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I've been working on a number of electronics projects lately, and while I have a 'scope, it's fairly poor to use (it's one of those pocket ones, and I have complaints about its usability).

Do you know of any PC-connected oscilloscopes that use open-source software? There's the Analog Discovery 2, and the OpenScopeMZ, but those both use either Waveforms (which is closed-source, though free) or Waveforms Online (or whatever) which is allegedly open-source, but that doesn't count since it can't be completely run locally (as far as I know).

WFO supposedly can run offline, but that's only the case as long as I don't close my browser or reboot for a kernel update. If it can be downloaded as a standalong webpage to run offline, that's a different story.

Anyway, please let me know what systems are both good quality and have an application that works offline and is open-source. Thanks!

I've moved the question over here from regular SE since I've been told it fits better. I still don't have access to tags that fit the question better, though.

2 Answers2

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Have a look at the list of scopes supported by libsigrok - it is a fully open-source, GPL licensed library for working with various kinds of EE measurement tools.

Outside of that PicoScope has - as far as internet says - a great SDK but it's closed source.

jaskij
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  • That seems helpful. Does sigrok provide a UI for using the tools, though, or is it an interface library where I'd need another program? Their docs page doesn't have a section for using a 'scope (or say whether it contains the interface), and googling it didn't seem to recognize the name. –  Sep 24 '19 at 17:24
  • @RDragonrydr https://sigrok.org/wiki/PulseView – jaskij Sep 24 '19 at 17:27
  • Although from my experience most of their GUIs are not that good. Their wiki lists some more, try googling for "sigrok oscilloscope GUI" – jaskij Sep 24 '19 at 17:29
  • Ah, I see what you mean. That might work, but I have to admit that I'd probably prefer something with a more polished-looking UI if I purchase something. I'll admit this might be hypocritical if it works well despite its appearance, but that is still something that matters when using a program. –  Sep 25 '19 at 04:10
  • @RDragonrydr there are very few OpenSource programs with a polished, modern GUI in general. My knee-jerk reaction is to tell you to buy commercial or improve it yourself. Why do you need it to be OSS anyways? – jaskij Sep 25 '19 at 05:37
  • Partially personal preference, partially long-term maintainability, and partially because a lot of non-OSS software tends to include call-home functionality or requires connecting to a server hosted by its designer. That's bad for it if you want it to keep working after the manufacturer releases version 2.0. Or, and OSS is not immune to this, there's no offline (or sign-in free) installer, meaning that putting it on a new PC requires manufacturer support too. –  Sep 25 '19 at 19:52
  • @RDragonrydr I've used PicoScopes on both Linux and Windows for the past five years (using their GUI) for the past five years without any issues, including those you mentioned. My daily driver is Manjaro Linux (based on Arch) - it's a cutting edge rolling release distribution so if it works here it will work on other new releases as well. – jaskij Sep 25 '19 at 20:14
  • Those sound fairly reasonable. I think there's the same issue there -- no source code for the actual application -- but if I have no other options they seem quite nice and affordable. –  Sep 26 '19 at 03:52
  • I don't deny that. Good luck looking and do tell if you find something OSS with a nice GUI. – jaskij Sep 26 '19 at 07:51
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You can take a look at Saleae:

Their equipment is relatively expensive, but very good.

(I'm not affiliated with them in any way, to be clear.)

Tomasz Klim
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    Do they have source for their software and/or device firmware? All I saw on the github page was for creating plugins for their application, but not for the application itself. –  Sep 24 '19 at 17:21