---
title: "Control a Rigol Scope with Linux"
description: "(/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qrigol-waveform-plot-e1434838160267.png)](https://github.com/wd5gnr/qrigol) The…"
canonical: "https://www.baldengineer.com/control-a-rigol-scope-with-linux.html"
author: "James Lewis"
date: "2015-06-20T22:11:03Z"
lastmod: "2015-06-20T22:11:03Z"
categories: ["around-the-web"]
tags: []
---

# Control a Rigol Scope with Linux


[![qrigol waveform plot](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/qrigol-waveform-plot-e1434838160267.png)](https://github.com/wd5gnr/qrigol)

The [Rigol DS1052E](http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital-oscilloscopes/ds1000e/ds1052e/) digital oscilloscopes are very popular for both hobbyist and professional engineers. These are very affordable scopes that pack a lot of value. Most of the software tools offered from Rigol only run on Windows. Al Williams has fixed that with [the](https://github.com/wd5gnr/qrigol) [the qrigol project on GitHub](https://github.com/wd5gnr/qrigol).

From the readme file:

- Uses USB communications with Scope
- Allows keyboard to be unlocked so you can use both the panel and the software
- Allows easy reading of all measurements as well as logging of all measurements
- Control of common scope functions
- Saves waveforms in CSV format
- Integrates with external plot software like gnuplot to qtiplot
- Diagnostic mode to send raw commands to scope

There's a couple of limitations, but I want to draw attention to one. If your region uses a comma (",") as a decimal point, you might run into issues. For more information, you might want to check out the [qrigol thread on the EEVBlog](http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/free-ds1052eds1102e-software-for-linux/msg685707/#msg685707).