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Welcome back, Matt Liberty, creator of the Joulescope! Matt was on The Amp Hour in early 2021 (Episode 527) talking about the previous product revision called the JS110. The new model is the JS220, which goes on sale November 2022.
- Who uses the Joulescope?
- Changes between JS110 and JS220
- Switching to pub sub
- PicoRV32 core (created by past guest Claire Wolf) on the ECP5
- Specialized ALU on the ECP5 built with Verilog and cocotb
- Matt got some help on the marketing/business side from Harris Kenny, cohost of the (now paused) Hello Blink show.
- “Hit by a bus” test
- Contact Matt (below) about helping with support on the JS220
- Asking customers what they are really trying to achieve
- On the consulting forum, we have heard part shortage stories
- Ordering 500 from CM
- Cashflow as a small business
- Voltmeter and ammeter are separate now on the JS220
- Matt sourced a custom cable assembly and carry case from Alibaba.
- Testing stations at MFG
- For tracking manufacturing, Matt uses PartsBox (former guest Jan Rychter)
- Forecasting
- Power supply is done with a Cuk (topology) converter to generate the -15v rail
- Higher rails makes for more dynamic range.
- The JS220 has more bits on the ADC (15.1 ENOB)
- Enwavify
- Measuring through range switches
- Bounded error during times of switch
- “Anyone who’s played with mosfets says ‘this is super weird’ “
- Power profiler from Nordic and similar chip company offerings will do some but not all measurements.
- ISO17025
- Why would you need 100 MHz of bandwidth? Only if you’re able to probe directly on silicon
- 300 kHz on the Joulescope for boards because that’s likely what your board can handle with parasitics on the PCB
- C API with Python bindings
- Moving towards Simultaneous Device Support, bringing it to the UI
- Matt Venn MPW shuttle
- Evaluation kit with RP2040
- Thonny is a simple IDE for Python
- REPL
- Using PIO onboard with the generation code in the examples for the RP2040
- Reserve your JS220 today on Joulescope.com
- Follow Matt on Twitter: @mliberty1
- For support, visit the Joulescope Forum
- Listen to Matt talk about working with contractors on Hello Blink episode 23
- Check out Joulescope projects on GitHub
Greetz from the European Periphery.
Dude, Matt, really impressed with what you’ve accomplished!
Ok so I’m one of those newbies with that Rigol DS1054Z. Got it during the worst of the pandemic as the distributor had a deal with all the options turned on, so didn’t need to hack it. I’m using it on embedded/reversing -type projects to figure out what’s going on and then switching to a dedicated LA after things are working. Scope probes are real pain to bundle up nicely and if one wants to have smaller probes specifically for logic levels, one has to deal with building custom probes and 50ohm termination etc. The dedicated LA takes way less “bench estate” and when combined with Sigrok-cli, makes for a nice and small setup where one doesn’t have to “startx” to have a GUI only for some simple wiggles, which makes it possible to use it through SSH as well. (VNC is heavy). I did not see any mention of the Joulescope being used as a logic analyzer on the website/manual after a quick look and the older version is not listed on the Sigrok website, but I could totally see this replacing that two step process.
This would also work really well with a small programmable PSU for a tiny lab setup. I mean, the Miniware MDP-P906 ain’t open and I’m not sure how programmable it is in the end, but how sweet would it be to be able to fit a sizable portion of the lab to that kinda volume? I mean, especially when one is not doing analog design stuff and doesn’t need a high end scope.
Nowadays with USB C being able to connect all sorts of devices together and USB hubs capable of PD, if the EMI requirements are not too high, it would make it so simple when one could just connect things with short USB cables to a high quality hub and have it just work. Have you seen those “screw locking 10Gbps, USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 Type-C” cables? Could see so many interesting design possibilities if wanting to take it outdoors/industrial environment, yea?
Two potential markets that I could see this being marketed to would be the HackRF/pentest community and the HAM/SDR community, if you haven’t already.
Wishing you all the success with the new version! 🙂
Thanks for the feedback! Neither the Joulescope JS110 or JS220 are integrated with Sigrok. Our previous python-based driver made this very challenging, but the new C driver should make it possible.
The existing Joulescope UI only displays 2 general purpose inputs, but we will be adding support for displaying all 5 (4 gpi + trigger in) soon. The Joulescope UI does not include all the protocol analysis tools that you would normally find in a logic analyzer, though.
I have used the previous generation Miniware MDP-P905, and it works well if you pair it with a low-noise AC-DC converter. I used the previous generation iFi iPower. Looks like you can now get the iPower 2: https://ifi-audio.com/products/ipower2/
When I used the MDP-P905, I just manually set the output voltage, so I’m not sure how scriptable it is. I’m not sure about the newer MDP-P906, but I’ll check it out!
The JS220 is a measurement instrument only, but it would be interesting to make an integrated product that includes the source & load. Perhaps when the supply chain returns to normal?
Thank you!