Sigrok: An Open Source Logic Analyzer

Uwe Hermann today announced the availability of sigrok, one of the first Open Source logic analyzers. Tired of being tied to Windows and proprietary software with limited features, in late 2010 he began work on flosslogic, which, after discovering Bert Vermeulen was also working on similar software, became sigrok. From the article: "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. ... Currently supported hardware includes: Saleae Logic, CWAV USBee SX, Openbench Logic Sniffer (OLS), ZEROPLUS Logic Cube LAP-C, ASIX Sigma/Sigma2, ChronoVu LA8, and others." Their wiki has a list of supported protocols as well. You can grab the source over at SourceForge.

Comments

How is this the first?

[Andy Dodd]

OLS has existed with a fully open source client for nearly a year at this point.

It seems to have a whole pile of new features - but it's not the first by any means.

Poor, poor man's logic analyzer

[Dan East]

Several years ago I did a project where I interfaced a Playstation controller to a Pocket PC using a PIC microcontroller that hosted the controller and bit banged IrDA out an infrared LED to the PPC. To exactly match the PS IO timing I rigged up a 4 channel logic analyzer using the raw parallel port of my PC (in other words it was basically software I wrote and hardware consisting of a parallel cable that had one end lopped off exposing bare wires). That worked great, and so did the PS adapter I created.

As a side note, that is one of the appealing things about the Raspberry Pi, is that it provides a fully modern OS and even onboard development environment, but still provides low GPIO hardware access. Fun fun fun.

it is spelled 'sigrok'

[tobyknudsen]

Thank you for bringing sigrok to my attention. Cut and paste would have prevented your mis-spelling, and it's sorta important to get that particular word right.

http://sigrok.org/wiki/Main_Page

"The sigrok project aims at creating a portable, cross-platform, Free/Libre/Open-Source logic analyzer software that supports various logic analyzer hardware products. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL. Design goals and features include:"

SeeedStudio Nano OS 1 channel hardware and soft

[caseih]

Another open source project, that is open source software and hardware, is the neat and cheep little single-channel analyzer, the Nano v2. For basic uses (measuring PPM signals on an arduino board for example), it works very well and is a deal for under $90. I bought mine to work on radio control things so I can example the PPM signal streams coming off the CPU, and the signals going out the servos. In particular I make sure that the head tracking channels are being properly mixed into the PPM stream at the radio end for flying airplanes with first-person video and a head-tracking camera (using gyros).

Re:SeeedStudio Nano OS 1 channel hardware and soft

[sl3xd]

The Nano is a digital storage oscilloscope - which is no doubt useful. It shows continuous voltage levels over time, and is great for analog signals; it measures 0-10V at 1Msps, with 12-bits of resolution.

But a logic analyzer fits into a different niche; it really only measures "high" or "low", but across many channels (instead of 1 or 2 as in an oscilliscope).

The OpenBench Logic Sniffer, for example, measures:
  - Up to 32 channels at 100 MHz
  - Up to 16 channels at 200 MHz
  - 1.8-5V, which covers most digital chips.
  - costs $50 - almost half of the Nano's price.

They are clearly different tools, though. If I were measuring PPM coming out of a microcontroller (as in an arduino), I'd choose a Logic Analyzer over an oscilliscope.

Plenty of OS logic analyzers

[hectorh]

There are plenty of other logic analyzers that are open source. To name a few: SUMP, Open Workbench, Logic Shrimp.

Re:Plenty of OS logic analyzers

[S77IM]

I have no idea wtf a logic analyzer is, but I am really really glad that there's a genuine, useful thing out there called "Logic Shrimp."

  -- 77IM

Re:Not a Logic Analyzer (hardware)

[vlm]

This is a software interface between a Logic Analyzer and a computer. There are standalone devices that need no computer...

furthermore there are stand alone open source devices that need little more than a terminal.

Ian lesnet's, dangerous prototypes, seeed studio manufactured, "bus pirate" under continuous development for, what, 3 years now? I have a v3 and that thing rocks.