Installation¶
Brief Install Instructions¶
If you already have NumPy/SciPy/Matplotlib/pip installed, installing Instrumental is simple. First install Pint:
$ pip install pint
Now download and extract a zip of Instrumental from the Github page or clone it using git. Now install:
$ cd /path/to/Instrumental
$ python setup.py install
$ python post_install.py
post_install.py installs a config file, so you only have to run it the
first time you install Instrumental.
Detailed Install Instructions¶
Python Sci-Comp Stack¶
To install the standard scientific computing stack, I recommend using Anaconda. Download the appropriate installer from the download page and run it to install Anaconda. The default installation will include NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib as well as lots of other useful stuff.
Pint¶
Next, install Pint for units support:
$ pip install pint
For more information, or to get a more recent version, check out the Pint install page.
Instrumental¶
If you’re using git, you can clone the Instrumental repository to get the source code. If you don’t know git or don’t want to set up a local repo yet, you can just download a zip file by clicking the ‘Download ZIP’ button on the right hand side of the Instrumental Github page. Unzip the code wherever you’d like, then open a command prompt to that directory and run:
$ python setup.py install
$ python post_install.py
to install Instrumental to your Python site-packages directory and add a
default configuration to your config directory. You’re all set! Now go check
out some of the examples in the examples directory contained in the files
you downloaded!
Optional Driver Libraries¶
VISA¶
To operate devices that communicate using VISA (e.g. Tektronix scopes) you will need:
- an implementation of VISA, and
- a Python interface layer called PyVISA
There are various implementations of VISA available, but two I know of are TekVISA (from Tektronix) and NI-VISA (from National Instruments). I would recommend NI-VISA, though either one should work fine. Installers for each can be downloaded from the NI or Tektronix websites, though you’ll have to create a free account.
Once you’ve installed VISA, install PyVISA by running:
$ pip install pyvisa
on the command line. As a quick test PyVISA has installed correctly, open a python interpreter and run:
>>> import visa
>>> rm = visa.ResourceManager()
>>> rm.list_resources()
More info about PyVISA, including more detailed install-related information can be found here.
Thorlabs DCx Cameras¶
To operate Thorlabs DCx cameras, you’ll need the drivers from Thorlabs under the “Software and Support” tab. Run the .exe installer which, among other things, will install the .dll shared libraries somewhere in your PATH (hopefully). Currently the code only looks for the 64-bit driver, so if you’re on a 32-bit system I may need to work with you to fix this.
NI DAQs¶
Currently, NI-DAQmx support requires PyDAQmx. It can be installed via pip:
$ pip install PyDAQmx
You will also need to have NI-DAQmx installed. You can find the installer on the National Instruments website.