Analog Discovery Unleashed

Recently we came across an article on Embarcados.com.br  that profiled a project that used a Orange Pi PC Plus to run WaveForms 2015 so that the Analog Discovery was no longer anchored by the bulky desktop or laptop traditionally needed to run the interface.

This setup comes courtesy of Haroldo Amaral, electrical engineer and electronics aficionado. In the article he expresses his desire to transform the Analog Discovery into a mobile instrument, and how single board computers provided the potential to do so. He expresses praise for the device itself, but wanted to see if he could push its potential further.

For some time now I have a data acquisition interface from Digilent , Analog Discovery, an interface that, from my point of view, has an excellent cost / benefit ratio for home users, students and even professionals who can not spend too much on several separate instruments, such as an oscilloscope, an arbitrary signal generator, a logic analyzer, among other possibilities.

Since I received the interface I was wondering how interesting it would really be to transform it into a mobile instrument as a whole, without relying on a traditional notebook or even a desktop.

Unfortunately, the popular Raspberry Pi has proven unable to receive data from the Analog Discovery 2 due to a serial bridge issue.

Though his goal was do-able with the BeagleBone Black, or Zybo board running an ARM core, these options were not in the price range that the author deemed acceptable for this project. So his search seemed to be at a standstill- that is until the Orange Pi PC Plus came along!

Orange Pi PC Plus

The Orange Pi PC Plus is an open-source single-board computer close in price to the popular Raspberry Pi. After receiving his in the mail and with some help from collaborator Pedro Bertoleti, he was able to get the interface working and complete the project. He then documented his process to share with the community!

Eliminating the need to use a desktop or laptop to use WaveForms 2015 unleashes the possibilities of what you can do with the Analog Discovery. So make sure you check out the article and let us know in the comments below or on social media what you plan to do with these new possibilities!

This system should also work with the Analog Discovery 2, since the method just installs Adept and WaveForms as is. But that does not mean you should not try it out and find out for yourself! Make sure to comment below if you have done this project (with either the Analog Discovery or the Analog Discovery 2) or with what you are going to do with this new instrumentation freedom!

Note: The original article is written in Portuguese so you may need to enable Google translate if you would prefer to read it in another language!

Author

  • Miranda Hansen

    I enjoy creative writing, engineering, thinking, building, exploring and sharing with people. Huge aficionado of spending time thinking about things that “don’t matter.” I am very interested in unconstrained creativity. I love cross-discipline ideas and all of their integration into complete original systems. And I like things that do things.

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About Miranda Hansen

I enjoy creative writing, engineering, thinking, building, exploring and sharing with people. Huge aficionado of spending time thinking about things that “don’t matter.” I am very interested in unconstrained creativity. I love cross-discipline ideas and all of their integration into complete original systems. And I like things that do things.

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