OWON Binfile Reader

This is a simple library, available as NuGet package, to read OWON oscilloscope binfiles. Most of the code is based on reverse engineering and guestimating so don't use this to build a nuclear powerplant or send people into space with!

Usage

using OwonBinfileReader;

var bfr = new BinfileReader();
var bf = await bfr.ReadAsync(@"/path/to/file.bin");

This will read the binfile and return a Binfile object. This object contains the following properties:

• MetaData: contains information about the oscilloscope settings and binfile.
• Measurements: this is an ReadOnlyDictionary<int, double[]>) and contains the measurements per ('displayed') channel.

Tested oscilloscopes

For now this library has only been tested with the Hanmatek DSO1102 which is a rebranded version of the OWON SDS1102 as far as I know and a OWON XDS3104AE. I have found some other .bin files online which worked as well, but you'll have to see for yourself if this library works for you.

File format

The following is a description of the file format as I have reverse engineered it. The file format is a binary file with the following structure:

Offset	Bytes	Value	Meaning
0	6	SPBXDS	Magic header (might be SPBX + DS where DS has some meaning)
6	4	JSON length	DWORD Signed integer length of following JSON data
10	Json Length	JSON data	Contains metadata about the file
10 + Json Length	4	Data Length	DWORD Signed integer length of data segment
14 + Json Length	Data length	Data	WORD Signed integer values repeated Data Length / 2 times (because each value is 2 bytes)

This Data Length + Data repeats for each channel where DISPLAY is ON. Then finally an optional segment may follow after the data (End Of Data):

Offset	Bytes	Value	Meaning
EOD	4	INFO	Additional information
EOD + 4	4	Unknown	DWORD Unknown value
EOD + 8	4	Unknown	DWORD Unknown value
EOD + 12	19	Date	ISO8601 Date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
EOD + 31	11	Unknown	Unknown / all zeroes

The above segment is not read by this library.

An example of the JSON contained in this file might be:

{
  "TIMEBASE": {
    "SCALE": "200ms",
    "HOFFSET": 120
  },
  "SAMPLE": {
    "FULLSCREEN": 1520,
    "SLOWMOVE": 2000,
    "DATALEN": 1520,
    "SAMPLERATE": "(2.5MS/s)",
    "TYPE": "SAMPle",
    "DEPMEM": "10M"
  },
  "CHANNEL": [
    {
      "NAME": "CH1",
      "DISPLAY": "ON",
      "Current_Rate": 10000,
      "Current_Ratio": 0.78125,
      "Measure_Current_Switch": "OFF",
      "COUPLING": "DC",
      "PROBE": "10X",
      "SCALE": "50.0mV",
      "OFFSET": -201,
      "FREQUENCE": 210.14742,
      "INVERSE": "OFF"
    },
    {
      "NAME": "CH2",
      "DISPLAY": "OFF",
      "Current_Rate": 10000,
      "Current_Ratio": 0.015625,
      "Measure_Current_Switch": "OFF",
      "COUPLING": "DC",
      "PROBE": "10X",
      "SCALE": "1.00mV",
      "OFFSET": 0,
      "FREQUENCE": 210.14742,
      "INVERSE": "OFF"
    },
    {
      "NAME": "CH3",
      "DISPLAY": "OFF",
      "Current_Rate": 10000,
      "Current_Ratio": 0.015625,
      "Measure_Current_Switch": "OFF",
      "COUPLING": "DC",
      "PROBE": "10X",
      "SCALE": "1.00mV",
      "OFFSET": 0,
      "FREQUENCE": 210.14742,
      "INVERSE": "OFF"
    },
    {
      "NAME": "CH4",
      "DISPLAY": "OFF",
      "Current_Rate": 10000,
      "Current_Ratio": 0.015625,
      "Measure_Current_Switch": "OFF",
      "COUPLING": "DC",
      "PROBE": "10X",
      "SCALE": "1.00mV",
      "OFFSET": 0,
      "FREQUENCE": 210.14742,
      "INVERSE": "OFF"
    }
  ],
  "DATATYPE": "SCREEN",
  "RUNSTATUS": "SCAN",
  "IDN": "OWON,XDS3104AE,2308149,V4.0.0",
  "MODEL": "310401101",
  "Trig": {
    "Mode": "SINGle",
    "Type": "EDGE",
    "Items": {
      "Channel": "CH1",
      "Level": "2.50V",
      "Edge": "RISE",
      "Coupling": "DC",
      "HoldOff": "100ns"
    },
    "Sweep": "AUTO"
  },
  "IsSkipIfClosed": true
}

The actual measurement is each 16 bit value × (CurrentRatio / CurrentRate).

Normalization

This library will normalize values to the base unit. So values in mV will be converted to V, values in µs will be converted to s, etc. Where possible values are parsed to enums (e.g. Coupling or Triggermode), bools for ON / OFF values, timespans etc. Values are represented in the double datatype.

TestApp

This repository contains a TestApp which is a simple console application to demonstrate the library. It scans given directory / directories and reads the binfiles contained and outputs (some of) the metadata to the console and also converts the file into a CSV file.

Attribution

The logo is composed of the following images:

• Papers Icon by Shahid-Mehmood
• Oscilloscope Icon by Muhammad Ali