tl;dr

You know how to install python modules with binary extensions and you know how to access usb devices from user space with your operating system of choice. Here’s all you need to know to read a spectrum:

$ pip install seabreeze

Do the os specific setup:

Note

The seabreeze_os_setup script is installed with python-seabreeze. It installs udev rules on linux and spectrometer drivers on windows

$ seabreeze_os_setup

Access the spectrometer:

>>> import seabreeze.spectrometers as sb
>>> spec = sb.Spectrometer.from_serial_number()
>>> spec.integration_time_micros(20000)
>>> spec.wavelengths()
array([  340.32581   ,   340.70321186,   341.08058305, ...,  1024.84940994,
        1025.1300678 ,  1025.4106617 ])
>>> spec.intensities()
array([  1.58187931e+01,   2.66704852e+04,   6.80208103e+02, ...,
         6.53090172e+02,   6.35011552e+02,   6.71168793e+02])