Test and Measurement Forum

Hello,

I'm very interested by the PicoScope 2104 Handheld Oscilloscope as it's cheap and has a linux driver.

On the Linux page http://www.picotech.com/linux.html I can see :

Our Linux drivers are released under an Open Source licence which allows you to modify and redistribute them as you wish.

which is great as with sources I'm sure to be able to use the driver with any linux distribution and update it for new kernels if needed.

But unfortunately I was unable to find the sources, only a 32bits binary RPM for Fedora 8.

So where can I find the sources for the driver and what is the licence (GPL?) ?

Thanks

Hi jjl,
looks like this was written by the marketing department "OpenSource is cool so we got to put in a sentence about it on our website."

In reality I didn't find any source-code for the linux-library either.

Inside the rpm there is nothing more then the header- file the compiled library and a small examle app for the console.
The source for the example is available, must be since its a programming example.

There also seems to be no license-info inside the rpm.
The only license information I could find is in the Programmers Guide PDF.
The license here is rather restrictive:
You cannot even create an application-package that includes the original closed-source lib from PicoTech, because you are only allowed to distribute the library in its original state. So you cannot take it apart, you can't even create a debian-package from the rpm-file.

PicoTech should probably take that note about OpenSource down.
Thanks for the linux-driver Pico but this is not what OpenSource is about.

Eberhard

...forgot to mention that you can install the driver-rpm on a debian/ubuntu system using "alien".

Eberhard

Hello wayoda,

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately that's what I was afraid about
Releasing Linux driver is great but it's not enough for me.

Let me give 2 small examples :

My graphic card worked well with closed driver. One day it stopped working with an updated driver. But there is also an open source driver, so years after, I can still use my graphic card.

I have an old scanner that is not supported under windows since win98. In linux there is an open source driver, so it's still working on my debian.

Binary drivers/libs is ok for one version of kernel/libc. But what if Pico does not update it anymore ? The libc will move on. Will I be sticked to a particular version of my distribution ? Sorry but I have to say NO.

So as I don't want to throw away my oscilloscope when the driver will not be compatible any more ... I think I will search for another product. This is quite sad as the PicoScope 2104 seems perfect for my needs.

JJL

Hi jjl,

I think I will search for another product. This is quite sad as the PicoScope 2104 seems perfect for my needs.

I can really understand that. I also have no idea why the drivers source is is not released as open source by Pico.

Having the first computerscope on the market with Linux in-kernel-support would surly be a marketing advantage.

I know this topic has been discussed before, but why not rattle at the gates every few months :

1. Engineers do actually use Linux (and want computerscopes that work under linux too)
2. The Kernel driver project
http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/
will write you driver for free and sign a NDA for the firmware and specifications if needed.
3. I don't really think you driver contains any information that allows other hardware manufacturers to create computerscopes simply by looking at the code.
4. The embedded market is already ruled by linux. Without a way to recompile the driver for other target platforms, PicoTech will never make a business here.

Think about it
Eberhard

The linux drivers we have for our USB scopes do not run in kernel mode.
They are user mode drivers and use usbfs, this is not likely to change with updated kernel versions so the drivers should not break.

For the USBTC08 (temperature logger) we have already released the driver open source.

There is a lot of small ARM based CPU boards being released. Not having the driver in source format do limit the use of Pico scopes in these products.

These CPUs is nowadays very capable of doing basic processing of captured signals and control based on these inputs.

If you do not release the code could you at least release the binary files we need?

Or can I get access to the source under a NDA of some sort?

Thanks,
Hanno

When i buy my PicoScope 2204 I believed the driver Open Source.

I buy this for my hobby but my laptop it was installing with Ubuntu 9.04.
Know my first problem it's to do working the driver. If the driver is open source whith source code, I don't care of this it's working with this distribution.

I would like to try adapt open source software Osqoop for this oscilloscope.

If the driver work, I'll write an article on ubuntu french forum. I think some of all french guy who are interesting by electronic after this article could buy a cheaper PicoScope.

I hope you can understand this...

I'm curious to know if you ever managed to get Osqoop and pico hardware working together?

We are looking at migrating to Ubuntu and really need a picoscope software clone for Ubuntu.