ds1000z-screen-capture

DS1054Z_screen_capture

‘OscScreenGrabLAN.py’ is a Python script that captures whatever is displayed on the screen of a Rigol DS1000Z series oscilloscope. To achieve this, SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments) are sent from the computer to the oscilloscope, using the LXI (LAN-based eXtensions for Instrumentation) protocol over a Telnet connection. The computer and the oscilloscope are connected together by a LAN (Local Area Network). No USB (Universal Serial Bus), no VISA (Virtual Instrument Software Architecture), no IVI (Interchangeable Virtual Instrument) and no Rigol drivers are required. Python 2 is required. Python 3 is not supported.

Tested with Windows 7, Python 2.7.9 and Rigol DS1104Z (a fully upgraded DS1054Z oscilloscope).

Tested in a VMware machine with Linux Debian 7.7.0, Python 2.7.3 and PIL.

Windows Usage:

Install Python 2.7.9 from https://www.python.org/downloads. Install “Python Imaging Library 1.1.7 for Python 2.7” from http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil. Run the PIL (Python Imaging Library) installer as Administrator, otherwise it won’t be installed properly. Connect together the computer and the oscilloscope (by LAN). In order to capture an image from the oscilloscope display and save it to the computer disk, open a Command Prompt as Administrator and run “OscScreenGrabLAN.py”.

Example:

C:\Python27\python.exe OscScreenGrabLAN.py

Linux Usage:

Python and PIL are already present in the default Debian 7.7.0 installation, so it is not necessary to manually install them. Connect together the computer and the oscilloscope (by LAN), download the project from GitHub, open a Terminal, go to the project’s directory and run “OscScreenGrabLAN.py”.

Example:

python OscScreenGrabLAN.py