Review: SmartScope Maker Kit

The SmartScope is an especially handy and affordable USB oscilloscope, logic analyzer and signal generator. Internally the SmartScope is built around a powerful Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA, which also makes it suitable for use as an FPGA development platform. Elektor is now offering the unique SmartScope Maker Kit, which includes a special version of the SmartScope and two programmers with suitable cables.

In this video, developer Riemer Grootjans explains several powerful features of the SmartScope. Starting with the mobile use with a tablet, he then demonstrates I2C decoding using a multiple temperature sensor board connected to a laptop PC, hooked up to the Smartscope as a logic analyzer. Further SPI decoding is briefly showed too, as well as recorded data export and arbitrary wave generator (AWG).

Most USB oscilloscopes have been designed for use in combination with a Windows or Linux PC. The SmartScope is an exception to this: it works just as well with an Android tablet, an iPad or an OS X system. The software has been designed to make the user interface appear identical across all platforms. We’ve tried one out on a PC and a tablet.