[SciPy-user] OT(?): Lab hardware interface

[Christian Kristukat]

Gary Pajer wrote:
> Soon I'm going to need to interface my experiment to my computer.
> 
> Can any one suggest any python tools that might exist?  I've been 
> googling for abour an hour, and haven't come up with anything.
> 
>   I can't afford LabView at the moment, and besides, I've never used it 
> so it doesn't have the advantage of familiarity.  I don't need a 
> graphical environment.  At first the equipment will be very simple:  a 
> couple of photodiodes, an A/D converter, perhaps a stepper motor controler.

I would recommend to use I2c for communication with the devices, which is an
industry standard to  interconnect different parts within electronic devices.
There are many low cost modules available, such as DA/AD converters, stepper
motor controler, digitial IO, etc. Those modules can be linked serially similar
to IEEE and each module has its own ID. Using an adapter for the serial port you
can control the devices using, e.g. pyserial.

Christian