After six years of analysis and growth, EEVenger’s premiere open supply {hardware} mission, ThunderScope, is now out there for pre-order on Crowd Provide. Three years in the past, the mission’s chief, Aleksa Bjelogrlic, previewed the four-channel 350 MHz oscilloscope that samples at 1 GSa/s. Its marquee characteristic is that it streams the acquisition information on the full pattern charge to a PC over Thunderbolt (USB 4) and prices lower than $1000, making it an open, highly effective, and reasonably priced addition to your electronics check bench!
Years of growth (📷: EEvengers by way of Crowd Provide)
Hackster beforehand coated ThunderScope when it was “just” an FPGA project after which when the marketing campaign first went live on Crowd Provide. That was three years in the past. At present, it’s now out there for pre-order.
ThunderScope is an open supply (OSWH CA000017) PC-attached oscilloscope with as much as 350 MHz bandwidth that samples at 1 GSa/s. It is available in two type elements: a PCI-Specific x4 (Gen 2) card or a Thunderbolt-enabled standalone enclosure. The Thunderbolt model is actually the PCI-Specific card in a {custom} enclosure. The (major) consumer interface is an open supply PC Consumer referred to as ngscopeclient, which runs on Home windows, macOS, and Linux.
ThunderScope in motion wtih two probes! (📷: EEvengers by way of Crowd Provide)
Laptops with ThunderBolt (USB4) flip ThunderScope into a completely transportable resolution. Neither the standalone nor PCIe model requires an exterior energy provide as a result of EEVengers stored the facility necessities underneath 15 watts!
The ADC is a 12-bit ADC that samples at 1 Gigasamples per second. The entrance finish additionally features a selectable 50 ohm and 1 Mohm termination. This selection makes ThunderScope suitable with conventional passive probes and 50-ohm terminated energetic probes — such because the open source 2 GHz probe from James Wilson.
ThunderScope PCIe (📷: EEvengers by way of Crowd Provide)
Regardless that the ADC is 12-bit, ThunderScope at present solely helps 8-bit acquisitions. The required hooks are in place, however Bjelogrlic says further growth is required. Additionally, when working in 12-bit mode, the pattern charge drops to 500 MSa/s.
ThunderScope’s native bandwidth is a minimum of 500 MHz. Nonetheless, EEVengers limits the measurement bandwidth to 350 MHz with an anti-aliasing filter that gives 3.5X oversampling. You may, nonetheless, flip off that filter. One trade-off to think about is that the analog channels share the 1 GSa/s ADC. When utilizing multiple channel, ThunderScope’s efficient bandwidth reduces to 200 MHz (2 channels) or 100 MHz (4 channels).
ThunderScope Entrance-Finish (📷: EEvengers by way of Crowd Provide)
Like another PC-attached oscilloscopes, ThunderScope doesn’t have an acquisition buffer. As an alternative, it streams the ADC samples at full pace to the PC at 1 Gigabyte per second — one thing no different oscilloscope does! ThunderScope opens up a brand new realm of research capabilities by combining that stream with GPU-accelerated software program.
There are two open supply shopper software program choices (right this moment). One mission, nonetheless underneath energetic growth, led by whitequark is known as thunderscope-rs. This selection is a light-weight triggering and management shopper to get to probing alerts rapidly.
ngscopeclient displaying waveforms, measurements, and an eye fixed diagram
ThunderScope’s major consumer interface is Andrew Zonenberg’s feature-rich ngscopeclient. This software program is a front-end for the acquisition {hardware} (check tools like oscilloscopes) and supplies evaluation capabilities. For instance, it has a node editor that lets the consumer chain collectively filters, embedded-clock restoration, and evaluation instruments like eye diagrams. It additionally helps most serial protocols. Along with ThunderScope, it might connect with different oscilloscopes!
The gifted workforce behind ThunderScope (📷: EEvengers by way of Crowd Provide)
Over the previous three years, Bjelogrlic has assembled an unbelievable {hardware}, FPGA, and software program engineering workforce. It’s improbable to see all the pieces come collectively and much more astonishing that this measurement functionality is completely open supply. The ThunderScope GitHub repository comprises firmware, TS-specific software program libraries for ngscopeclient, and {hardware} schematics. One other welcomed change for the reason that first announcement is that Bjelogrlic is updating the (future) design recordsdata to KiCad!
ThunderScope is accessible for pre-order right this moment. The PCIe card prices $800. For $950, you get a calibrated ThunderScope in an aluminum enclosure with a USB-C cable rated for 40 Gbps and a custom-fitted Pelican-brand transit case. Each worth factors embody free worldwide delivery, however neither comes with probes.
Standalone ships in a {custom} transit case (📷: EEvengers by way of Crowd Provide)
Go to the ThunderScope Crowd Supply product page to put a pre-order or discover hyperlinks to associated open supply tasks. The web page additionally lists Bjelogrlic’s talks over the previous three years, which touched on many facets of ThunderScope’s growth.
