Installation

Preparation

To install srsinst.rga, make sure you have Python version 3.7 or later. you can check your Python version by running from the command prompt:

python --version

Note

Commands running from the command prompt shown here are assumed using a Windows computer system. If you use other systems, commands may be different. Refer to this page.

If you have a Python older than the required version, install a newer Python.

Using virtual environment helps to avoid possible dependency conflicts among Python packages. If you want to use a virtual environment, create one with your favorite virtual environment package. If you do not have a preference, use Python default venv.

python -m venv env
.\env\Scripts\activate

Note

Commands to activate venv are different among computer systems. Other than Windows, refer to this page.

Installation for instrument driver only

If you need to communicate and acquire data from SRS RGAs along with basic RGA data handling, you simply need RGA100 only.

Install srsinst.rga using pip from the command prompt as following.

python -m pip install srsinst.rga

It will install srsinst.rga along with pyserial, numpy, and scipy main packages. Sometimes, the newest Python does not have compatible versions of the packages available yet. Watch out for for any error messages during installation.

If everything goes well, You can proceed to the next section on how to use it as instrument driver.

Full installation for GUI application

To run srsinst.rga as a GUI application, install it with [full] option using pip:

python -m pip install srsinst.rga[full]

It will install srsinst.rga package along with the 2 additional main packages (matplotlib and pyside6) and their dependencies. After installation completed, you can start srsinst.rga as an GUI application.

Upgrading srsinst.rga

to upgrade srsinst.rga to the latest version available, run pip with the –upgrade argument:

python -m pip install --upgrade  srsinst.rga

Starting srsinst.rga GUI application

After srsinst.rga is installed, you can start srsinst.rga application from the command prompt.

rga

or

python -m srsinst.rga

srsinst.rga installs a executable script named “rga” in Python/Scripts directory. If the directory is included in PATH environment variable, rga command will work. Otherwise, python -m srsinst.rga will work regardless of PATH setting.

Srsinst.rga startup window

If you see the application is open and running, the installation is successful!

Note

Instead of seeing the application running, you may get errors, probably ImportError. Carefully look through the exception traceback to find out which package causes the error. When the latest python is installed, some packages may not be installed properly. If the problem is not from srsgui directly, web search of the problem usually leads to a fix.