Scope is a multi-platform serial monitor with user-extensible features.
Scope is a multi-platform serial monitor with user-extensible features.
Key Features • Scope vs Other • Installation • How to Use • Project Goals
### Send Data With `Scope`, you can type a message on the command bar (at bottom) and hit `Enter` to send it through the serial port.  ### Send in Hexadecimal You also can send bytes in hexadecimal. To do it, type `$` and write your bytes in a hexadecimal format. The message can have spaces and commas as separators (`Scope` will send the bytes of message without spaces and commas).  ### Send Commands You can send commands using the command bar. To send a command, type `/` and a list of all available commands is shown above the command bar. Continue typing the command and hit `Enter` to send the command.  The commands are loaded from a user YAML file, passed at start of program (using `-c` flag). An example of YAML file is shown below: ```yaml hello: 'world!' spaces: 'a big frase with spaces' double_quotes: '"double"' single_quotes: "'single'" json: '{"cmd":1, "args":[true, "hello", 2.1]}' json_again: '{"cmd":2, "args":"world"}' ``` ### Written History It's possible to retrieve old data and commands sent. You can hit `Up Arrow` and `Down Arrow` to navigate through the history of sent data and commands.  ### Auto Reconnect The `Scope` tool has an auto-reconnect feature. When the serial port isn't available, `Scope` will keep trying to reconnect to the serial port until it's available again.  ### Colorful `Scope` colors the command bar to notify the status of the serial connection: red to disconnected and green to connected. Beyond status, the content read and written are colored too. The messages read is colored using ANSI terminal color standard.  The data sent to serial port always has a background to differentiate it from read data. Characters outside the printable range of the ASCII table are shown in magenta and in the hexadecimal format. Some characters are printed as its representation, such as: `\n`, `\r` and `\0`.  ### Setup Serial Port It's possible change serial port and its baudrate while the tool is open. To do that, type `!serial connect COM4 9600` to set serial port to `COM4` and baudrate to `9600`. You can also omit port to change only the baudrate (`!serial connect 9600`) or omit the baudrate to change only the port (`!serial connect COM4`). If you want to release the serial port, you'll type `!serial disconnect`.  ### Save history To save the all messages captured (and sent) since the start, you can hit `Ctrl+s`. The history box will blink and a message will be displayed on history. The filename is shown at top of history box with `.txt` extension. There is, at the history's top-right corner, the size of all message captured.  However, if you want to save only the message captured from now, you'll use the record feature. Hitting `Ctrl+r`, you'll start a record session. While in a record session, the history block is yellow and the `Scope` will store all messages captured from now. To stop the record session, you need to hit `Ctrl+r` again. The right-corner indicator will show the size of the record session. A new filename is created each time a new record session is started. Both: start session and stop session, prints a message on the history box to indicate when it occurs.  ### Message Timestamp All the data written or read has a gray timestamp on the left of the message and with the following format: `HH:MM:SS.ms`. ### Multiplatform You can use `Scope` on multiple platforms, like: Linux, Windows and macOS[^1]. [^1]: Not tested yet. ### History Navigation You can navigate through the message history using the mouse wheel or hitting `PageUp` and `PageDown`. ### Plugins You can extend the basic functions of `Scope` using plugins! Plugins are scripts written in `lua` language. To create a plugin for `Scope` you'll need to write a lua script with these 2 functions: `serial_rx` and `user_command`. The `serial_rx` function is called when a new data is captured on serial port. The `user_command` function is called when you call your plugin from command bar, passing arguments to this command. The code bellow is a plugin to reply `OK\r\n` when receive the `AT\r\n` message and to send `Hello, World\r\n` when the user type `!echo hello` on the command bar. ```lua require "scope" function serial_rx(msg) msg_str = bytes2str(msg) if msg_str ~= "AT\r\n" then return end scope.println("Sending msg \"OK\" via serial tx...") scope.serial_tx(str2bytes("OK\r\n")) scope.println("Message sent!") end function user_command(arg_list) if arg_list[1] ~= "hello" then return end scope.println("Hello, World!\r\n") end ``` To call your plugin you need to type `!` followed by your plugin name and a list of arguments. Inside your plugin, is possible to do many action to interact with `Scope` and serial port, such as: connect to a serial port, disconnect from the serial port, send data to serial port, print some message in `Scope` text view and so on. For more information about the development of plugins for `Scope` you can read the [Plugins Developer Guide](https://github.com/matheuswhite/scope-rs/wiki/Plugin-Developer-Guide).  ## Scope vs Others The `Scope` combine multiple features. The table below list these features: | Features | Scope (Free) | Docklight | Arduino | Tera Term | screen | esp-idf | |-----------------------------|--------------|-----------|---------|-----------|----------|----------| | Send Data | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Send in Hexadecimal | ✅ | ✅ | x | x | x | x | | Send Commands | ✅ | ✅ | x | x | x | x | | Written History | ✅ | ✅[^2] | x | x | x | x | | Auto Reconnect | ✅ | ✅ | x | ✅ | x | x | | Colorful | ✅ | x | x | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Message Timestamp | ✅ | ✅ | x | x | x | x | | Display non-printable chars | ✅ | ✅ | x | x | x | x | | Multiplatform | ✅[^3] | Windows | ✅ | Windows | Linux | ✅ | | Interface | TUI | GUI | GUI | GUI | Terminal | Terminal | | Price | Free | €69 | Free | Free | Free | Free |