Soundcard Oscilloscope
Author: Christian Zeitnitz
The sigrok project aims at creating a portable, cross-platform, Free/Libre/Open-Source signal analysis software suite that supports various device types (e.g. Logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and many more). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 3 or later. Design goals and features include: Broad hardware support. Download Software Oscilloscope Mac Software. Pydatascope v.0.31b1 Software oscilloscope using Python and tkinter. Supports multiple sources: socket, file, audio, USB. Displays data by samples, time or frequency. Scales the input automatically or manually.
Main features:
The PC based Soundcard Oscilloscope receives its data from the Soundcard with 44.1kHz and 16 Bit resolution. The data source can be selected in the Windows mixer (Microphone, Line-In or Wave). The frequency range depends on the sound card, but 20-20000Hz should be possible with all modern cards. The low frequency end is limited by the AC coupling of the line-in signal. Be aware, that most microphone inputs are only mono.
The oscilloscope contains in addition a signal generator for 2 channels for sine, square, triangular, sawtooth wave forms and different noise spectra in the frequency range from 0 to 20kHz. The signal can be defined by a mathematical formula as well. The signals are available at the speaker output of the sound card. These can be fed back to the oscillocope in order to generate Lissajous figures in the x-y mode.
Download the latest version: scope V1.46
Obtain a commercial license here
Interested in a customized version?
Support the development of this program by obtaining a private donation license
Additional features
- Trigger modes: off, automatic, normal and single shot
- Triggerlevel can be set with the mouse
- The signals of the two channels can be added, subtracted and multiplied
- x-y mode
- Frequency analysis (Fourier spectrum)
- Waterfall diagram (frequency spectrum as function of time)
- Frequency filter: low-, high-, band-pass and band-stop
- Cursors to measure amplitude, time and frequency in the main window
- Audio Recorder to save data to a wave file
- For multi soundcard system, the used card can be selected in the settings tab
The program has been written in LabView (™ by National Instruments). For the actual Sound I/O part the WaveIO package by the same author has been used.
Signal Sources
The signals for the oscilloscope can be internal to the computer (MP3 player, function generator etc.) or from external sources (line-in, microphone). For external sources care has to be taken, not to exceed the voltage range of the inputs. The range is usually only ±0.7V !! If higher voltage need to be analyzed, a voltage divider has to be used. Additional protection diodes are recommended in order to avoid any damage to the sound card and to the computer.
Requirements
This program will run on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 (32bit and 64bit) computers with a sound card. It will not install on older versions of Windows. The speed requirements are not very hard. A 1GHz machine is suffient. On slower CPUs the load on the system might lead to reduced responsiveness of the system.
Terms of usage and licenses
This Software and all previous versions are NO Freeware!
- The use of the software and of the documentation is granted free of charge for private and non-commercial use in educational institutions
- Any commercial application requires a corresponding license (see below)
- Distribution and sale of the program is prohibited. Contact the author in order to obtain a resale license.
If you like to support the further development of this program please obtain a private license by following this link
Commercial usage: In order to obtain a commercial license follow this link
All right reserved.Downloads
Instructions: The program comes as a self-extracting archive and will start the installation automatically. After the installation start the scope from the entry in the program menu. Enjoy !
Version 1.46
- Changes
- Improved mouse control of the amplitude measurement: after the acquisition is stopped (Run/Stop) a right click into the scope window starts the measurements. A left click positions the cursor on the time axis. The left and right cursor keys allow a fine adjustment of the cursor
- Mouse control of measurement in the frequency window: left click positions the cursor on the frequency axis. Fine adjustment with the left and right cursor keys
- Expert mode allows to modify the sampling rate within the program and direct access to the configuration file
- Solved CPU load problem for long time window
- Memory problem solved
- One more crash problem solved when running under Windows 2k/XP behoben
- Version 1.46 of the program (all languages): scope_146
- Only the englisch manual für Version 1.46
- License
- All licenses obtained for previous scope versions are valid for this version as well
- Private license to support the further development of the program
- Commercial license for the usage in companies and non-public educational institutions
Older versions
Version 1.45
- Changes
- Error corrected on Windows 2k/XP. Error message appeared and program would stop on some systems.
- Measurements with cursors fixed. Sometimes the check boxes were no longer accessible
- Version 1.45 of the program (all languages): scope_145
- Only the englisch manual für Version 1.45
- License
- All licenses obtained for previous scope versions are valid for this version as well
- Private license to support the further development of the program
- Commercial license for the usage in companies and non-public educational institutions
Version 1.44
- Update 02.11.2014: If you experienced problems running the signal generator, please download and reinstall 1.44. The package had a problem with one of the enclosed libs.
- Changes
- Additional sources in the signal generator
- White, pink and Brownian Noise
- Signal definition as a methematical formula. This allows to generate very complex signals. The formula is evaluated by the package muParser.
- Addition of a band-stop filter to the frequency filter
- Corrected division of the scope screen, when resizing the program window
- Corrected error in Win XP: automatic activation of a device crashed the program
- Additional sources in the signal generator
- Version 1.44 of the program (all languages): scope_144
- Only the englisch manual für Version 1.44
- License
- All licenses obtained for previous scope versions are valid for this version as well
- Private license to support the further development of the program
- Commercial license for the usage in companies and non-public educational institutions
Version 1.43
- Changes
- General program settings (e.g. sampling rate) are now found in settings.ini (was scope.ini)
- Sound send to the speaker from a media player, MP3-player etc. can directly be displayed by the scope through a loopback device. This does not work for DRM protected media
- Dezibel values are now with respect to the amplitude squared
- Corrected calibration settings
- Corrected vertical divisions on scope screen
- Lots of small changes
Version 1.42
Version 1.41
- Changes
- Corrected error in the amplitude determination
- Option to log the measured frequency and amplitude values into a file
- Separate filtering of both channels
- Scaling in dB of the frequency spectrum
- Direct display of the generator signals on the scopes screen. The channel is selectable
- List of available audio devices is updated automatically
- Option to unmute a device on selection. The volume of the device is set to a custom value
Version 1.40
- Changes
- Save and restore of setting
- Automatic loading of settings at program start
- Amplitude knobs separatly for both channels
- Improved AUTO trigger
- Frequency analysis simultaneously for both channels
- Waterfall diagram
- Saved images of the screen contain now the on-screen values
- On-screen values can be logged (CSV format) to a file
- Program is now resizeable. Not perfect yet, but useful in most cases
- Colors of beams as well as the grid can be changed in the scope and XY-graph
- Changes
- New cursor to measure the signal properties (when the acquisition is stopped) including an onscreen display of the corresponding time and amplitudes
- First version which can be licensed
Version 1.31
Please uninstall any previous version of the scope software before installing this version
Oscilloscope Software Mac Free Downloads
- Changes
- The different graphs (Oszilloscope, XY-Graph und frequency spectrum) can be stored as graphic files as well as a data files (CSV-file)
- Time- und amplitude cursor can be activated simultaniously
Version 1.30
- Changes
- Improved stability on slower computers
- The offset of the signal can now be set with the mouse directly on the signal screen
- Optional automatic on-screen frequency and amplitude measurement
- Possibility to measure the transfer function between two signals
- French and czech Versions available
- Acknowledgement
- Thanks to Francis Brouchier for providing the french translation
- Thanks to Jakub Jermár and Leoš Dvorák for providing the czech version
Version 1.24
- Changes
- Bug in re-sampling routine removed
- Re-sampling effects only the display and not recorded wave forms
- For long time settings the time scale was wrong!
- This bug is present in ALL prior versions!
- Multiple language version (english, german)
- Persistence of the XY-Graph adjustable
- Amplitude of frequency analysis graph scales automatically (can be disabled)
- Program remembers the selected sound card for input and output
- Display of sound properties/mixer from the Extras tab works now on Vista
- Bug in re-sampling routine removed
- Acknowledgement
- Thanks to Helio and the american teachers for spotting the mentioned bug
Due to a bug in the re-samlping of data (thanks Helio), all versions prior to 1.24 should be updated!
Version 1.23
- Update to Version 1.24
Version 1.22
- Changes
- Peak hold function in frequency analysis
- Signal generator allows now to generate white noise and a frequency sweep
- Cue points are no longer written to the .wav file by the sound recorder. The Media Player was confused by these extra data
Version 1.21
Version 1.20
Oscilloscope Software Mac Free Version
- The Audio Recorder had some unwanted features:
- Minimal time window on file was 50ms long
- Trigger was sometimes not stored on the file
- Update to Version 1.21
Digital Oscilloscope App
Version 1.10
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Version 1.04
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Final Remarks
The program requires a correctly installed and configured soundcard on your Windows computer. In case of problems consult the manual and the frequently asked question.
If you still have a software related problem send mail to C.Zeitnitz