How To Automate Rigol [and most other] Test-Equipment With Python and SCPI

Control your lab gear without even touching them! Log the data too.
Full tutorial, code and documentation - core-electronics.com.au/tutor...
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[@TheGmr140]

very cool, glad i found this channel, i have a few rigol gear, and now i can control them to create auto tests, very nice done video, thanks

[@rothenbergt]

Excited to start writing scripts for testing hardware. Thanks for the introduction.

[@Tom-ws4cj]

Unbelieveable ! Didn't know that was possible. Thanks for the great tutorial........now I'm off to tinker and learn more :-)

[@garthhowe297]

Excellent video ...exactly what I was looking for. Thank you

[@JonathonHorder]

Literally exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

[@wasimfirdaus7249]

You have covered an Excellent topic. Thank you so much. I have tried the same way to communicate with instrument from other vendor. It works.

[@beandope6675]

Really helpful tutorial! Please more videos of this series!!!!

[@arun.graikar2092]

Loved it, being Test design professional I am looking same kind of tutorial for python, thank you

[@BigMaxTube]

Huh. As a rigol products owner, I should give this concept a try. Thanks for showing us what's possible!

[@banana_smoothie]

I got really big help from this tutorial. Thank you.

[@IkiF83]

I started to learn Python and wanted to learn how to control DMM and PSU. This video is excellent for this!!

[@juliatruchsess1019]

Great tutorial, thank you.

[@arielalvarezwindey955]

Very clear! Thanks for the video :)

[@frodriguez2511]

Super useful!! great tutorial...Thanks!

[@jimquinn]

Excellent! Very motivational. Would love to see an implementation of two DMMs as a XY recorder, like the old HP704x. Thanks! Great job!

[@gcm4312]

very helpful. great video

[@roadkisserful]

Loved it coming in raw no experience and very useful

[@fanyang4709]

I think this is so good ,thank you !

[@karlkawano]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@RyanUptonInnovator]

Very Very good video!!!

[@electronic7979]

Very good

[@lelliscanario3527]

Excellent video.

[@user-su7bc3td1f]

FANTASTIC THANK YOU!

[@toastrecon]

Amazing! I’ll have to play with this. Have to get a device first. 😊

[@jholworld]

Lovely video. Thank you very much :).

[@sparky_winston]

Great tutorial, very well made and exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks 👍

[@Core-Electronics]

Glad it was helpful!

[@antoniocarvalho8320]

@@Core-Electronics do you ave others instruments controlled using Python?

[@ManikantaRaju]

You just earned a subscriber. 😃

[@stevenwilliams6258]

Thanks for this simple but instructive video. I don't have a programmable PS but do have a Siglent AWG and UNI-T 8805E DMM and some scopes to try this on. I am not proficient on Linux - have it on Windows 11 and I have a Raspberry PI. Will give it a try.

[@gRoblez]

Very useful, thank you very much

[@akhilaithal4301]

Excellent video, exactly what i was looking for. Could you also make a similar video for oscilloscopes and show how to capture screen images directly onto the connected computer and also how to save and load setup using Python SCPI commands. I tried to do so, but encountered some issues. Thanks a lot. Looking forward to more such videos. :)

[@ArtemIoTDeveloper]

Awesome! Going to try with my Siglent setup

[@Core-Electronics]

Happy making 👍

[@Wil_Bloodworth]

Very cool indeed. Not sure what practical uses this has but I'm sure they are probably endless.

[@yuma5297]

i am a physics student i really think something like that should be learned in every curriculum. that would have been so helpful for each lab course i had.

[@Ringer1982]

Awesome! Great tutorial, thank you!

[@pendalink]

fantastic video

[@Core-Electronics]

Thanks! Hope you found it useful for your experiments.

[@carloscosta4713]

Excelente trabalho. Mais um inscrito no canal. Brasil presente!!!

[@inguy0]

So helpful

[@NathanWilkie]

I remember doing a similar setup for 4 point probe measurements to get the IR curves of various resistors, it seems like this would be a massive upgrade to automate and create standardized tests. Believe it or not it was done with an HP9000 using HP basic an a series of relays. This would be a massive upgrade.

[@EarlWallaceNYC]

Good Stuff

[@nityanandadas5575]

Excellent. Really, this is what I need. Can I plot test flow of voltage and current in real time? Please.

[@owmykneecap5821]

Nice trick with the file header

[@XLCaudio]

What text editor are you using? Are there plugins you have installed to recognize PyVISA syntax?

[@avral4148]

If I had Python basics in two years ago plus your video, I would not have spent to much time with struggling with Labview in the lab…

[@sobbsaroonie]

Are you using two separate USB ports on your computer, are they both connected to one port or can you use a hub on one port to talk to both, or do you have to use 2 separate USB ports. Need to know how to do this. thanks

[@telmopelicano]

I have a thermouple that I use with the rigol 3068 , but I cant find commands to get the temperature I see on the screen? Do you know how to do this? The multimeter works fine and reports the correct temperature out but I want to automate the process like you do on this video. Can anyon help?

[@ljuberzy]

By any chance, have you tried it with rigol scopes? (namely, 1054z) How fast does this data acquisition work via USB and via Ethernet? Will it be able to get, say, 1000 data points for two channels per second online?

[@JesseMProductions]

If there is no command for what I am trying to do (create a voltage ramp over a long period of time) in the programming manual for the power supply that I am using does that mean I cannot do it?

[@michsmi8297]

In the old days this would have probably been implemented using gpib and HPbasic. Though for legacy equipment this method is still used and a modern version of HTbasic that works with windows 10 is still available.

[@LuizEnger]

Could you make a video on using PyVISA-py as backend instead of NI? By the way, PyVISA works with R&S VISA backend just as fine

[@cessromer7078]

HELLO. What woud be the command in python to write a datalogging of voltage in function of time for every one second sampling ?

[@willj476]

anyone know where the waveform cushion in the background is from?

[@felipesiedschlagyopan4185]

This is awesome. Unfortunately my HP34401A always shows an error for whatever request I send to it via pyvisa =(

[@houarifellah8901]

Great tutorial , can you help me for project of create a rebote laboratory?

[@hendraadhiputra6966]

Very good video, can i ask you something about SCPI.? I have LCR meter Agilent 4263B, this instrumen is Obsolute but i am want to read data CS & RS, i have manual book but i don't understand to make it, can you help me, please...

[@ThomasLouttit]

Hi there, I am just trying to follow your video and when trying to download pyvisa I go the following error message, import pyvisa Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in import pyvisa ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyvisa' Please explain what I am doing wrong and how to fix it.

[@danushvenkatesh4868]

how to capture the scope please explain that part

[@DavidDaminelli]

Thanks for the tutorial, it really helped me! One question - when you run "rm.list_resources()", a list of the avaliable instruments shows up. Will this names always be the same? I mean, will your power source always shows up as 'USB0::0x1AB1::0x0E11::DP1234567890::INSTR' ?

[@Core-Electronics]

It's unlikely that your power source will have the same pattern as mine, but the DP in that string is the tell-tale that the device is a Rigol DP series power supply. It seems that every time you plug the device into a new port the addressing part of that string will change, but the DP will remain the same.

[@DavidDaminelli]

@@Core-Electronics Hmm, ok, so, as I imagine, everytime that I want to run this script I need to change the device name. But, using what you just told, I could write something like "device = [x for x in rm.list_resources() if DP1234567890 in x], wright?

[@XLCaudio]

@@DavidDaminelli it is usually the Power supply's serial number where 'USB0::0x1AB1::0x0E11::DPXXXXXXXXX::INSTR'

[@nityanandadas5575]

Thank you so much for such a nice and helpful video. I must tell you that your video made it possible to automate my Programmable power supply TH6402B. which doesn't come with any dedicated software and supports only SCPI. I never used SCPI and your video made it possible. Is it possible to draw the graph of current vs voltage in real time? Thanks and Regards.

[@Core-Electronics]

That's so great to hear! We're glad this helped :D Graphing is pretty simple in python and there are multiple packages available eg. Matplotlib. You'll certainly be able to query the output values from the power supply. What remains to be seen is whether you will get the resolution and sample rate you desire. Have a go and find out!

[@nityanandadas5575]

@@Core-Electronics Thanks for your nice reply. I will have a try for graphing.

[@ThomasLouttit]

Is there a video on downloading/installing pyvisa and the NI VISA Library?

[@Core-Electronics]

Not a whole video, but its covered in the article: core-electronics.com.au/guides/automating-test-equipment-with-python/#preparation

[@robertomanuelpaulik4236]

it is possible to do this with instruments from different manufacturers?? for example an oscilloscope Siglent with an a power supply or multimeter Rigol?

[@Core-Electronics]

It sure is :) if the device supports SCPI - then have at it

[@romanhar4151]

Thanks for the Great Video. - I will get the MSO 5000 soon .. :-) But i guess this will lead to some more GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) :-I

[@brucetouzel6484]

is it possible to mirror the test equipment display onto a monitor by simply using a USB to HDMI adaptor ?

[@Core-Electronics]

No likely - the USB connection is probably intended for communications only. To run an external display you'd have to query the parameters you want (SCPI) and then display them separately using eg. a GUI package.

[@cessromer7078]

Very mind.

[@ivolol]

Dayum, RIP Atom :) Python has a built-in CSV library! I always advise use that when possible.

[@Core-Electronics]

Atom 😥 Yeah you're right! At the time of filming my Python-foo was pretty weak so I missed this one

[@deadmopo3174]

Is it work on linux?

[@testafx6687]

Hi, does this support RS-232 and RS-485 serial connections?

[@abderrezakboukazouha4254]

you need to Install National Instrument Backend to detect the instrument itself

[@vjyothsnapriya]

sir please help me waveform generator conneted with pc

[@abelmaxplayread2900]

With the first channel, everything works. But when I turn on any other channel, for some reason only the first one works for me. The code is exactly like yours except for the channel number. Thanks.

[@Core-Electronics]

The best way to get technical help for any of our content is on the forums: forum.core-electronics.com.au/ We're full-time makers and are on the forums every working day!

[@jimdieckmann2025]

Can this be done on a R-Pi 4?

[@Core-Electronics]

We haven't tried, but probably! This is all Python driven so it should be pretty straight forward on a Pi

[@luiscorona6207]

I have a problem, list_resources() doesn't return me the visa number of my device it only returns empty parentheses (), why?

[@diablomoto1328]

I am having same issue

[@diablomoto1328]

the solution to this issue for me was to run "sudo python3"

[@jackk2860]

7:03

[@LuvxJacqu4li8e]

Thanks

[@automatedintegratedsolutio5218]

Michael, Check out ScpiStudio at (www.automatedintegratedsolutions.com) for control of test equipment. I believe you will find it very interesting.

[@martinsin9775]

Great! Thank you very much for your tutorials

[@Core-Electronics]

Glad you like them!