BitScope News | 2015

2015-12-03

Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi and BitScope!

We love the Raspberry Pi and have long supported it to build a low cost oscilloscope solution with BitScope.

BitScope Blade for Raspberry Pi, physical and cluster computing solutions.

BitScope is also used for a wide range of test and measurement purposes beyond just as an oscilloscope and we're often asked for low cost scalable solutions for data acquisition, sensing and control.

It made sense to see if we could leverage Raspberry Pi for all this as well. Turns out we can, so we created BitScope Blade!

We've long offered network connected T&M solutions like BS445 but BitScope Blade makes these models redundant.

Instead we can now offer comprehensive industrial quality, highly reliable solutions using Raspberry Pi. You can build very flexible and scalable test, measurement and data acquisition systems using low cost BitScope Micro and BitScope Mini and BitScope Blade. It works with other solutions too, like Sense HAT.

It doesn't end there. BitScope Blade is also well suited for stand-alone servers and workstations, cluster computing and cloud hosting infrastructure, remote sensing, general physical computing and education. Read More...

2015-09-09

BitScope Micro with Raspberry Pi Touchscreen Display !

BitScope USB Oscilloscope with Raspberry Pi Touchscreen Display !

We bootstrapped the new Raspberry Pi LCD like everyone else but with a twist, we wall mounted it and powered it with a 12V battery (using BitScope Blade).

We were keen to see what the display looked like and to check that our software and hardware worked with it. We are pleased to report it looks fantastic and everything just works !

The touchscreen also works very well with BitScope Software, no keyboard is required! You can of course plug in a keyboard and mouse if you want to.

The Raspberry Pi, touchscreen display and up to four BitScope Micro can all be powered from a 9V to 48V source via the soon to be released BitScope Blade DuoPi power board for Raspberry Pi.

It's the perfect stand alone test, measurement and data acquisition system at an amazingly low price. Read More...

2015-08-12

BitScope, Ozberry & Pimoroni at Sydney Mini Maker Faire!

BitScope at Sydney Maker Faire

Calling teachers, students and makers !

If you're in Sydney this weekend, please join us at the Sydney Mini Maker Faire.

This year, we're working with Ozberry and Pimoroni to showcase some projects for Raspberry Pi, BitScope and Explorer and Piano HAT among others.

We will have our new BitScope Blade Raspberry Pi Cluster Computing solution on display, BitScope Micro Ports, Audio Port and Sonic Pi and even Carrie Anne's Bananna Beat Box for Raspberry Pi.

Also on the stand will be projects built with PiRack and an object avoiding robot with a Raspberry Pi V2 running the brand new Windows 10 for IoT.

We'll have some give aways from element14 Australia and we welcome your questions and feedback on the Ozberry stand.

We're keen to hear from teachers, students and others interested in STEM, coding and electronics. Read More...

2015-07-27

MAAS presents Picademy with Carrie Anne Philbin

The Picademy Team!

If you're in Sydney next week, come and see Carrie Anne Philbin at a seminar and sample a Picademy workshop hosted at Thinkspace at the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Wednesday August 5th!

Also presenting will be Nicky Ringland, one of the founders of Grok Learning and Outreach Officer for the National Computer Science School.

We've arranged this seminar with the help of MAAS, element14 and many others to present some key ideas in STEM education and physical computing using Raspberry Pi and partner products such as BitScope Blade and Pimoroni Explorer HAT. Read More...

2015-06-05

BitScope Blade for Raspberry Pi at Hannover Maker Faire!

BitScope at Hannover Maker Faire

If you're in Hannover this weekend, come and see us at stand 85 at the Hannover Maker Faire !

Karl-Ludwig from Butte Verlag will present a session about Electronic measurement with Raspberry Pi and BitScope Micro.

He'll be explaining how to get the most from BitScope Micro & Raspberry Pi with examples including an IR controlled model elevator and some fault finding examples with electronic circuits.

We'll also be showing our new low cost Micro Snap prototype boards designed for BitScope Micro. They're ideal for all sorts of prototyping for makers working in educational and industrial fields.

We're also very excited to be exhibiting BitScope Blade, our new industrial power and rack mount system for physical computing using Raspberry Pi and BitScope Micro. You can use it to build network test, measurement and data acquisition solutions that scale to 32 analog and 96 logic channels with just 4 Raspberry Pi and 16 BitScope Micro! We'll have working prototypes on the stand. Read More...

2015-06-02

BitScope DSO 2.9 Available Now

We've released the first beta update in the development branch ahead of BitScope DSO version 3.0.

BitScope DSO 2.9 Beta Release

We have added new features and fixed many bugs. The time has come to make the new version available for beta testing.

We want you to have the latest software for BitScope as soon as possible. This means releasing the new version it while it's still in development.

To make this easy we're using support allowing you to track the development, download the latest updates and feedback bug reports and feature requests.

This new software fixes bugs reported in earlier versions and adds new features but it may also have some new bugs.

We recommend it if you have any issues using older versions or you want to have the latest features. Read More...

2015-05-08

Getting Started with BitScope

We're often asked what's required to get started with BitScope, so we've posted this blog to answer the question.

BitScope Quick Start Guide

Everything you need to use BitScope is included in the box and you can download the software free of charge.

We aim to get you up and running quickly so you can start using BitScope to make measurements straight away.

That's why we include a printed Quick Start Guide to show you the first out of box steps. Simply plug in your BitScope and you're good to go. All you need is to download, install and run the software.

For most PCs and embedded computer (including Raspberry Pi) it just works but if you run into trouble help is at hand.

We've published an Online Quick Start Guide to answer the common questions and we have comprehensive technical support available online. For more details, read on...

2015-04-02

BitScope Micro In-Line Data Acquisition (New Product)

The new BitScope Micro Port 02 (MP02A) is an in-line mixed signal I/O adapter for BitScope Micro.

BitScope Micro Mixed Signal Oscilloscope Probe Adapter

We call it Tom Thumb and like its larger cousin (MP01A) you can use it to connect standard oscilloscope probes and BNC terminated cables to BitScope Micro.

Any oscilloscope probe with 1:1, 10:1 or other attenuation ratio can be used. It supports active differential, current or any other probe which is BNC terminated and designed for an oscilloscope.

However, Tom Thumb is not just for test and measuremenent with a single probe.

Its compact in-line design with built-in header connectivity for all of BitScope's I/O makes it well suited to building data acquisition and automated test systems.

BitScope Micro itself is only 20cm wide. It's ideal to use as a single channel slice in a larger test and measurement system. We designed Tom Thumb to make it easy to build very low cost large scale systems with BNC connectivity using Raspberry Pi (and its four USB ports) together with BitScope Micro. Read More...

2015-02-19

Where to Buy BitScope Micro & Accessories

Recently we partnered with element14 as our global distributor so our products could be made available worldwide.

BitScope Resellers

Since then we've added more resellers and created a resale reference page to list all our resellers around the world.

Between them Farnell & Newark directly serve 28 countries with next day delivery.

Via element14 in Asia Pacific and our other specialist resale partners such as CPC, MCM, Adafruit and many others you can buy BitScope with a wide range of other parts and components in one order.

You can see the current reseller list here.

Of course, if you are a reseller of similar products or serve the maker, education or industrial markets and you would like to stock our products we would love to hear from you! Please email us resale@bitscope.com. Read More...

2015-02-10

BitScope ARM Platform Compatibility

Raspberry Pi is probably the world's most popular credit card sized ARM computer.

BitScope Micro and UDOO board.

We think it will become even more so now that Version 2 has been released!

BitScope has long been cross-platform.

It is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux on most x86 computers but a few years ago we discovered Raspberry Pi.

It's an ARM based computer so we set about adding ARM support to our range of BitScope software solutions.

The result is the BitScope Raspberry Pi Oscilloscope and BitScope Micro which is tailor made for Raspberry Pi.

More recently, many people have asked if BitScope is compatible with other ARM based computers. In principle there is no reason why not. The only requirement is that the board supports a hard float edition of Linux and an ARM core capable of supporting the ARM11 instruction set. Read More...

2015-02-05

Bootstrapping Raspberry Pi 2 for BitScope

We've been asked a thousand times this week "Does BitScope Micro work with Raspberry Pi 2?".

Raspberry Pi 2 Video Review.

The answer is an unequivocal yes !

Thanks to our friends at element14 we managed to get our hands on the brand new Raspberry Pi within 24 hours of its release so we set about bootstrapping it to see if it works with BitScope Micro.

The result is this screencast which Bruce posted today which shows just how easy it is to get started with this brand new Pi.

It's a brilliant upgrade to a fantastic little computer and bootstrapping it could not be easier. Bruce also shows how easy it is to get BitScope Micro connected and up and running using existing BitScope software (built for the older models) on the new Pi. The most impressive thing about it is that everything just works ! Read More...

2015-02-02

Raspberry Pi 2 and BitScope Performance

Raspberry Pi have pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat with the release of Raspberry Pi 2 !

Raspberry Pi 2

We'll test it with BitScope Micro and review its performance but for now, here's our take based on Eben's post.

From what we can see this new model addresses the only remaining issue for Raspberry Pi; its performance when running a full desktop environment or other memory and/or cache intensive purposes.

Last year we analyzed all this in quite some detail and we managed to extract a significant performance boost from the original Raspberry Pi simply by changing how we did things in software; we reduced our reliance the BCM2835's limited L1 and L2 caches and we optimized how we used the X server. We expect the BCM2836 at the heart of this model will provide a provide quite a boost !

Read More...

2015-01-21

BitScope Micro & Raspberry Pi in Education at BETT

Karl-Ludwig Butte from Butte Verlag will present at the British Educational Training and Technology Show (BETT).

Electronic measurement with BitScope Micro

He will explain how Raspberry Pi and BitScope Micro can be used together to create a platform for education in the fields of electronics, test and measurement.

Karl-Ludwig will join a host of others on the Raspberry Pi stand to run Picademy style workshops and share their passion for all things Raspberry Pi in education.

For his part, Karl-Ludwig will explain what BitScope Micro is and how to set it up with Raspberry Pi. Delegates will see what's possible using this mixed signal scope for Raspberry Pi with some demonstrations using entry level electronic circuits such as a clock generators and amplifiers. Other experiments will cover additional features of BitScope Micro such as the built-in waveform generator, logic analyzer and spectrum analyzer.

Karl-Ludwig will showcase a new mixed signal education lab for BitScope Micro too. Read More...