scopehal-pico-bridge

Socket servers for Pico Technology instruments allowing remote access via libscopehal.

How to use

Prerequisites

• Install the Pico SDK (https://picotech.com/downloads)
• Compile scopehal-apps
• Compile scopehal-pico-bridge (see below for instructions)

---

1. Connect your PicoScope to the computer.
2. Start the scopehal-pico-bridge (ps6000d.exe). It should open a console window and read "Successfully opened instrument", listing some info about the device like model and serial number.
3. Now start ngscopeclient. Select Add / Oscilloscope / Connect... from the top menu. Enter or select the following values:
   • Nickname: (choose a display name for your scope.)
   • Driver: pico
   • Transport: twinlan
   • Path: localhost:5025:5026
4. Click Add.
5. If this is your first time using ngscopeclient, continue reading the tutorial here.

Supported models

Currently supported are these six APIs from Pico Technology: ps2000a, ps3000a, ps4000a, ps5000a, ps6000a, psospa. Note that these are all "A APIs" and thus do not support some older and discontinued models. As of January 2026 there should be a total of 98 individual devices supported, listed here for reference:

ps2000aApi	ps3000aApi	psospaApi	ps4000aApi	ps5000aApi	ps6000aApi
2205 MSO	3203D	3415E	4224A	5242A	6403E
2205A MSO	3203D MSO	3415E MSO	4424A	5242B	6404E
2206	3204A	3416E	4444	5242D	6405E
2206A	3204B	3416E MSO	4824	5242D MSO	6406E
2206B	3204 MSO	3417E	4824A	5243A	6424E
2206B MSO	3204D	3417E MSO		5243B	6425E
2207	3204D MSO	3418E		5243D	6426E
2207A	3205A	3418E MSO		5243D MSO	6428E-D
2207B	3205B			5244A	6804E
2207B MSO	3205 MSO			5244B	6824E
2208	3205D			5244D
2208A	3205D MSO			5244D MSO
2208B	3206A			5442A
2208B MSO	3206B			5442B
2405A	3206 MSO			5442D
2406B	3206D			5442D MSO
2407B	3206D MSO			5443A
2408B	3207A			5443B
	3207B			5443D
	3403D			5443D MSO
	3403D MSO			5444A
	3404A			5444B
	3404B			5444D
	3404D			5444D MSO
	3404D MSO
	3405A
	3405B
	3405D
	3405D MSO
	3406A
	3406B
	3406D
	3406D MSO

Models shown in bold were used for, and tested during, the development of the pico-bridge.

How to compile

The process to build from source is basically the same as for ngscopeclient, shown here for Windows:

1. Download and install MSYS2. You can download it from msys2.org or github.com/msys2/msys2-installer/releases. The following steps can be done in any MSYS-provided shell (it will start up with a UCRT64 shell after installation).

2. Install git and the toolchain:

   pacman -S git wget mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-toolchain
   

3. Install general dependencies:

   pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-libsigc++ mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-yaml-cpp mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-glfw mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-catch mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-hidapi mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-libpng
   

4. Install Vulkan dependencies:

   pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-headers mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-loader mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-shaderc mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-glslang mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-spirv-tools
   

5. Check out the code

   cd ~ git clone --recursive https://github.com/ngscopeclient/scopehal-pico-bridge
   

   All following steps are to be done in a UCRT64 shell.

6. Build manually:

   cd scopehal-pico-bridge
   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..
   ninja -j4
   

   If the build fails with a lot of missing files, try adding your MSYS2 bin folder to your $PATH variable, i.e. "C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin" if you installed it to "C:\msys64".

7. To run scopehal-pico-bridge: The binary can be found in the build directory, such as $HOME\scopehal-pico-bridge\build\src\ps6000d.