hedgehog-pyvisa-py 0.4
Python VISA bindings for GPIB, RS232, and USB instruments
License: MIT License
Keywords: Remote VISA GPIB USB serial RS232 measurement acquisition

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 from 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


pyvisa-py is written and maintained by Hernan E. Grecco <hernan.grecco@gmail.com>.


Other contributors, listed alphabetically, are:

* Alex Forencich <alex@alexforencich.com>
* Alexander Bessman <bessman@kth.se>
* Colin Marquardt <github@marquardt-home.de>
* Lance McCulley <lancemcculley@gmail.com>
* Martin Ritter <ritter@mpp.mpg.de>
* Sebastian Held <sebastian.held@imst.de>
* Thomas Kopp <20.kopp@gmail.com>
* Thorsten Liebig <liebig@imst.de>
* Tobias Müller <Tobias_Mueller@twam.info>

(If you think that your name belongs here, please let the maintainer know)


PyVISA-py Changelog
===================


0.3 (unreleased)
----------------

- Nothing changed yet.


0.2 (2015-08-25)
----------------

- Added support for TCPIP Socket.
  (Issue #38, thanks Thorsten Liebig)
- Added support for GPIB INSTR using linux-gpib.
  (Issue #24, thanks bessman)
- Added support for USB RAW.
  (Issue #18, kopp)
- Better error reporting when pyusb or pyserial is missing.
- Fixed logging of unicode strings.
  (Issue #54)
- Fixed timeout in SerialSession.
  (Issue #44)
- Moved resource name parsing to PyVISA.
- VXI11 protocol performance enhancement.
  (thanks alexforencich)
- Improved pyusb importing.
- Fixed large binary reads in TCPIP.
- Added backend information to logger.
- Use pyvisa compat/struct.py for python < 2.7.8
  (thanks Martin Ritter)



0.1 (2015-02-08)
----------------

- Initial release. Preliminary support for:
  - USB INSTR
  - TCPIP INSTR
  - ASRL INSTR