[[overview,Overview]]
== Overview

PulseView is a graphical frontend for the libsigrok and libsigrokdecode libraries, permitting
access to a wide range of devices and protocol decoders to let you record, analyze, process
and export analog and logic data. It is part of the sigrok suite, just like the libraries that
it makes use of.

The sigrok suite needs some kind of hardware to interface to the signals you want to examine.
We found that most people are currently using logic analyzers based on the http://www.cypress.com/products/ez-usb-fx2lp[Cypress FX2 microcontroller].
With http://sigrok.org/wiki/Fx2lafw[fx2lafw], sigrok's open source runtime firmware, any device
containing an FX2 can become a powerful streaming logic analyzer.
A variety of compatible low cost chinese made logic analyzer products are available for as little
as $5. These can easily be found by searching for _24MHz Logic Analyzer_. There are also barebone
Cypress FX2 boards such as the Lcsoft Mini Board, which can usually be found by searching for
_Cypress FX2 Board_ or similar.

Additionally, a good set of https://sigrok.org/wiki/Probe_comparison[quality probe hooks] is recommended.

Aside from FX2-based logic analyzers, sigrok also supports FX2-based oscilloscopes such as the
https://sigrok.org/wiki/Hantek_6022BE[Hantek 6022BE], non-FX2 devices like the
https://sigrok.org/wiki/Openbench_Logic_Sniffer[Openbench Logic Sniffer] or devices that make use
of the SCPI protocol, as all reasonably modern oscilloscopes do (Rigol DS1054z, LeCroy WaveRunner,
Yokogawa DLM and similar).

Please be aware however, that PulseView currently only supports devices that can either work as an
https://sigrok.org/wiki/Supported_hardware#Oscilloscopes[oscilloscope],
a https://sigrok.org/wiki/Supported_hardware#Logic_analyzers[logic analyzer] or
a https://sigrok.org/wiki/Supported_hardware#Mixed-signal_devices[mixed-signal device]. This
means that multimeters in particular are currently only usable with either https://sigrok.org/wiki/Sigrok-cli[sigrok-cli]
or https://sigrok.org/wiki/Sigrok-meter[sigrok-meter].

image::pv_after_startup.png[]

The PulseView user interface is geared towards navigation and analysis of captured waveforms, so
the most space is by default used up by the main trace view. From here, you can access the most
often used features.

Before we dive deeper into how to accomplish things, let's make PulseView available on your
system first.
