Connecting to LDA-5018V by Vaunix in Python

Instrument Card

The LDA-5018V Digital Attenuator is a highly accurate, bidirectional, 50 Ohm step attenuator. The LDA-5018V provides calibrated attenuation from 50 to 18000 MHz with an amazing step size of 0.1 dB and typical accuracy < 1.0 dB over 50 dB of control range. The attenuators are easily programmable for fixed attenuation, swept attenuation ramps and fading profiles directly from the included Graphical User Interface (GUI). Alternatively, for users wishing to develop their own interface, Vaunix supplies LabVIEW drivers, Windows API DLL files, Linux drivers, Python examples and much more.

Device Specification: here

Manufacturer card: VAUNIX

Vaunix Technology Corp. designs, manufactures, and services RF and microwave test equipment and digital radio communications products. Utilizing our deep RF and software engineering expertise, rooted in microwave radio and wireless equipment repair and testing, Vaunix developed the Lab Brick® family of electronic test products, which set a new standard for cost, size, and simplicity of wireless testing devices. Powered by a USB connection and controlled by easy-to-use, graphical-user-interface (GUI) software, Lab Bricks have been designed to meet the needs of wireless engineers and technicians who want to create flexible, customized system solutions either in the lab or in the field. We ‘ve expanded our Lab Brick® family of electronic test products to include Attenuator Matrix solutions that double as Wireless Handover Test Systems to give our test technicians and product engineers the advanced capability to solve unique wireless _handover _testing challenges and bring affordability, functionality, reliability and simplicity to the microwave test bench.

• Headquarters: USA
• Yearly Revenue (millions, USD): 5
• Vendor Website: here

Connect to the LDA-5018V 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 a Python script that uses Qcodes Community to connect to a LDA-5018V Digital Attenuator:

from qcodes import Station
from qcodes.instrument_drivers.vaunix.LDA import LDA

# Create a station to hold the instrument
station = Station()

# Connect to the LDA-5018V Digital Attenuator
lda = LDA('lda', serial_number=5018)

# Add the LDA instrument to the station
station.add_component(lda)

# Print the IDN of the instrument
print(lda.get_idn())

# Set the attenuation to 10 dB
lda.attenuation(10)

# Close the connection to the instrument
lda.close()

Note: Make sure you have the necessary DLL files (VNX_atten64.dll or VNX_atten.dll) in the correct directory and set the dll_path accordingly in the script.