Port manager
Creating and handling port objects for use in a Device Class can be done via the SweepMe! port manager.
Supported port types
COM: standard PC serial port using RS-232 protocol
GPIB: an IEEE-488-Bus, a standard communication
USB: plug and play USB test and measurement device as supported by pyvisa
VB: a National Instrument VirtualBench device
Configuration
The following variables have to be set within the __init__ function of a Device Class:
In order to get the available ports listed in the GUI of the corresponding Measurement Class, choose desired port types by:
self.port_types = ["COM", "GPIB", "USB", "VB"]
A port object is automatically created by
self.port_manager = True
Further parameters can be changed through
self.port_properties = {"baudrate" : 9600, "EOL": "\n",...}
Get a list of all port_properties using
print self.port_properties
Communicating
If the port manager is activated, the port is automatically available within all functions of the sequencer procedure as the variable
self.port
A message can be sent using
self.port.write("string of the message without end-of-line/terminator character")
The answer of a device is acquired by
var = self.port.read()