Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

[Posted May 3, 2012 by jake]

On his blog, Uwe Hermann writes about the free logic analyzer software that he and Bert Vermeulen have been working on. "I originally started working on an open-source logic analyzer software named "flosslogic" in 2010, because I grew tired of almost all devices having a proprietary and Windows-only software, often with limited features, limited input/output file formats, limited usability, limited protocol decoder support, and so on. Thus, the goal was to write a portable, GPL'd, software that can talk to many different logic analyzers via modules/plugins, supports many input/output formats, and many different protocol decoders. [...] The advantage being, that every time we add a new driver for another logic analyzer it automatically supports all the input/output formats we already have, you can use all the protocol decoders we already wrote, etc. It also works the other way around: If someone writes a new protocol decoder or file format driver, it can automatically be used with any of the supported logic analyzers out of the box." (Thanks to Paul Wise.)

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 3, 2012 23:31 UTC (Thu) by Zizzle (guest, #67739) [Link] (5 responses)

Sounds like a worthwhile project.

Although in typical free software fashion, he starts from scratch. I do wish he hadn't decided to reimplement another UI.

I'm sure we'll end up with a handful of crappy LA UIs instead of one decent one.

I have been using the OLS java client http://www.lxtreme.nl/ols/ and it works well, is multi-platform and GPL.

Would have been good if sigrok was just a bunch of plugins to talk to the different hardware.

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 4, 2012 11:37 UTC (Fri) by robert_s (subscriber, #42402) [Link] (3 responses)

"Would have been good if sigrok was just a bunch of plugins to talk to the different hardware."

Well it sort-of is, isn't it? Why don't you try writing a shim between libsigrok and OLS java client if it's so good?

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 4, 2012 15:17 UTC (Fri) by Zizzle (guest, #67739) [Link] (2 responses)

And rewrite them in Java or just reduce the portability of OLS?

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 4, 2012 19:27 UTC (Fri) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Just do whatever is quickest to get the goal, I guess.

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 5, 2012 17:47 UTC (Sat) by robert_s (subscriber, #42402) [Link]

If you like java, then it looks like you'll have to do the work to mould the world to work in the way you want it to. There are plenty more people who have a much lower opinion of java.

And I'm not really sold on this "portability" argument of java. An app written in c++ & Qt is probably portable to even more platforms with a simple recompile.

But this isn't the place to argue about platforms.

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 5, 2012 9:54 UTC (Sat) by butlerm (subscriber, #13312) [Link]

I have been using the OLS java client...and it works well, is multi-platform and GPL.

If Oracle has its way, "open Java" will be an oxymoron within weeks, and the Mono project will start looking like the unencumbered alternative.

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 4, 2012 18:55 UTC (Fri) by Jannes (subscriber, #80396) [Link] (3 responses)

Wow nice work. I wish such a thing would also exist for the USBscope50 that I recently bought. The hardware seems decent, but it comes with immensely terrible and unmaintained Java software. It's portable, but for Linux it only provides a 32 bit driver.

The most useful data I got out of it was when I piped a tcpdump of the USB port to gnuplot.

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 4, 2012 20:42 UTC (Fri) by biot (guest, #58553) [Link] (2 responses)

(sigrok developer here)

I've been interested in that USBscope50 -- it comes with protocol specs I believe. The reason I haven't done anything about it is that the company (Elan Digital Systems) appears to have gone bankrupt. May I ask where you got it? Any idea if the USBscope50 and related products have been taken over by another outfit?

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 4, 2012 23:45 UTC (Fri) by Jannes (subscriber, #80396) [Link] (1 responses)

Yeah it sounded quite open and cool, that's why i got one. Only later i realized that most of those websites were already a few years old and not much new had happened. Story of my life...

I got mine from saelig.com in September last year. $200 about.

I think i remember also seeing them available from a UK and/or a German web shop.

Haven't seen protocol specs actually but i didn't really look for them yet. It wouldn't surprise me if they are available though.

Would Scopes also fit in your framework our is it logic analyzers only?

Hermann: sigrok - cross-platform, open-source logic analyzer software with protocol decoder support

Posted May 5, 2012 7:18 UTC (Sat) by biot (guest, #58553) [Link]

Scopes most definitely fit into sigrok -- I'm working on supporting them now, and it will be in the next release. First up are the Hantek DSO-2xxx series. There are a few other oscilloscopes and MSOs in the pipeline after that.

We're also going to be supporting spectrum analyzers, serial-connected multimeters, frequency counters and function generators.