Installation for users

Ensure the MariaDB connection C libraries are installed and accessible in your environment. This is necessary for the mariadb python library to interface with the database for storage of measurement results (infrastructure for automating this is WIP).

If using a Conda environment (recommended), this can be installed with:

conda install mariadb-connector-c

If the system already has the connector software installed, then this step isn’t necessary

Now qnnpy can be downloaded and installed with pip:

pip install qnnpy

PyVISA

qnnpy uses pyvisa to communicate with a variety of instruments. pyvisa requires a VISA backend to be installed on the system. Most computers in our lab already have a VISA backend installed, but if you’re setting up a new system, you will need to install the appropriate libraries.

  • pyvisa-py implements a VISA backend purely in Python and is very easy to install, but comes with some limitations (e.g. connecting multiple GPIB adapters to the same PC).

  • NI-VISA is another option, and is what is installed on the lab computers.

USB/GPIB drivers

If you are setting up a new system, you will need to make sure that pyvisa can interface with your instruments. Most systems will support TCP/IP devices out of the box, but you may need to install drivers to use the USB or GPIB interfaces on your instruments.