PyVISA: The Python instrumentation package

Abstract

Data-driven science requires reliable data generation, and in modern instrumentation software plays a central role to achieve this goal. Computer-controlled experiments allow for complex synchronization of sensors and actuators. Moreover, as it was already recognized decades ago, they enable on-line analysis routines to steer the experiment in real time (Enke, 1982). When combined with programming best practices, instrumentation software fosters reproducible, traceable, and open science. An important step in the development of instrumentation software has been the definition of Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) (Cheij, 2002), which quickly became the most common API for test and measurement and is widely used both in industry and academia. It includes specifications for communication with resources over a variety of interfaces such as GPIB, PXI, VXI, SERIAL, TCP/IP, and USB. VISA abstracts away the (often complex) idiosyncrasies of those low-level protocols, so that the scientist can focus on the instrument-specific command set. The Python package PyVISA provides an easy-to-use interface to software libraries that implement the VISA standard, enabling communication between a host computer and instruments or other devices.