Difference between revisions of "Software Oscilloscopes"

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The following oscilloscope software products have been tested and are free of charge (or nearly).
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What follows is a curated list of '''Software oscilloscopes''' (also abbreveated as '''Softscopes'''). While basically any modern digital [[Oscilloscope]] is formally a softscope, we want to discuss here only software running on commodity/consumer level hardware such as on
  
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[[Image:Oscilloppoi1.png|thumb|Mac OS oscilloscope software]]
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* Desktops and Laptops: Windows/Mac/Linux
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<big>'''Mac OS - Oscilloppoi'''</big>
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* Mobile devices: tablets and smartphones
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* Embedded: System on chips and microcontrollers, such as [[Raspberry Pi]] and [[Arduino]]
  
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This is a very handy software solution, available over the official Apple App Store for a symbolic price of  approx. just 1 € while the solution is very fast and has many interesting options including the XY mode. The default controls with the round knobs are a bit tricky to use (turned in a circle) but can be replaced with sliders in the configuration.
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For data aquisition, several techniques exist:
  
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It is a dual channel oscilloscope software with XY mode as well and has an inbuild signal generator for use with audio outputs or also as input channel. Oscilloppoi works very well in the frequency range of 20 Hz up to 20 kHz while showing some distortions in the sine waves at more than 10 kHz. This is related to the maximum sampling rate of 48 kHz on the audio channel. The software has no voltage shown on Y axis but using the scale factor 4.5x is showing a signal with approx. 5V/div.
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* [[Soundcard Oscilloscope|Soundcard]] input for mono or stereo audio recording
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* ADCs on boards for analog to digital conversion, typically embedded within microcontrollers
  
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[[Image:Oscilloppoi2.png|thumb|Two signals displayed in XY mode]]
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=== List of software based oscilloscopes ===
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In single trigger mode you can display a single trigger event for further investigations. At any point screenshots can be made with CMD-C and are copied to the clipboard and easily copied in any other software for documentation or other purposes.
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<gallery>
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  File:Webscope_Screenshot.png|link=Web Oscilloscope|[[Web Oscilloscope|Browser based oscilloscopes]]
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  File:Win Softscope 1.png|link=Win Soundcard Oscilloscope|[[Win Soundcard Oscilloscope]]
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  File:Xoscope_Screenshot.png|link=Xoscope|[[Xoscope]] linux desktop oscilloscope
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  File:Oscilloppoi1.png|link=Oscilloppoi|[[Oscilloppoi]] Mac OS X desktop oscilloscope
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  File:nanoscope.png|link=Nanoscope|[[Nanoscope]] open-source Linux/Mac/Win Python-based desktop oscilloscope
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</gallery>
  
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Features of Oscilloppoi:
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== Data aquisition tools ==
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* Dual Channel with XY mode
 
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* Math operations (add and subtract of signals)
 
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* Trigger mode Auto, Normal, Single with Holdoff
 
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* Internal signal generator with sine wave, triangle, sawtooth, square and wave editor
 
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[https://apps.apple.com/de/app/oscilloppoi/id1102313524?mt=12 Oscilloppoi App from Apple App Store]
 
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[[Image:WIN Softscope 1.png|thumb|Win Soundcard Oscilloscope]]
 
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<big>'''WIN - Soundcard Oscilloscope'''</big>
 
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A software solution for Windows user is the Soundcard Oscilloscope from Christian Zeitnitz which is free of charge for private use. The software runs under several WIN versions like 7/8/10 and was very stable during tests. A calibration factor of 2.5 in the settings gives an approx. good result of the input signal of 1V amplitude.
 
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The software supports dual channel display including XY mode and has also an inbuild signal generator. Additionally this software has a feature of FFT to show the Fourier spectrum of a signal.
 
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[[Image:WIN_micro_settings.png|thumb|input may be need change to stereo under Windows]]
 
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Features of WIN Soundcard Oscilloscope:
 
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* Dual Channel with XY mode
 
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* Math operations (add, subtract and multiplication)
 
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* Frequency analysis
 
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* Trigger mode Auto, Normal, Single
 
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* Internal signal generator
 
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* Audio recorder to record incoming signals to a file
 
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There was a small issue with the audio input device we used. WIN 10 recognized this as a mono device (microphone) only while it supports stereo line in. This issues can be solved in the WIN configuration, selecting your audio input device and set the configuration option to Stereo with 48 kHz Sampling frequency.
 
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[https://www.zeitnitz.eu/scope_en Windows Soundcard Oscilloscope]
 
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[[Image:Xoscope_Screenshot.png|thumb|Linux Xoscope]]
 
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<big>'''Linux - Xoscope'''</big>
 
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Finally an oscilloscope software for Linux is existing as well but not as comfortable as the above described solutions for Mac and WIN. As usual, you have to build this software with compiler, linker and make.
 
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http://xoscope.sourceforge.net
 
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<big>'''Data aquisition tools'''</big>
 
  
 
We will soon report additional solutions and projects for data aquisition based on barebone microcontroller boards with ADC shields to digitize the analog signals.
 
We will soon report additional solutions and projects for data aquisition based on barebone microcontroller boards with ADC shields to digitize the analog signals.
  
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'''Microcontroller/System on Chip based input'''
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Microcontroller/System on Chip based input:
 
* [[Arduino]] for data aquisition
 
* [[Arduino]] for data aquisition
 
* [[Teensy]] for data aquisition
 
* [[Teensy]] for data aquisition
 
* [[Raspberry]]
 
* [[Raspberry]]
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[[Category:Software]]
 
[[Category:Software]]

Latest revision as of 19:16, 31 May 2022

What follows is a curated list of Software oscilloscopes (also abbreveated as Softscopes). While basically any modern digital Oscilloscope is formally a softscope, we want to discuss here only software running on commodity/consumer level hardware such as on

  • Desktops and Laptops: Windows/Mac/Linux
  • Mobile devices: tablets and smartphones
  • Embedded: System on chips and microcontrollers, such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino

For data aquisition, several techniques exist:

  • Soundcard input for mono or stereo audio recording
  • ADCs on boards for analog to digital conversion, typically embedded within microcontrollers

List of software based oscilloscopes

Data aquisition tools

We will soon report additional solutions and projects for data aquisition based on barebone microcontroller boards with ADC shields to digitize the analog signals.

Microcontroller/System on Chip based input:

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