If you want to access retu as a user, just run chmod a+rw /dev/retu (You need to run this every time you boot). About using the info from python scripts - you can use ioctls directly from python, there is no need to use retu-adc program or variant. Something like: import fcntl f = open("/dev/retu") adc8 = fcntl.ioctl(f, 0x6003, 8)