Python API

Overview

The OpenZen language bindings allow you to access sensor data from Python.

You can find a complete OpenZen Python example in this file.

Using Python with OpenZen Releases

The binary releases of OpenZen for Windows and Linux include support for Python 3.8 64-bit . On Linux, the library file openzen.so can be directly imported by Python . If the release comes with a libOpenZen.so, please rename it to openzen.so. On Windows this file is named openzen.pyd. You can copy this library to the location where you execute your python scripts.

The other option is to set the PYTHONPATH environment variable to the folder where openzen.so is located so the OpenZen files can be found when you call import openzen.

The last option is to set the PYTHONPATH dynamically when starting your script and before you call import openzen.

sys.path.append("C:/OpenZenRelease/")
import openzen

Building OpenZen with Python support

The binary release of OpenZen includes support for Python 3.8. If you want to use a different Python version, you can compile OpenZen for that specific version. To compile it for the exact Python version used on your system, enable to build the Python support with this CMake option:

cmake -DZEN_PYTHON=ON ..

This will search for a valid Python3 installation on your system and build the OpenZen binaries to support this Python version.

The output folder will now contain the file openzen.so (on Linux/Mac) and openzen.pyd (on Windows).

Place these files into the same folder you run your Python script from and the OpenZen module can be imported.

Initialize OpenZen in Python

To create a new instance of OpenZen, you can use this code snippet:

import openzen

openzen.set_log_level(openzen.ZenLogLevel.Warning)

error, client = openzen.make_client()
if not error == openzen.ZenError.NoError:
    print ("Error while initializinng OpenZen library")
    sys.exit(1)

Receive Sensor Data in Python

OpenZen events containing sensor data need to be read from the pointers returned by the interface using the following method:

zenEvent = client.wait_for_next_event()

# check if its an IMU sample event and if it
# comes from our IMU and sensor component
if zenEvent.event_type == openzen.ZenEventType.ImuData and \
    zenEvent.sensor == imu.sensor and \
    zenEvent.component.handle == imu.component.handle:

    imu_data = zenEvent.data.imu_data
    print ("A: {} g".format(imu_data.a))
    print ("G: {} degree/s".format(imu_data.g1))

Troubleshooting

32-bit issues

If you get the following error when importing OpenZen:

ImportError: DLL load failed while importing openzen: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

the reason is most probably that you tried to load OpenZen with a 32-bit Python version. The binary Release of OpenZen only supports 64-bit versions of Python. Please make sure you have the 64-bit version of Python installed. The 64-bit version can be selected on the Python download page under the name Windows x64-68.

PYTHONPATH not properly set up

If you get an error message of this form:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'openzen'

the PYTHONPATH for Python to find the OpenZen files is not properly set up. Please follow the instructions above to setup the PYTHONPATH.

Conficting Python version I

If you get an error message of this form:

ImportError: Module use of python38.dll conflicts with this version of Python.

or

ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

the Pyton version you intend to use is not supported by the OpenZen binary release. Only one Python version is supported py the binary release of OpenZen. Can can either switch to Python version 3.8 64-bit or compile OpenZen with support for the Python version you intent to use. Please see the section above on how to compile Python with support for your version.

Conficting Python version II

If you get an error message of this form:

ImportError: dynamic module does not define init function (initopenzen)

then OpenZen was compiled with Python 3 and you are trying to use with with Python 2. Make sure you call the OpenZen script with Python3:

python3 ExamplePython.py