PyVISA-py ========= A PyVISA backend that implements a large part of the "Virtual Instrument Software Architecture" (VISA_) in pure Python (with the help of some nice cross platform libraries python packages!). Description ----------- PyVISA started as wrapper for the NI-VISA library and therefore you need to install National Instruments VISA library 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. Starting form version 1.6, PyVISA allows to use different backends. These backends can be dynamically loaded. PyVISA-py is one of such backends. It implements most of the methods for Message Based communication (Serial/USB/GPIB/Ethernet) using Python and some well developed, easy to deploy and cross platform libraries .. _VISA: http://www.ivifoundation.org/Downloads/Specifications.htm VISA and Python --------------- Python has a couple of features that make it very interesting for measurement controlling: - Python is an easy-to-learn scripting language with short development cycles. - It represents a high abstraction level, which perfectly blends with the abstraction level of measurement programs. - It has a very rich set of native libraries, including numerical and plotting modules for data analysis and visualisation. - A large set of books (in many languages) and on-line publications is available. Requirements ------------ - Python (tested with 2.6 and 2.7, 3.2+) - PyVISA 1.6+ Optionally - PySerial (to interface with Serial instruments) - PyUSB (to interface with USB instruments) - linux-gpib (to interface with gpib instruments, only on linux) Installation -------------- Using pip: $ pip install pyvisa-py Documentation -------------- The documentation can be read online at https://pyvisa-py.readthedocs.org