Installation¶
What you need¶
First you need a python python 2.7 64 bit distribution. (32 bit works as well but will unstable) I recommended to use UniDAQ with an Anaconda python distribution which you can download here:
Warning
Make sure to download the 64-bit version for your system!
it will work with a normal pytho version too, but I have not tested it. Furthermore, i have set up an Anaconda environement, so you do not need to painfully install all modules by hand.
Secondly you need to intall National Instrument VISA drivers. These drivers can be found here:
You will need drivers higher than 17.0 for UniDAQ to work properly. If you have installed a LabView version it is usually already installed on your pc. If so make sure in the NiMAX app what version of NI-Visa is installed on your system.
Warning
The module PyVISA works with 32- and 64- bit Python and can deal with 32- and 64-bit NI-VISA libraries without any extra configuration. What PyVISA cannot do is open a 32-bit VISA library while running in 64-bit Python (or the other way around).
The program is known to be running on Windows, Linux (Centos7) and Mac.
Once installed, test¶
If you have installed all correctly we can now test if everything is setup correctly. First go and follow the instructions on Setting Up The Environement. When this is done open the Anaconda Prompt app on your PC and activate the new environement which should have been setup for you while installation. After that import the PyVisa module and try to start a resource manager
(base) activate UniDAQenv
(UniDAQenv) python
Python 2.7.15 |Anaconda, Inc.| (default, May 1 2018, 18:37:09) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import visa
>>> rm = visa.ResourceManager()
>>> print(rm.list_resources())
If this code does not yield any errors, UniDAQ was correctly installed on your system. And if some devices are already connected to your system these should be listed now.