Converting psdata to csv on Linux / Command-Line-Interface (CLI) for Linux

[lutz85]

Hello!

I need to convert psdata files from picoscope to csv or other non-proprietary format with a command line interface.
For this I downloaded Picoscope 7 for Windows. I quickly noticed that the CLI does not work on Picoscope 7.
Therefore I downloaded Picoscope 6 for Windows --> There it is working.

However the instance where I want to run this is a linux based PC (currently ubuntu but could also use RedHat etc. if it is easier). The official downloads page only lets me install Picoscope 7 on Linux. Again, the CLI does not work....

So therefore I have 2 questions:

1. How can I install Picoscope 6 on Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, but could also use RedHat, Mint, or other)?
2. Does Picoscope 6 for Linux support the CLI (e.g./c command for conversion)?

Thank you very much for your help in advance!
BR, Lutz

[lutz85]

Hello, i now received the answer from customer support. I will post this here to answer my own question and save others from asking the same question to customer support. Thanks to customer support.

Short answer: only possible with Picoscope 6 for Windows.

Although our Software is free to download and use, the software content is proprietary. The psdata format enables you to snapshot a complete setup and data capture, and is therefore heavily protected to avoid giving away information about the software content. So, for this reason, there is no provided method, in any of our technology, to decode a psdata file.
The command Line Interface for PicoScope 6 was originally developed for internal testing purposes many years ago, when we only had a windows version of PicoScope 6. Since then we have moved onto more sophisticated test setups, and porting PicoScope 6 to other platforms, but the CLI has not been removed from the Windows builds of PicoScope 6. There was never any intention for the CLI to be used by customers, for instance, the only documentation available is an incomplete list of commands, and there has never been any improvement upon that. As I’m sure you’re aware, we now have our SDK for customers to write their own, custom, applications, interfacing directly with the driver itself, with well documented driver commands. So there was never a need to spend valuable time porting the CLI to the other platform versions of PicoScope 6.
Moving forward with PicoScope 7, as far as I’m aware, there is no intention to transfer a no longer internally used test system to the new version, certainly not when we're aiming to fully release the software as soon as possible (and as our development tools support cross-platform development natively, this would apply to all platform versions). However, I can appreciate that being able to convert psdata files to csv files in bulk is not something supported by our SDK, so I could put in a feature request for PicoScope 7, to our development team, on your behalf. Just be aware that, bearing in mind the proprietary nature of our psdata files, the response may be if rather than when such an inclusion will be added to the software.
Regards,
Pico Technical Support Team