Connect and control your device quickly!

Note that USB drivers are built in to the OS and do not need to be downloaded. DS Instruments’ hardware can be easily controlled via linux in a variety of ways. Outlined below are the most popular ways to connect and control signal generators, attenuators, mixers, switches, or phase shifters via USB or Ethernet.

Method 1: DSI control software running in MONO

MONO is an implementation of Microsoft’s .NET Framework for Linux. With this installed on your machine, you can simply run our standard windows .exe control software in Linux. Install directions are located here. We have tested many of our control applications with mono on Ubuntu with great results.

If you get a permission error on the serial port try this support article: permission error fix

Demo of our control software running in Ubuntu via Mono:

 

Method 2: Send text commands from a serial terminal application

If you only need basic functionality, an easy way to control our devices is to connect and send a few text commands. Popular terminal programs for linux include: Putty (GUI), Cutecom (GUI), Minicom (command line). Our devices will usually show up as ttyUSB0. Use 115200BPS, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, no flow control. New line is the command terminator.

 

Method 3: Scripting for automation

Python is a great choice for simple automation using a serial port. A helpful serial library is located here.