Functionality

The logic analyzer with its 8 channels.
You can easily access the 4 million measurements
in the hardware buffer and inspect them in detail.

The software was installed on a Windows PC and an Android tablet. The Android device needs to be running Android version 4.0 or above, and requires USB-host support. All of the software versions are available from LabNation’s website. The Android app can also be found on Google Play. For a tablet you will also need a micro-USB OTG cable (which costs a few dollars) to connect it to the SmartScope. The combination of a tablet and SmartScope creates a very useful mobile measuring instrument, since the scope is powered by the tablet, which means you can use it away from the mains supply.

When the software starts, it first loads the complete ‘firmware’ for the SmartScope into the FPGA. This takes just a single second. With this method you can be assured that you will always have the most recent version. You won’t need a bootloader or flash memory in the device either.

The software looks the same on both systems and always starts in oscilloscope mode. On the left is the main menu with all the settings. At the bottom are a few of the most commonly used settings. The rest of the screen is taken up by the scope display with a scale, where the measured signals will be displayed.