Embedded World 2023: An Interview with Red Pitaya

We've been familiar with Red Pitaya for a while now, and their FPGA-driven "Swiss Army Knife for Engineers" hardware lives up to the title. Each of their boards can replace a large portion of lab equipment for engineers, acting as an oscilloscope and signal generator, spectrum analyzer, Bode analyzer, logic analyzer, LCR meter, and vector network analyzer. 

The original Red Pitaya boards feature two inputs (which are independently clocked without sharing resolution) and two outputs. Now, they are adding to the original lineup with two new products based on customer feedback on what they'd like to see. One 4-input variant, and another which, in theory, will allow an unlimited number of input and output channels!

We stopped by the Red Pitaya stand at Embedded World 2023 to chat with Product Manager Nicu Irimia about the new Red Pitaya STEMlab 124-14 X-Channel System, and STEMlab 125-14 4-Input:

The new hardware can be controlled over LAN using the Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) protocol for Matlab, the Labview software, and the Python API. They also provide firmware APIs and examples for C and Python - along with programming the FPGA directly.

A nice touch from Red Pitaya is the way they've made it easy for their existing customers to benefit from their new ideas. It would be easy to expect customers to buy new hardware to take advantage of the new X-Channel System. Instead, Red Pitaya has provided a tutorial to make the hardware changes required to modify existing Red Pitaya boards. Their site also features extensive teaching materials, from electronics basics to FPGA programming!

To find out more, head to the Red Pitaya website!