Owon VDS3102L SCPI - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: mmm22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2019, 03:33:54 pm
content: On the Owon website they have a Labview example for VDS3102, and also a description of SCPI protocol.http://www.owon.com.hk/support_Application_list4The problem is that the commands used in the example are completely different from the SCPI description.Does anybody know what is the protocol they use, and whether the SCPI is still valid?(I couldn't get any response from the instrument with the SCPI, neither a meaningful reply from Owon. The Labview example using the unknown protocol works fine though.)

author: msquared
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2019, 08:38:05 pm
content: I'm having the same issue with the VDS3104L. I can get a few non-SCPI commands to work that I've found by sniffing the traffic (i.e. :SDSLVER#) and I've found a few posts about enabling SCPI on other Owon scopes with :SDSLSCPI# which didn't work on my VDS.I also sent Owon support an email over a week ago but so far I've gotten no response.Hopefully Owon will respond at some point or someone has a fix.

author: mmm22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2019, 10:25:52 pm
content: Hi msquared, can you share the commands you found out by sniffing?thanks

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2019, 10:37:54 pm
content: mmm22, you should be able to install Wireshark and capture yourself if your interested in the meanwhile,the other thing is *IDN? should be answered no matter the command set, does that work correctly?If really stuck, you can do a brute force search, e.g. querying the entire 3-4-5 character set, e.g. A? B? C? ..... ZZZZZ?, This is how I found most of the commands on the SDS1104 before attacking its firmware,

author: mmm22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2019, 10:57:49 pm
content: I guess I can, just I was hoping this was already done)*IDN? is not answered, at least if used as the 1st command after connection.I noticed they always used this set of symbols after connection (in hex):3A4D 0000 0090 4D44 5002 4D54 5273 0065 0200 4D54 5273 0065 0300 4D54 5273 0065 0501 4D54 5273 0065 0400 0000 014D 5452 7300 6506 0000 0049 4D43 4800 6F01 4D43 4800 6301 4D43 4800 7606 4D43 4800 7A00 0000 4D4D 4348 0062 004D 4348 016F 014D 4348 0163 014D 4348 0176 084D 4348 017A FFFF FFCE 4D43 4801 6201 4D41 5100 4D53 594F 5554 014D 4654 004D 4852 620E 4D48 5276 0000 0008followed by :SDSLRUN#Any idea what is it?

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 30, 2019, 12:49:27 am
content: looks like ascii mixed with some other values, but hints at a few commands,:M�MDPMTRseMTRseMTRseMTRseMTRseIMCHoMCHcMCHvMCHzMMCHbMCHoMCHcMCHvMCHz����MCHbMAQMSYOUTMFTMHRbMHRv

author: msquared
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 30, 2019, 08:26:37 pm
content: Here's a few commands I've been able to sniff. A couple I've been able to get to respond correctly (stop and version). Honestly I gave up pretty quick, I'm really hoping that Owon will respond to my support requests and I can use the scope like a tool and not have to reverse engineer a feature that was reported to work and even had corresponding documentation that is at Version 1.3. Unfortunately this lead me to believe that the SCPI support was somewhat mature.Also I found that accessing the scope with the included software and sending commands to the scope via another application crashes scope.Version informationCommand::SDSLVER#Return::SDSLVERSPBVDS3104\0\0\0?1V4.1;2VDS31041625164;3\0\0\u0001\0\u0002\0\u0003\0\u0004\0\u0005\0\u0006\0\a\0\b\0\t\0\n\0\v\0;4\0;5\u0001;6\0;7\u0001;8\u0001;StopCommand:SDSLSTP#Return:SDSLSTPRunCommand:SDSLRUN#Followed by another frame: (I think containing channel configuration data):SDSLRUN#:MMCHoMCHcMCHvMCHzÿÿÿÌMCHbMCHoMCHcMCHvMCHzÿÿÿÿMCHbMCHoMCHcMCHvMCHzMCHbMCHoMCHcMCHvMCHzÿÿÿçMCHb:SGDT#Get dataCommand:SGDT# (channel # or #'s in binary)Return::GDT and a couple of frames of data.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2019, 12:41:02 am
content: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://penguin.tantin.jp/hard/blog/2015-05-08/OWON%25E3%2581%25AEPC%2520Oscilloscope%2520-%2520%25E3%2581%259D%25E3%2581%25AE3.html&prev=searchFound something, while japanese seems someone else has already reverse engineered already back in 2015, so the fact it is still not fully documented by now is a bit more concerning, his blog is still active so you may be able to ask him for the details.

author: mmm22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2020, 10:05:04 am
content: Unfortunately, not much of the protocol was reverse engineered there. He just used the memory dump via USB and parsed the content.

author: mmm22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2020, 10:17:59 am
content: Owon sent me the SCPI v.1.4 description which is almost same as 1.3 and still doesn't work.Also a DLL with a limited set of commands.

author: msquared
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2020, 04:08:17 pm
content: I figured out how to get SCPI to work this morning on my 3104L.SCPI is not supported on the device itself but is supported through the Windows application (VDS_S4).How to connect and send commands:Open VDS_S4 application and connect software to scopeOpen SCPI console (same windows as connect device (bottom right))Set port to a TCP port other than the scope (I used 2002, my scope is 2000)Send SCPI commands to the client's IP (Windows local machine not the scope) and port you've set in the SCPI consoleSent commands will show up in the VDS_S4 SCPI console for monitoring and everything seems to work fine.To be honest this whole process through me for the last few months. I was trying to connect directly to the device, which never worked. As most hardware support applications I thought the SCPI console was a console for sending commands to the device not a monitor for the commands sent to the application.For some reason this morning I woke up with this crazy idea to start the software, set a different port in the SCPI console and send commands to the local IP and the port I set. And I have to admit I was a bit surprised.

author: mmm22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2020, 06:36:42 am
content: I managed to get the protocol description (in Chinese originally, I translated only the stuff important to me, you can go on with translation).