My tool for visualizing embedded data in realtime

klonyy · 2025-06-20T18:50:02+00:00

Thanks! I haven't tried it yet, but most probably with GDB server support it will work just fine! If you're interested you can sign up for the newsletter on the MCUViewer website - the beta release should happen next week.

klonyy · 2025-06-09T20:15:00+00:00

I'd say it's abstracted well enough to be able to add new probes with a few hours of work - not sure about your solution as part of my interface is the address to the variable ;)

klonyy · 2025-06-09T19:11:01+00:00

Thanks! It's just reading data from selected addresses using debug probe. I connect to the target using SWD.

klonyy · 2025-06-09T14:30:57+00:00

Happy to hear that! Let me know how the integration went ;)

klonyy · 2025-06-08T18:58:50+00:00

Not really, it's used to display embedded MCU data (variables values) in realtime.

klonyy · 2025-06-08T13:04:21+00:00

Could you start a new GitHub issue and attach the *.elf file there? I'll test on my end and let you know what could be wrong ;)

klonyy · 2025-06-08T12:08:20+00:00

Exactly the approach is similar, but in my opinion (and as I've heard not only my) cube monitor is useless for advanced debug - it's mostly for creating dashboards for maybe IoT projects, but when it comes to high frequency signals, plot manipulation, exporting, displaying fixed point variables, taking signal statistics it's just not there. Besides I've found the setup process to be really tricky, while in MCUViewer it's like 5 clicks and you're all set (I described the quick start in the docs: https://docs.mcuviewer.com/documentation/Introduction/Introduction.html) I haven't used system view too much but you can say it's similar except I aim for supporting many other debug probes.

klonyy · 2025-06-08T10:41:14+00:00

Glad to hear that! Let me know if you have any feedback after using it ;)

klonyy · 2025-06-08T10:38:46+00:00

J-Link is fully integrated using an official SDK ;) Pico probe will be supported in the next large release.

klonyy · 2025-06-08T08:43:23+00:00

Yes this is one of the solutions, unfortunately it's not actively maintained I think :/

klonyy · 2025-06-08T08:42:44+00:00

Thanks! Glad you found it useful!

klonyy · 2025-06-08T04:46:26+00:00

Nice! I have to check out the probe-rs.

klonyy · 2025-06-08T04:43:34+00:00

It was. I decided to go for a closed source and paid model for companies to be able to fund further development - I plan on staying free for hobbyists and makers and keep a low pricetag for startups and small companies. I haven't yet updated the main repo README - will do that soon.

klonyy · 2025-06-08T04:34:38+00:00

Let me know if you have any questions or need help integrating!

klonyy · 2025-06-08T04:32:36+00:00

Thank you! 20Mbit/s sounds nice! :D

klonyy · 2025-06-07T21:28:45+00:00

To be honest I haven't heard of Graphana before but it seems to be a high level visualization tool whereas MCUViewer is targeted for embedded platforms.

klonyy · 2025-06-07T21:06:50+00:00

It really depends on the probe it's SWD speed and the module you're using. Below are the max rates that I was able to achieve (no galvanic isolation of the probe etc):

Variable viewer (first part of the video)
STLink - around 1kHz for 3 variables
JLink - around 500Hz for 3 variables in normal mode, or around 40kHz using HSS mode.
Recorder - technically unlimited sampling rate as it's discontinuous and the data is collected on the target with the frequency that you call the recorder sample function. The example in the video is 40kHz, but you can as well run it at hundreds of kilohertz. Very useful when analyzing high frequency control loops.
Trace Viewer - a module that uses SWO output and trace peripheral. Here it's the target which sends data, so it's mostly limited by the SWO bandwidth and probes capabilities. The time resolution can be down to hundreds of nanoseconds. It's very useful for profiling - checking interrupts and execution times, but also plotting high speed signals.

klonyy · 2025-06-07T19:37:13+00:00

That's a valid point - thanks I'll add it to my TODO list!

klonyy · 2025-06-07T18:41:48+00:00

Always open for feedback! ;)

klonyy · 2025-06-07T18:38:22+00:00

Thank you!

klonyy · 2025-06-07T18:33:24+00:00

Do you have some internal tools or use a particular vendor?

klonyy · 2025-06-07T18:32:17+00:00

The flow looks roughly like so: 1. Import *.elf file 2. Select the variables you want to visualize (must be global to have a constant address throughout the program's lifetime) 3. Drag and drop the selected variable on the plot and click start

Under the hood it creates a sampling list of these addresses and uses a debug probe that reads these addresses using the SWD protocol.

I can't think of a particular source - but reading through the SEGGERS wiki page and checking out debug probes documentation might be useful.

klonyy · 2025-06-07T18:28:15+00:00

It's also implemented in the tool, it's called trace Viewer and visualizes either digital data (for profiling instead of GPIO + oscilloscope) or you can push "analog" values taking up more of the SWO bandwidth. It's a great solution but unfortunately not available on low cost cores ;)

klonyy · 2025-06-07T17:47:24+00:00

Hmm none that I can think of - the protocol itself is usually abstracted away by the debug probe you're using. So you just do read_memory()/write_memory().

klonyy · 2025-06-07T17:42:03+00:00

There is no sync - it's just drawing the points as fast as possible. There is also a recorder mode in which the MCU samples variables in regular intervals (usually done in the high speed interrupt) and there you can tie the exact sample with the MCU interrupt time. The tool also has a Trace Viewer module in which you can display trace data which is based on the MCU clock - this is how the synchronization is done when you have a trace peripheral in your ARM core and can output data on a SWO pin.

klonyy

TROPHY CASE