QCoDeS 0.54.0

QCoDeS 0.54.0 (2025-10-01)

Breaking Changes:

• Removal of deprecated code

  Removed modules:

  • Removed the deprecated qcodes.instrument_drivers.american_magnetics.AMI430 module. Use AMIModel4303D from qcodes.instrument_drivers.american_magnetics instead.
  • Removed the deprecated qcodes.utils.spyder_utils module containing the add_to_spyder_UMR_excludelist function. This utility was known to not work with latest Spyder versions and was unused in QCoDeS.

  Removed classes:

  • Removed the deprecated AMI430_3D and AMI430 classes from qcodes.instrument_drivers.american_magnetics.AMI430. Use AMIModel4303D and AMIModel430 from qcodes.instrument_drivers.american_magnetics instead.
  • Removed deprecated methods from AMI430SwitchHeater
  • Removed deprecated AMI430_VISA class from ip_to_visa.py.
  • Removed the deprecated ConnectionPlus class from qcodes.dataset.sqlite.connection. Use AtomicConnection class instead.
  • Removed the deprecated AlazarTech_ATS class. Use AlazarTechATS instead.
  • Removed the deprecated WaveformGenerator_33XXX class. Use Keysight33xxx instead.
  • Removed the following deprecated Keysight classes:
    • Keysight_34410A, use Keysight34410A instead
    • Keysight_34411A, use Keysight34411A instead
    • Keysight_34460A, use Keysight34460A instead
    • Keysight_34461A, use Keysight344xxA instead
    • Keysight_34465A, use Keysight34465A instead
    • Keysight_34470A, use Keysight34470A instead
    • N51x1, use KeysightN51x1 instead
    • PNABase, use KeysightPNABase instead
    • PNAxBase, use KeysightPNAxBase instead
    • KeysightSubModule, use Keysight34980ASwitchMatrixSubModule instead
    • KeysightSwitchMatrixSubModule, use Keysight34980ASwitchMatrixSubModule instead
    • B1500Module, use KeysightB1500Module instead
    • _Keysight_344xxA, use Keysight344xxA instead
  • Removed the deprecated Keysight submodules:
    • Trigger, use Keysight344xxATrigger instead
    • Sample, use Keysight344xxASample instead
    • Display, use Keysight344xxADisplay instead
  • Removed the deprecated MiniCircuits classes:
    • SwitchChannelBase, use MiniCircuitsSPDTSwitchChannelBase instead
    • SPDT_Base, use MiniCircuitsSPDTBase instead
  • Removed the deprecated USBHIDMixin class

  Removed functions:

  • Removed from qcodes.utils.deprecate:
    • deprecation_message
    • issue_deprecation_warning
    • deprecate decorator (use typing_extensions.deprecated instead)
    • _catch_deprecation_warnings
    • assert_not_deprecated
    • assert_deprecated
  • Removed make_connection_plus_from function from qcodes.dataset.sqlite.connection (:pr:7122)

• The following modules have been deprecated in this release and will be removed in a future version:

  • qcodes.instrument.delegate.grouped_parameter
  • qcodes.instrument.function
  • qcodes.instrument.group_parameter
  • qcodes.instrument.specialized_parameters
  • qcodes.instrument.sweep_values
  • qcodes.instrument.base
  • qcodes.instrument.parameter
  • qcodes.utils.command
  • qcodes.utils.dataset
  • qcodes.utils.installation
  • qcodes.utils.helpers
  • qcodes.utils.metadata
  • qcodes.utils.plotting
  • qcodes.utils.threading
  • qcodes.utils.validators

  Please consult the API documentation at :ref:Api for alternatives and migration paths. (:pr:7262)

• The methods InstrumentBase.__getitem__, InstrumentBase.get, InstrumentBase.set, InstrumentBase.call are now deprecated
  with a PendingDeprecationWarning rather than a QCoDeSDeprecationWarning. This better reflects the state where there is no plan to remove
  them but usage is discouraged. The PendingDeprecationWarning is not printed to console by default. (:pr:7318)

• Registration and Unpacking interfaces created in ParameterBse

  ParameterBase now implements new `depends_on, is_controlled_by``, and ``has_control_of``properties that allow subclasses to define ``InterDependencies_`` relationships directly
  ``ParameterBase.unpack_self`` allows subclasses to unpack themselves during ``DataSaver.add_result``, which removes the requirement for users to add pre-defined ``InterDependencies_`` results explicitly
  ``Measurement.register_parameter`` has been refactored to follow the relationship links defined in parameter subclasses and automatically register related parameters with the appropriate relationships
  ``DataSaver.add_result`` has been refactored to take advantage of the new ``unpack_self`` method

  Breaking Changes

  • A dependent parameter registered with an independent parameter as its setpoints no longer requires that the independent parameter be registered first, if the independent parameter is ParameterBase subclass and not a str
  • Previously, a ParameterWithSetpoints whose setpoints values were explicitly added in add_result would use the explicit version. Now, an error is raised if the explicit values are not within some tolerance of the internal values (as with other duplication).
  • DataSaver.add_result signature has changed from *res_tuple to *result_tuples (:pr:7346)

• The method to_xarray_dataarray_dict on the classes DataSet and DataSetInMem
  have been deprecated and replaced by to_xarray_dataset_dict. This new method allows
  export of datasets that still only contain one measured parameter but can contain
  related coordinates such as these given by an inferred relationship. (:pr:7432)

• ChannelTuple/ChannelList.get_channel_by_name support for getting more than one channel has been deprecated. To get more than one channel use get_channels_by_name.
  get_channels_by_name is guaranteed to always return an instance of the class it was called on independently of the number of channels supplied. In the future
  get_channel_by_name will be updated to ensure that it always returns a single channel. The Exception raised when
  no argument is given to get_channel_by_name has changed from Exception to TypeError in line with how functions behave when an argument is missing. (:pr:7486)

Improved:

• Add a read-only option to sqlite connection (:pr:4783)

• Fix load_from_netcdf failing for non-completed datasets due to missing completed_timestamp_raw or run_timestamp_raw attribute. (:pr:7221)

• The QCoDeS dataset now correctly captures data for inferred parameters when added via datasaver.add_result. Previously these were discarded due to an oversight.
  Any parameters added in this way are available via DataSetProtocol.get_parameter_data but not exported to xarray or pandas.
  Future improvements to these parameters are planned and tracked here <https://github.com/microsoft/Qcodes/issues/7060>_.

  The property InterDependencies_.non_dependencies has been deprecated and replaced by InterDependencies_.top_level_parameters that correctly includes inferred parameters.
  The InterDependencies_ object has gained two additional methods find_all_parameters_in_tree and all_parameters_in_tree_by_group.

  The not documented but publicly importable functions qcodes.dataset.exporters.export_to_pandas.load_to_concatenated_dataframe and qcodes.dataset.exporters.export_to_pandas.load_to_dataframe_dict
  now require an extra argument in the form of an InterDependencies_ object. Users are discouraged from using anything not documented in the QCoDeS API documentation <https://microsoft.github.io/Qcodes/api/index.html>_ outside QCoDeS. (:pr:7240)

• Fix NetCDF export for datasets with None timestamp_raw values by using sentinel values (-1) during export and converting them back to None on import. This ensures NetCDF compatibility while preserving the original None values through round-trip export/import operations. (:pr:7333)

• When exporting Datasets to xarray where the shape is known, either by the use
  of utilities such as dond or manually specified, inferred parameters related
  to the setpoints and measured parameters are now included in the XArray Dataset. (:pr:7432)

• Exporting datasets to XArray no longer warns if two or more variables are exported with different setpoint names and/or values.
  No functionality of the export has changed.
  If the setpoints for different measured parameters have the same name, missing values will be replaced by NaN such that the
  measured parameters have the same coordinates in XArray. If different setpoint names
  are used, the exporter will automatically handle merging coordinates so each data variable is assigned its own coordinates. (:pr:7442)

• Fixed a bug where omitting data for one or more variables could result in an inconsistent dataset cache. Missing data is now filled with appropriate empty values (0, "" or NaN depending on the data type) (:pr:7502)

• ChannelList and AutoLoadableChannelList can now correctly infer the type of channels in the list
  when indexed using __get_item e.g. mychannellist[0] For consistency with the base classes the parent type
  in AutoLoadableChannelList has changed from Instrument to InstrumentBase which may require downstream
  changes for type checking to work correctly. (:pr:7520)

Improved Drivers:

• Added operation mode in the SGS100A instrument to be able to change between NORMal and BBBYpass operation modes. Defaults to NORMal. (:pr:7344)

• Corrected power range for Keysight P5004B (:pr:7360)

• Changes to Cryomagnetics 4G Driver

  1. Added missing initialization of self._RETRY_WRITE_ASK and self._RETRY_TIME in the write_raw method to handle communication retries on VisaIOError.
  2. Updated set_field to correctly recognize Standby as a valid final state when setting the magnetic field to 0 T.
  3. Modified wait_while_ramping to check the actual magnetic field value via self._get_field() instead of relying on the status byte, since the instrument may stay in the Ramping state even after reaching the target field.
  4. Fixed unit parsing to handle unexpected trailing characters in the instrument's response. (e.g., "\r").
  5. Fixed get_parser for Vmag, Iout, and Vout to remove units and return float.
  6. Added timeout condition to wait_while_ramping to prevent infinite loop. Will trigger Exception if timeout occurs.
  7. Fixed conversion calculations in _set_rate and _get_rate.
  8. Added function get_rates to return rates for all ranges in Tesla/min as a dictionary.
  9. Modified _set_rate to update all ranges (0-4) on the instrument (picks min value between set rate and maximum current limit for each range)
  10. Add small sleep (0.1 seconds) between write calls during max_current_limit initialization.
  11. Fixed/added unit tests to accurately reflect code changes.
  12. Modified set_field() to allow users to control the strictness of wait_while_ramping() timeout condition (1e-4 was too precise and was triggering false timeouts). (:pr:7405)

• Keysight 33xxx drivers now have statically assigned channels. This improves documentation
  and makes it possible for type checkers and IDEs to detect class member variables without
  instantiating the driver. (:pr:7521)

New:

• Added :func:qcodes.dataset.export_datasets_and_create_metadata_db function to export all datasets from a database to NetCDF files and create a new metadata-only database. This enables users to maintain lightweight databases for metadata while relying on NetCDF files for data analysis, significantly reducing storage requirements for large experimental datasets. (:pr:7212)

New Drivers:

• Added Keysight P5002B driver (:pr:7360)
• Added Cryomagnetics TM-620 driver (:pr:7398)
• Added Copper Mountain Technologies M5065 driver
  Added Copper Mountain Technologies M5180 driver (:pr:7497)

Under the hood:

• Refactors the InterDependencies_ class to simplify reasoning about and query of the ParamSpecBase
  relationships by embedding them in a NetworkX Directional Graph (DiGraph)

  Resolves #7079 (:pr:7256)

• In dond, only process get_after_set in the loop instances where the parameter is actually being set (:pr:7307)

• DataSetProtocol.to_xarray_dataset and DataSetProtocol.to_xarray_dataarray_dict now avoids creating a Pandas MultiIndex to infer the
  correct dataset shape if the shape is already known. This will resolve issues where datasets are exported with incorrect array shapes due to
  round off errors in the setpoints (coordinates). (:pr:7413)