Get started
Connect a board
Turn an Arduino, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico into the scope's input, over USB.
The scope works with boards you may already own. The board measures a voltage many thousands of times a second and sends the readings over USB; the scope page does everything else.
Before you connect a signal. A board’s pin is not a probe input. Only connect a signal that stays between 0 V and the board’s supply (5 V on an Arduino Uno, 3.3 V on an ESP32 or Pico), and share a ground with the board. Never connect mains, anything powered from mains without isolation, or a signal whose size you do not know. See Safety.
What you need
- A computer with Chrome or Edge, or Firefox 151 or later. Connecting to a board uses Web Serial, which phones and other browsers do not offer.
- One of the boards below, a USB cable that carries data, and the Arduino IDE (or Thonny for MicroPython).
The steps
- On the scope, choose your board in the Board list.
- Press Sketch. The window shows the steps for that board and the sketch to copy or download.
- Upload the sketch to the board.
- Fit a jumper wire from the board’s test signal pin to its input pin. This gives a known square wave to check everything works.
- Press Connect, read the safety note, and choose the board’s port when the browser asks.
The trace of the test signal appears. If it does not, see Troubleshooting.
The boards
| Board | Fastest rate | Input pin | Test signal pin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arduino Uno | 8 000 samples a second | A0 | 9 |
| ESP32 DevKit | 20 000 samples a second | GPIO34 | GPIO25 |
| Raspberry Pi Pico, C++ | 200 000 samples a second | GP26 | GP15 |
| Raspberry Pi Pico, MicroPython | 50 000 samples a second | GP26 | GP15 |
The fastest rate is what each board’s sketch offers, checked on our own boards. Which signals each reads well is in Accuracy and limits.