Installation and initialization¶

Etho is a Python package with optional hardware SDK dependencies. You can install it using uv or conda, and then initialize the config files and folders.

uv venv --python 3.14
.venv\Scripts\activate
uv pip install etho-python

Use this environment if you need vendor camera SDKs that have only been validated on Python 3.10. Use conda for the base environment and uv pip install for non-conda Python packages. .. code-block:: bash

conda create -n etho -c conda-forge -y python=3.10 “numpy<2” scipy h5py opencv pandas pyzmq gevent future pillow msgpack-python pyyaml ipython uv pip git defopt msgpack-numpy rich psutil pydaqmx pyqtgraph qtpy pyside6-essentials zarr conda activate etho uv pip install zerorpc-numpy etho-python –no-deps

The --no-deps install keeps conda-owned packages in control and only installs the packages that are not available from the conda command above.

Optional Hardware Packages¶

Install only the packages and vendor drivers required by the rig:

Ximea cameras: install the Ximea driver and Python package from Ximea.
FLIR/Spinnaker cameras: install the Spinnaker SDK and the matching PySpin Python package from FLIR.
Basler cameras: install Basler pylon and pypylon.
Hamamatsu DCAM cameras: install the DCAM driver and pylablib.
National Instruments DAQ: install NI-DAQmx. pydaqmx is installed by default.
LightCrafter/DLP projector rigs: install the projector control software and pycrafter4500.
Video writing through VidGear: install vidgear[core] if the protocol uses VidGear callbacks.

After installing optional SDKs, run:

etho version

Missing optional hardware entries are expected on machines that do not operate that hardware.

Initialize the config files and folders¶

Activate the environment and initialize config files and folders:

.venv\Scripts\activate
etho init

conda activate etho
etho init

This creates ~/data for saved runs and ~/ethoconfig with:

ethoconfig.yml for global configuration
playlists/ for stimulation playlists
protocols/ for experimental protocols
stim/ for stimulus files such as WAV files