Time Tagger Setup on Swabian Instruments

Optimal PC Requirements for Time Tagger

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Time Tagger is supported on Windows (10 or higher) and several Linux distributions. Please find more information under this link. Our high-performance GUI Time Tagger Lab is available for Windows only. For Linux users, the Web Application is still available, but it is deprecated and not maintained anymore. The Time Tagger is not supported on macOS. If you need to use the Time Tagger with macOS, you can have a look at this article for possible solutions.

Connecting Time Tagger via USB Port

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Time Tagger Ultra and Time Tagger X support USB3 connection. Always connect them to a USB3 port on your PC using a high-quality USB3 cable, preferably the one provided with the product. This helps prevent connection issues between the Time Tagger and the PC. A misconfigured connection may cause a failure, with an error message stating: “device is plugged to USB2, it will be slow, but when the device is plugged into a USB 3.0 port."

Downloading the Time Tagger Software

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Time Tagger software can be downloaded at this link.

If needed, older versions can be found in our archive at this link.

A revision history of all our releases can be found at this link.

If you need the software for our Pulse Streamer 8/2, it can be downloaded at this link.

Resolving License Acquisition Errors

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are multiple scenarios in which the license is not automatically acquired, as described in the installation section of our documentation .

Sometimes, the request for a free license fails, and the software tries to acquire it again. This failure can be due to the absence of a stable Internet connection or a firewall blocking the license request. Usually, you will notice failed license requests when error messages appear, as shown below:

Fixing Python ModuleNotFound Error for Time Tagger

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Normally, the installation procedure should automatically add the installation path to your Python path. If the variable “PYTHONPATH” is missing or it does not contain TimeTagger installation path, python is not able to find the Time Tagger library and import the packages.

The error typically appears as:


Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "", line 10, in 
 import TimeTagger
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'TimeTagger'

The Time Tagger Python module is installed in it’s own folder along with other required compiled libraries. By default, it is located in: ‘C:\Program Files\Swabian Instruments\Time Tagger\driver\python\

Using Time Tagger on macOS

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Time Tagger is supported on Windows and Linux, but not on macOS.

A workaround might be to run Windows OS on a virtual machine on macOS system and expose the USB port with the Time Tagger to the VM.

Another option to control the Time Tagger with Mac OS (and in Python) would be with TimeTaggerRPC. However, it requires a Windows or Linux machine that is connected to the Time Tagger via USB.

Connecting Time Tagger to an external FPGA

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While Time Tagger 20 and Time Tagger Ultra exclusively have a USB interface, Time Tagger X also features a QSFP+ interface, which allows users to output signals to a secondary FPGA at a high data rate (up to 1.2 GTags/s) and low latency. The latter refers to the time required to transfer the time tags through the QSFP+ interface and make them available in the second FPGA. As an Ethernet protocol is used, the latency for receiving the time tags in the second FPGA is approximately 10 µs.

Fixing Numpy 2.0.0 Import Error in Time Tagger

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Time Tagger software supports Numpy version >= 2.0.0 beginning from release 2.17.4.

If you are using an older version of Time Tagger (<= 2.17.2) with an updated Numpy version (>= 2.0.0), you will encounter an exception related to the import of numpy.core.multiarray:


Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:\Program Files\Swabian Instruments\Time Tagger\driver\python\TimeTagger.py", line 15, in <module>
 import _TimeTagger
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_TimeTagger'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "dls\__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
 File "PyInstaller\loader\pyimod02_importers.py", line 385, in exec_module
 File "dls\__init__.py", line 39, in <module>
 File "C:\Program Files\Swabian Instruments\Time Tagger\driver\python\TimeTagger.py", line 36, in <module>
 import _TimeTagger
ImportError: numpy.core.multiarray failed to import

The best way to resolve this issue is to update our software to the latest release, which can be downloaded here. If updating the software is not feasible at the moment, you may need to downgrade Numpy to a suitable version 1.x.

Importing Time Tagger in Spyder IDE

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When attempting to import the Time Tagger module in Spyder IDE, users may encounter the following error:


: ImportError: DLL load failed [...]

This issue occurs because Spyder does not use the standard Windows PYTHONPATH. Instead, it has its own PYTHONPATH manager. As a result, you need to manually add the path to the TimeTagger Python module in Spyder.