Looking for an alternative for sigrok

[cedric!]

Hi All,

I'm looking for an alternative for sigrok. I like sigrok for many reasons:
+Open source / multiplatform / pretty stable
+works with many logic analyses / scopes / multimeters / mixed signal devices
+Has a lot of protocol decoders
+Has both support for both analog and digital signals
+Has math channels that can use analog, digital and other math channels as input.
+Math channels can be used as digital inputs for the protocol decoders

Sigrok also has some downsides for me:
-The output of the protocol decoders cannot be used as input for the math channels.
-Math channels don't have persistent memory, so implementing a function that looks for the maximum of the last 1000 samples is very expensive, as each output point has to do the entire calculation again.
-On the wiki, the Saleae Logic Pro 16 logic analyzer is advertised as working with analog, witch is not yet the case. I did not yet report this on the devel mailing list.
-My request for write access to the wiki was ignored, both on IRC and on the devel mailing list.
-The github.com read-only mirrors are not in sync with the sigrok.org git repositories. My report about this has been ignored
-My request for adding sigrok-pico as a Work in progress / planned device has been ignored
-My request for adding a note about the sigrok bugtracker on the FAQ and the Developers pages on the wiki has been ignored.
-My question on howto deal with non-constant sample rates in sigrok has been ignored.

So overall, Sigrok a fantastic project with a lot of potential that moves in the right direction, but it looks like the project doesn't have a lot of active developers.

Therefore I'm looking for an alternative project, that is more active, and can do some / most of the things Sigrok is capable of.

Kind regards,
Cedric
[edit: typo]

[deepfryed]

I'm looking for an alternative project, that is more active, and can do some / most of the things Sigrok is capable of.

I don't think there is one that comes even close. It's a big project with few developers that sporadically work on their own time and I don't think big companies have any incentive to financially support the work.

I have some issues getting my DMM working with sigrok, I've decided to spend a few weekends debugging and send them patches. Best way to contribute back.

[larsdenmark]

Salea is the only one that comes to mind.

It has analog measurements mentioned here:
https://support.saleae.com/user-guide/using-logic/capture-settings

The last time I used my Salea it seemed to work.

[raleighlittles]

I think Sigrok is now in feature-freeze mode as well. Their last stable release was in 2019, and they're no longer distributing downloads.

I tried to download the sigrok-cli (64-bit) for Linux earlier and the website wasn't available: https://sigrok.org/wiki/Downloads

----

An alternative to Sigrok depends ultimately on which devices you would've used Sigrok for. Like others have said, for Logic Analyzers, Salae might be a good alternative. Depending on the model of LA you have, KingstVis might be an option too.

For oscilloscopes, OpenHantek6022 might work: https://github.com/OpenHantek/OpenHantek6022

And for oscilloscopes and power supplies with a network connection, I've been liking `lxi-tools` https://github.com/lxi-tools/lxi-tools

[alm]

I think Sigrok is now in feature-freeze mode as well. Their last stable release was in 2019, and they're no longer distributing downloads.

Looking at git there has been very recent activity, so I don't see evidence of a feature freeze. They do write on the download page that the nightly builds are broken, and obviously they haven't done a release in a long time.

This might be indicative that the person with dev ops skills doesn't have time, but not of a lack of development.

[cedric!]

I have found a promising new project that one day might replace Sigrok:

https://github.com/gusmanb/logicanalyzer/wiki/06---The-LogicAnalyzer-program

For now it only has 3 protocol decoders, no stacked decoders, and it supports only digital signals coming from a rp2040 as capture device, but maybe it will grow.

[Electro Fan]

I have found a promising new project that one day might replace Sigrok:

https://github.com/gusmanb/logicanalyzer/wiki/06---The-LogicAnalyzer-program

For now it only has 3 protocol decoders, no stacked decoders, and it supports only digital signals coming from a rp2040 as capture device, but maybe it will grow.

That is a major cool project!
- Thanks for posting.

[Electro Fan]

Hi All,

I'm looking for an alternative for sigrok. I like sigrok for many reasons:
+Open source / multiplatform / pretty stable
+works with many logic analyses / scopes / multimeters / mixed signal devices
+Has a lot of protocol decoders
+Has both support for both analog and digital signals
+Has math channels that can use analog, digital and other math channels as input.
+Math channels can be used as digital inputs for the protocol decoders

Sigrok also has some downsides for me:
-The output of the protocol decoders cannot be used as input for the math channels.
-Math channels don't have persistent memory, so implementing a function that looks for the maximum of the last 1000 samples is very expensive, as each output point has to do the entire calculation again.
-On the wiki, the Saleae Logic Pro 16 logic analyzer is advertised as working with analog, witch is not yet the case. I did not yet report this on the devel mailing list.
-My request for write access to the wiki was ignored, both on IRC and on the devel mailing list.
-The github.com read-only mirrors are not in sync with the sigrok.org git repositories. My report about this has been ignored
-My request for adding sigrok-pico as a Work in progress / planned device has been ignored
-My request for adding a note about the sigrok bugtracker on the FAQ and the Developers pages on the wiki has been ignored.
-My question on howto deal with non-constant sample rates in sigrok has been ignored.

So overall, Sigrok a fantastic project with a lot of potential that moves in the right direction, but it looks like the project doesn't have a lot of active developers.

Therefore I'm looking for an alternative project, that is more active, and can do some / most of the things Sigrok is capable of.

Kind regards,
Cedric
[edit: typo]

Not sure how much you are considering using an oscilloscope vs a standalone logic analyzer but this project seems to be gaining some traction especially for various Siglent and Rigol scopes.  Might provide some renewed interest in Sigrok PulseView.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-sigrokpulseview-hardware-support-(siglent-sds-hd-rigol-dho800-)/

[sslupsky]

ngscopeclient looks interesting though it does not appear to support as many instruments as sigrok does:

https://www.ngscopeclient.org

[artag]

Ngscopeclient specifically avoids sharing code with sigrok because they wanted a more commercially-friendly licence. To me, that's a bit of a shame - but it does mean it can link with devices like Saleae that don't document a wire protocol but do offer an API.  Since manufacturers dislike sharing protocols and prefer to ship APIs - albeit, perhaps for a limited choice of OSs - which should make a lot more accessible.

In addition, there's now a sigrok bridge which allows access to some sigrok-supported devices without linking. I don't know whether it's universal or just supports selected devices.

It took me ages to get it to work as it needs a moderately modern video card and I'm rather parsimonious over fancy video (I'm not a gamer). It requires Vulkan 1.3  support - but this is now available in quite moderate devices including some on-chip video. I bought a slightly less old Radeon 580 card for my linux PC and have also had it running on a raspberry pi 4 with some trivial corrections. I would love to be able to build a self-contained open-source oscilloscope/LA.

What I find particularly interesting is that it can handle multiple acquisition devices and sync them if they have a common pin. This should make it possible to use multiple cheap USB analysers if you occasionally want extra width.

And, as alm says, there has been some activity recently on Sigrok. I think the main maintainers burnt out leaving only one guy who found himself unable to keep up with or get anybody to help review incoming submissions. So if there's a renewed interest, the more help they can get, the better. I hate to see  closed-source windows-only suites being offered to do, separately, oscilloscope or meter drivers. It's such a waste of effort and  isn't supportable in the long run by a single developer so they'll just fade out too, or need to be paid or, at best, be restricted to a small number of devices. The need for continuous windows  or instrument updates is just too much work for one keen developer.

[sslupsky]

I would love to be able to build a self-contained open-source oscilloscope/LA.

The ThunderScope project is nearing the point of launching a campaign.  Testing seems to be going well.  It is only an oscilloscope at this point but there are possibilities for a lot of added capability.  The ngscopeclient project supports the ThunderScope which is how I came to know about ngscopeclient.  There is a discord channel where you can follow along with the development progress.

https://github.com/EEVengers/ThunderScope

[fredo_]

ngscopeclient looks interesting though it does not appear to support as many instruments as sigrok does:
https://www.ngscopeclient.org

Thank you @sslupsky and @artag for pointing ngscopeclient out !
I spent some time playing with it and it's a very impressive software 
It surely isn't as beginner-friendly as Sigrok/Pulseview but it seams much more powerful, especially in the analog domain.

The first challenge is to get a binary distribution, since you have to build it yourself from the source code (at least I was not able to find a downloadable version  ...) !
Then the current version does not work with latest Siglent SDS 2000X HD firmware: I had to patch it to have it support frame length reported in points rather than bytes.
In anyone is interested, I can start new thread to share a downloadable windows installer for this patched version.

[Furna]

The first challenge is to get a binary distribution, since you have to build it yourself from the source code (at least I was not able to find a downloadable version  ...) !
Then the current version does not work with latest Siglent SDS 2000X HD firmware: I had to patch it to have it support frame length reported in points rather than bytes.
In anyone is interested, I can start new thread to share a downloadable windows installer for this patched version.

Hello fredo_ !

Challenges are juice of live.
I'll try to compile ngscopeclient on Windows/MSYS2 probably during week end 31/8 - 1/9
A new dedicated thread (not only for Windows) for ngscopeclient on EEVBlog forum sounds a good idea to me if one does not yet exists (I didn't find one).

[cedric!]

Recently, sigrok has released the scripts needed to build it. Now everybody can build their own fork of sigrok/pulseview with a github action:

https://github.com/sigrokproject/sigrok-build/actions

[Furna]

Recently, sigrok has released the scripts needed to build it. Now everybody can build their own fork of sigrok/pulseview with a github action:

https://github.com/sigrokproject/sigrok-build/actions

I am wondering if on the next version of Windows you will be able to install a compiler or you wil be forced to go to Github ... and pay a subscription.

[Furna]

The first challenge is to get a binary distribution, since you have to build it yourself from the source code (at least I was not able to find a downloadable version  ...) !
Then the current version does not work with latest Siglent SDS 2000X HD firmware: I had to patch it to have it support frame length reported in points rather than bytes.
In anyone is interested, I can start new thread to share a downloadable windows installer for this patched version.

Hello fredo_ !

Challenges are juice of live.
I'll try to compile ngscopeclient on Windows/MSYS2 probably during week end 31/8 - 1/9
A new dedicated thread (not only for Windows) for ngscopeclient on EEVBlog forum sounds a good idea to me if one does not yet exists (I didn't find one).

... and so fredo_ did ... he started a new thread for ngscopeclient at https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/ngscopeclient-ultimate-acquisition-software-protocol-decoder-debug-tool/

[abeyer]

I am wondering if on the next version of Windows you will be able to install a compiler or you wil be forced to go to Github ... and pay a subscription.

You can use everything you'd be likely to want as a user on github for free since the MS acquisition, the paid features are mostly just for those hosting projects to share with others. And the compiler situation on windows is probably the best it's ever been: I think all of the full MS commercial compilers are available for free for personal non-commercial use, large parts of their language infra are now at least partially open source, and you can use more unix friendly toolchains from either mingw or WSL depending on your needs/desire.

I'm not a fan of many directions Microsoft has taken of late... but this doesn't seem like one to complain about.

[Furna]

I am wondering if on the next version of Windows you will be able to install a compiler or you wil be forced to go to Github ... and pay a subscription.

You can use everything you'd be likely to want as a user on github for free since the MS acquisition, the paid features are mostly just for those hosting projects to share with others. And the compiler situation on windows is probably the best it's ever been: I think all of the full MS commercial compilers are available for free for personal non-commercial use, large parts of their language infra are now at least partially open source, and you can use more unix friendly toolchains from either mingw or WSL depending on your needs/desire.

I'm not a fan of many directions Microsoft has taken of late... but this doesn't seem like one to complain about.

I am not complaining; I am wondering

[abeyer]

I am not complaining; I am wondering

Who can say what will happen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But it seems like the exact opposite of the direction they've been going with developer focused tools.