Connecting to PCIE 1751 by Advantech in Python

Instrument Card

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe or PCI-E) is a serial expansion bus standard for connecting a computer to one or more peripheral devices.

PCIE-1751 is a 48-bit digital I/O card for the PCI Express bus. Its 48 channels are divided into six 8-bit I/O ports and users can configure each 4-channel per port (nibble) as input or output via software. PCIE-1751 also provides three 32-bit counters.

Device Specification: here

Manufacturer card: ADVANTECH

Advantech is a leader in providing trusted innovative embedded and automation products and solutions.

• Headquarters: Taiwan
• Yearly Revenue (millions, USD): 2313
• Vendor Website: here

Demo: Record temperature over time with a LabJack DAQ board

Connect to the PCIE 1751 in Python

Read our guide for turning Python scripts into Flojoy nodes.

Flojoy

PROTOCOLS > SCPI

📄 IDN

Query a device's identity through the universal *IDN? SCPI command.

📄 MEASURE VOLTAGE

Query an instrument's measured output voltage, such as a DMM or power supply.

📄 SCPI WRITE

Write a SCPI command to a connected bench-top instrument and return the result.

QCodes Community

Here is an example Python script that uses Qcodes Community to connect to a PCIE 1751 DAQ board:

from qcodes.instrument.base import Instrument
from qcodes.utils import validators as vals

class Advantech_PCIE_1751(Instrument):
    def __init__(self, name, device_description="PCIE-1751,BID#0", **kw):
        super().__init__(name, **kw)

        # Create QCoDeS parameters
        for i in range(self.port_count()):
            self.add_parameter(
                'port{}_dir'.format(i),
                label='Port {} direction'.format(i),
                vals=vals.Enum(0x00, 0x0f, 0xf0, 0xff),
                get_cmd=partial(self._get_port_direction, i),
                set_cmd=partial(self._set_port_direction, i),
                docstring="The direction (input or output) of the digital i/o "
                          "port nr {}. Possible values are\n"
                          "    0x00 indicating that all pins of the port are "
                          "configured as inputs\n"
                          "    0x0f indicating that pins 0 to 3 are configured "
                          "as outputs and pins 4 to 7 as inputs\n"
                          "    0xf0 indicating that pins 0 to 3 are configured "
                          "as inputs and pins 4 to 7 as outputs\n"
                          "    0xff indicating that all pins are configured as "
                          "outputs".format(i))

        self.connect_message()

    def port_count(self):
        """
        Returns the number of ports on the device. Each port contains 8 input
        or output pins.
        """
        return self.dll.InstantDoCtrl_getPortCount(self.do)

    def _get_port_direction(self, i):
        """
        Returns the direction of port i as a 8-bit number where for each bit,
        the value 0 means that the corresponding pin is set up as an input and
        the value 1 means that it is set up as an output.
        """
        pcoll = self.dll.InstantDoCtrl_getPortDirection(self.do)
        port_objs = self._ICollection_to_list(pcoll, 'PortDirection *')
        return self.dll.PortDirection_getDirection(port_objs[i])

    def _set_port_direction(self, i, direction):
        """
        i is the number of the port to configure
        direction has to be one of the following:
            0x00 for all pins configured as inputs
            0x0f for the 4 lower pins configured as outputs and 4 higher pins
                 as inputs
            0xf0 for the 4 lower pins configured as inputs and 4 higher pins as
                 outputs
            0xff for all pins configured as outputs
        """
        pcoll = self.dll.InstantDoCtrl_getPortDirection(self.do)
        port_objs = self._ICollection_to_list(pcoll, 'PortDirection *')
        self.check(self.dll.PortDirection_setDirection(port_objs[i], direction))

# Create an instance of the Advantech_PCIE_1751 class
daq_board = Advantech_PCIE_1751('daq_board')

# Connect to the DAQ board
daq_board.connect()

# Set the direction of port 0 to all pins as inputs
daq_board.port0_dir(0x00)

# Set the direction of port 1 to pins 0 to 3 as outputs and pins 4 to 7 as inputs
daq_board.port1_dir(0x0f)

# Read the direction of port 0
port0_direction = daq_board.port0_dir()

# Write a value to port 1
daq_board.port1_dir(0b1010)

# Disconnect from the DAQ board
daq_board.disconnect()

Note: This code assumes that you have already installed the necessary Advantech drivers and have generated the _bdaqctrl.h file as mentioned in the documentation.