Installation

Basic Installation

You can install Instrumation directly from PyPI:

pip install instrumation

Hardware Requirements

To communicate with physical instruments, you have two options for the transport layer.

Option 1: Vendor VISA (Recommended for Windows/GPIB)

Install a vendor VISA implementation for maximum performance and mandatory GPIB support: - NI-VISA - Keysight IO Libraries Suite

Option 2: Pure Python (Ethernet/USB/Serial)

If you are only using Ethernet (LAN) or USB/Serial, you can avoid heavy vendor software by using pyvisa-py. This uses raw sockets and native USB drivers:

pip install pyvisa-py psutil

Simulation Mode (No Hardware)

If you only intend to use simulation for development, no additional drivers are required. Just set the environment variable:

Windows (PowerShell)macOS / Linux

$env:INSTRUMATION_MODE="SIM"

export INSTRUMATION_MODE="SIM"