ThunderScope

Low-Cost Four Channel 1GSPS Oscilliscope using Thunderbolt/USB4 to stream data to PC for processing and display.

Join our development discord server

We are now at #thunderscope:matrix.org on matrix or #thunderscope:libera.chat on IRC as well!

Some older long-form documentation is on the Hackaday.io project page

Get the hardware through our crowdsupply page when we launch:

Catch up with these videos on the project:

TEARDOWN 2023 - Open Sourcing the Secrets of Oscilloscope Design

Hackaday Supercon 2023 - A Circuit to Measure Circuits: How do Oscilloscopes do it?

Teardown Session 39: ThunderScope

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Quick Start Guide

These are instructions for the XDMA gateware, which is currently the most stable gateware and driver.

1. Install the XDMA driver for Linux or Windows
2. Build TS.NET.Engine using the build scripts
   • Dependences for build scripts on Linux: apt-get install -y dotnet6; apt-get install -y libgdiplus
   • On Windows, should just need Visual Studio with the C# plugins
3. Install ngscopeclient, following the instructions in their user manual
4. Run TS.NET.Engine and ngscopeclient
5. Add ThunderScope in ngscopeclient under Add -> Oscilloscope with "Twinlan" interface and "Localhost:5025:5026" for the ports

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Baseboard Hardware

Revision	Label	Status	Location
Rev.1	N/A	DEPRECATED	Hardware/Altium/Thunderscope_E
Rev.2	N/A	DEPRECATED	Hardware/Altium/Thunderscope_Rev2
Rev.3	Alpha	DEPRECATED	Hardware/Altium/Thunderscope_Rev3
Rev.4	Beta 1	ACTIVE	Hardware/Altium/Thunderscope_Rev4
Rev.4.1	Beta 2	ACTIVE	Hardware/Altium/Thunderscope_Rev4.1

FPGA Module Hardware

Revision	Status	Location
TE0712	ACTIVE	Trenz Electronics TE0712 Module, 100T or 200T Varients
Rev.1	DEPRECATED	Hardware/Altium/FPGA_Module
Rev.2	ACTIVE	Hardware/Altium/FPGA_Module_Rev2 or Hardware/KiCad/FPGA_Module_Rev2

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Firmware

We have two types of firmware, LiteX and XDMA. We are in the process of updating the LiteX firmware to work on the latest hardware, and we will use it moving forward. Until then, use the XDMA firmware if you are not working on LiteX.

TODO: Table of Beta Unit serial numbers with module types and firmware locations

Serial Numbers	Module Type	XDMA Firmware Location
TS0004, TS0006, TS0015	TE0712 100T	Firmware/XDMA/output/xdma_prj_100t_full.mcs
TS0007, TS0008, TS0011-TS0014	TE0712 200T	Firmware/XDMA/output/xdma_prj_200t_full.mcs
TS0009, TS0010, TS0016-TS0018	Custom Rev.2	Firmware/XDMA/output/xdma_prj_50t_full.mcs

Follow the instructions in the Software/xdma_driver_linux or Software/xdma_driver_win_src_2018_2 folders to install the XDMA linux or windows driver before proceeding with installing the rest of the software.

For LiteX developers, the Linux driver is stable. Windows and Mac drivers are in development.

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Software

Our primary software is TS.NET, which takes in data from the hardware, triggers on it, and sends the triggered data over to ngscopeclient

Dependences for build scripts on Linux: apt-get install -y dotnet6; apt-get install -y libgdiplus

On Windows, should just need Visual Studio with the C# plugins

To install ngscopeclient, follow the instructions in their user manual