Setting up a Python development environment

These are the steps for setting up a development environment to control and analyze data from INFINICAM using Python on Windows.

Confirming prerequisites

Because installing pypuclib may involve a C++ build internally, make sure you have already finished installing Visual Studio (with the “Desktop development with C++” workload) first.

1. Installing Python

1. Download the installer

   Visit the official Python downloads page and click the “Download Python 3.x.x” button to download the installer (.exe).

2. Run the installer and configure PATH

   Run the downloaded file. When the screen appears, be sure to check the following box as the very first step.

   Critically important: check the Add to PATH option

   Be sure to check the box labeled “Add python.exe to PATH” (or “Add Python to PATH,” depending on your environment) at the bottom of the screen.
   If you do not check this box, the python and pip commands will not be recognized from the command prompt, and everyone gets stuck here.

   After checking the box, click “Install Now” in the center of the screen to run the installation.

3. Confirm the installation completed

   Open a command prompt (press Win + R and type cmd), and run the following command.

   python --version

   If a version number such as Python 3.x.x is displayed, Python has been installed successfully.

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2. Installing the INFINICAM SDK (pypuclib)

Install pypuclib, the library used to control the camera from Python.

1. Obtain and install from GitHub

   Visit photron-limited/pypuclib (GitHub).

   • Click <> Code in the upper right, then 👉 Download ZIP to download it, and extract it to a folder of your choice.
   • Open a command prompt and use the cd command to move to the extracted pypuclib folder.

     cd C:\path\to\pypuclib

   • Run the following command to install it.

     pip install .

   Installing directly with pip

   If you prefer not to download from GitHub, you can also install directly over the internet with a single command.

   pip install pypuclib

2. Verify it works

   Run the following command at the command prompt to test that the library loads correctly.

   python -c "import pypuclib; print('Installation successful!')"

   If no error occurs and Installation successful! is displayed, your environment setup is complete!

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3. Creating and running your first program

Using a text editor (such as VS Code), create a file named test.py, write the following code, and run it.

import pypuclib

print("pypuclib was loaded successfully.")

How to run it (command prompt):

python test.py

If the camera is not recognized at runtime

If you are using the GbE-2 (Ethernet model), check again that the “jumbo packet (9014 Bytes)” setting and the “Windows Firewall permission” described on the previous page have been completed.

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