676293 |                            |                  50                 |
|   VI_ATTR_RD_BUF_OPER_MODE  | 1073676330 |                            |                  3                  |
|     VI_ATTR_RD_BUF_SIZE     | 1073676331 |                            |                 4096                |
|      VI_ATTR_RM_SESSION     | 1073676484 |                            |               3160976               |
|      VI_ATTR_RSRC_CLASS     | 3221159937 |       resource_class       |                INSTR                |
|  VI_ATTR_RSRC_IMPL_VERSION  | 1073676291 |   implementation_version   |               5243392               |
|   VI_ATTR_RSRC_LOCK_STATE   | 1073676292 |         lock_state         |                  0                  |
|     VI_ATTR_RSRC_MANF_ID    | 1073676661 |                            |                 4086                |
|    VI_ATTR_RSRC_MANF_NAME   | 3221160308 | resource_manufacturer_name |         National Instruments        |
|      VI_ATTR_RSRC_NAME      | 3221159938 |       resource_name        |             ASRL1::INSTR            |
|  VI_ATTR_RSRC_SPEC_VERSION  | 1073676656 |        spec_version        |               5243136               |
|     VI_ATTR_SEND_END_EN     | 1073676310 |          send_end          |                  1                  |
|   VI_ATTR_SUPPRESS_END_EN   | 1073676342 |                            |                  0                  |
|       VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR      | 1073676312 |                            |                  10                 |
|     VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN     | 1073676344 |                            |                  0                  |
|      VI_ATTR_TMO_VALUE      | 1073676314 |                            |                 2000                |
|       VI_ATTR_TRIG_ID       | 1073676663 |                            |                  -1                 |
|   VI_ATTR_WR_BUF_OPER_MODE  | 1073676333 |                            |                  2                  |
|     VI_ATTR_WR_BUF_SIZE     | 1073676334 |                            |                 4096                |
+-----------------------------+------------+----------------------------+-------------------------------------+
(open) close
The resource has been closed.


Again, this release is only possible thanks to the contribution of a lot of people that contributed bug reports, testing and code. Thanks to everybody!

Submit your bug reports, comments and suggestions in the Issue Tracker. We will address them promptly.

Read the development docs: https://pyvisa.readthedocs.org/en/master/
or fork the code: https:/https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Communicating with instruments using PyVISA but without NI-VISA

PyVISA is a Python frontend for the VISA library that enables controlling all kinds of measurement equipment through GPIB, RS232, USB and Ethernet among others interfaces. Starting form version 1.6 , PyVISA allows to use different backends. The cool thing is that your code remains the same, except the line in which you instantiate the resource manager (which tells which backend to use). A few days ago I blogged about one of such alternative backends called PyVISA-sim which allows your to mock the presence of instruments (in cased that you missed the announcement, is here ). Today I am making public a second backend.   Until now, talking to instruments via PyVISA required that you had National Instruments VISA library installed in your system. This works most of the time, for most people. But NI-VISA is a proprietary library that only works on certain systems. That is when PyVISA-py jumps in. It is an implementation of message based communication (Serial/USB/Ethernet) using Pyt
Read more

Moving to Lantz

Image
Lantz is a Python automation and instrumentation toolkit that allows you to control instruments in a clean and efficient manner writing pure Python code. Since I released Lantz a few weeks ago, I have received a lot of positive e-mails about the project. Most of them can be summarized as: It looks very nice! I love Python and I have been looking for a Pythonic way to do instrumentation! It is encouraging to receive such positive comments and also confirms that Lantz is in the right path: Not a Domain-specific language, not a do-it-my-way framework, but a complete, coherent and concise set of classes and functions for instrumentation in Python. Lantz provides base classes and functions decorators to help you write your drivers as shown in the figure (thanks Pablo Jais!). Y ou can find more details in the documentation's overview . Inertia is what stopping many to start using Lantz. For most of us, instrumentation is the means to an end. We need to measure, do experiment
Read more

PyVISA-sim. Test your PyVISA applications without connected instruments

I have just released PyVISA-sim 0.1.  PyVISA-sim is a backend for  PyVISA . It allows you to simulate devices and therefore test your applications without having real instruments connected. While there still a lot of features to add, this early release already allows you to: - play around with a simulated device. - write your own simulated  device  in YAML files.  - simulated  devices can include commands and properties which are automatically generated from the YAML file. - Properties can have some basic validation rules. Install it using:     pip install -U pyvisa-sim Code:  https://github.com/ hgrecco/pyvisa-sim Docs:  http://pyvisa-sim. readthedocs.org/ Tracker:  https://github.com/ hgrecco/pyvisa-sim/issues
Read more