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From: PeterH on 4 Oct 2006 14:54
The Open Instrumentation Project (OIP) has been formed to support
open-source software and low cost hardware for electronic
instrumentation.
Currently available instruments include an oscilloscope, waveform
generator
and network analyser. Source code is available at sourceforge/oip.
Information on the hardware is available at www.syscompdesign.com.

Recent developments in the project:

- The Mac OS-X port appears to be operational, thanks to a contribution
by
Seneca Cunningham. We hope to have the beta test version up on
Sourceforge
shortly. (If you'd like to push that along, send me email and we'll
move it
up in the queue.) This means that the oscilloscope and waveform
generator
are now available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS-X operating systems.

There are three new papers on the Syscomp web page:

- An illustration of oscilloscope single-shot capture operation,
documenting
contact bounce in an electromechanical relay.

- Notes on BNC adaptors and cables, including a pointer to building
cables
using RG-174U (small diameter coax).

- Instructions on Downloading and Executing code from Sourceforge.
(This is
specific to OIP software, but may be useful for other downloads using
the
Tcl/Tk language.)

The vector network analyser which uses the oscilloscope and waveform
generator plus GPLed software, is described in the September issue of
Circuit Cellar magazine.

The oscilloscope software has the following new features:

- Software Zoom (aka Waveform Browser) captures 32k samples and allows
a zoom
into any portion of that data record

- Vertical Calibration allows the vertical sensitivity to be
calibrated, to
yeild improved accuracy over the raw hardware

- X-Y Plot displays in the foreground while displaying X vs time and Y
vs time
in the background. Allows the display of Lissajous figures.

The waveform generator software now supports 0.1Hz resolution. (The
hardware always supported that resolution, now the software takes
advantage
of that.)

Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
647-839-0325

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