Connecting to the Instrument

Before you can run a measurement, you need to link PIEC to your physical (or virtual) hardware. You can do this automatically using PIEC’s autodetection system, or manually by finding your instrument’s VISA address.

Instrument Autodetection

PIEC features a useful autodetection system that automatically identifies connected instruments and maps them to their appropriate Python drivers.

How to Use Autodetect

You can invoke the autodetect() function in a few different ways depending on what information you have available:

By Instrument Category (Recommended): If you know you need an oscilloscope, you can simply pass the broad category string to the function. PIEC will scan all connected devices until it finds one that matches that instrument type.
```
from piec.drivers.autodetect import autodetect

# Pass the string type
my_scope = autodetect('scope')
my_dmm = autodetect('dmm')
```
Valid category strings include any instrument category folder name located in the src/piec/drivers/ directory (e.g., 'oscilloscope', 'awg', 'lockin', 'dmm'). PIEC also provides a few convenience aliases like 'scope' or 'stepper' (see the piec.drivers.autodetect API reference for the underlying mapping logic in _resolve_type_string).
By Hardware Address: If you know the exact VISA resource address of the instrument (e.g., a GPIB or USB string), you can pass it directly. PIEC will probe that specific address and load the correct specific model driver for it.
```
# Pass the physical VISA address
my_awg = autodetect('GPIB0::8::INSTR')
```
Verbose Output: If you are having trouble connecting or want to see the sequence of probing under the hood, use the verbose=True flag.
```
my_instrument = autodetect('scope', verbose=True)
```
This will print out the addresses being checked, the identification strings being returned, and the driver class ultimately selected.

How Autodetect Works

Scanning/Probing: When invoked, PIEC targets the appropriate VISA resources and sends a standard identification query (typically *IDN?).
Matching: It compares the instrument’s response against the AUTODETECT_ID strings defined in every Level 3 driver class within the library.
Caching: Once a match is confirmed, the system saves the hardware mapping (resource address to driver class) in a local JSON registry file (typically registry_cache.json). If this file does not exist, PIEC will automatically create it.

This caching mechanism ensures that subsequent connections are virtually instantaneous, bypassing the need to ping every device on the bus.

Supporting Autodetect in New Drivers

To ensure your custom driver works with this system, you SHOULD define an AUTODETECT_ID class attribute in your Level 3 driver. See Adding a Driver for details.

Finding Your Instrument’s Address Manually

If you prefer to bypass autodetection or are debugging, you need the instrument’s VISA resource string (also called its address). This is a string like 'GPIB0::7::INSTR' or 'USB0::0x0958::0x17A7::MY62080068::0::INSTR' that uniquely identifies the instrument on your computer.

Listing available instruments

Use PIEC’s PiecManager class to scan for connected instruments. Under the hood, this manager leverages PyVISA for standard instruments, but it also hooks into specialized hardware APIs (such as Digilent or MCC devices) allowing them to all be natively discovered in one simple command:

from piec.drivers.utilities import PiecManager

pm = PiecManager()
print(pm.list_resources())
# Example output:
# ('GPIB0::7::INSTR', 'USB0::0x0958::0x17A7::MY62080068::0::INSTR')

Each string in the output is a VISA address you can pass to a PIEC driver. Standard instruments use the following address formats:

GPIB: GPIB<bus>::<primary_address>::INSTR (e.g., 'GPIB0::7::INSTR'). The address is configured on the instrument’s front panel.
USB: USB0::0x0958::0x17A7::...::INSTR. These are determined automatically by the OS and PyVISA.
Ethernet (TCPIP): TCPIP::192.168.1.100::INSTR. These use the instrument’s IP address.

Manual Connection Example

Once you have the address, import the specific driver class and instantiate it:

from piec.drivers.oscilloscope.k_dsox3024a import KeysightDSOX3024a

# Connect using the manual address
scope = KeysightDSOX3024a('USB0::0x0958::0x17A7::MY62080068::0::INSTR')
print(scope.idn())
# Example output:
# 'AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES,DSO-X 3024A,MY62080068,02.40'

Virtual mode

PIEC drivers support a virtual mode that simulates instrument responses without any physical hardware. This is useful for developing and testing measurement workflows offline.

To use virtual mode, pass 'virtual' as the address when instantiating a driver:

from piec.drivers.oscilloscope.virtual_oscilloscope import VirtualScope

scope = VirtualScope()
print(scope.idn())   # Returns a simulated IDN string

Virtual instruments respond to all the same method calls as real instruments but generate synthetic data instead of communicating with hardware.