We wanted to do this for a long time, and now it’s finally ready: ScanaStudio 5.0 (Still in beta at the time of writing that document) let you plot decoded data on a graph, giving much more meanigful visualization of physical quantities likes Speed, Temperature, or Acceleration.

Say hello to VAC (Virtual Analog Channels)

Virtual Analog Channels, or VACs are what allows protocol decoders (like PWM decoder) in the animation below to plot data points on a graph:

We’ll rolling this out in all decoder where such a feature makes sense, like:

• PWM decoder
• FM (Frequency modulation)
• I2C Temperature and Humidity sensor
• Parallel bus decoder (Think plotting the output of an 8bit DAC!)
• I2S
• Servo Motor

How it works

Virtual Analog Channels are directly implemented in different protocols you may have already used. Look for a box to tick in the decoder configuration that says “plot data on a a graph” or alike to enable this feature.

Once a protocol decoder that has the Virtual Analog Channels feature enabled starts decoding data, a new virtual channel is created after the original logic channels.

Data is plotted on a “virtual” channel, meaning that this channel does not physically exists in the device. The Virtual channel can be configured in several ways, including changing color, size and scale from Linear to Logarithmic (like in the image below:)

Read the full knowledge base article about plotting logic analyzer data here.