Mircea Andrecut | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

O-SCOPE: a Raspberry Pi Pico oscilloscope

In this paper we provide an introduction to some of the efficient features of the Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2) family of microconroller boards (RP2040 and RP2350). More exactly, we show how to use PIO (Programmable Input/Output) and DMA (Direct Memory Access) to program the RP2 boards for efficient DAC (Digital to Analog) and ADC (Analog to Digital) conversions. Using OP-AMPS (Operational Amplifiers) we also show how to build a minimal electronic frontend interface for signal input/output. Finally, we integrate all these components into a product, the O-SCOPE, which is a practical and easy to use oscilloscope and wave function generator. The RP2 component of the O-SCOPE is built using Micropython, while the user interface is developed using vanilla Javascript and it runs on the web browser of any computer, interacting with the RP2 board via the Web Serial API. The O-SCOPE web interface is hosted on GitHub Pages such that it is directly accessible everywhere using a web browser, such that no local installation is required. Also, the RP2 software component is freely distributed on GitHub using the UF2 (USB Flashing Format) mass storage file, and it can be installed by simply dragging the file on the RP2 boards. These features make the O-SCOPE easily accessible, transforming it into a very low cost and useful tool for laboratories everywhere in the world.

cs.AR↗

arXiv2011

Probing magnetic fields with GALFACTS

GALFACTS is a large-area spectro-polarimetric survey on the Arecibo Radio telescope. It uses the seven-beam focal plane feed array receiver system (ALFA) to carry out an imaging survey project of the 12,700 square degrees of sky visible from Arecibo at 1.4 GHz with 8192 spectral channels over a bandwidth of 300 MHz sampled at 1 millisecond. The aggregate data rate is 875 MB/s. GALFACTS observations will create full-Stokes image cubes at an angular resolution of 3.5' with a band-averaged sensitivity of 90 $μ$Jy, allowing sensitive imaging of polarized radiation and Faraday Rotation Measure from both diffuse emission and extragalactic sources. GALFACTS is a scientific pathfinder to the SKA in the area of cosmic magnetism. Key to magnetism science with the SKA is the technique of RM synthesis. The technique of RM synthesis is introduced and we discuss practical aspects of RM synthesis including efficient computational techniques and detection thresholds in the resulting Faraday spectrum. We illustrate the use of the technique by presenting the current development of the RM synthesis pipeline for GALFACTS and present early results.

astro-ph.IM↗