Tektronix Openchoice Desktop //top\\ May 2026
How a free piece of software turned my clunky oscilloscope into a streamlined data-crunching machine.
OpenChoice Desktop kills the USB shuffle. It turns your Tektronix scope (from the TDS2000 series all the way up to modern MDOs) into a direct peripheral of your PC. Connect via Ethernet, GPIB, or even the old-school RS-232, and suddenly your scope is just another instrument window on your desktop. The killer feature isn't just saving data—it’s seeing data live. tektronix openchoice desktop
Have you used OpenChoice for a weird project? Automating a burn-in test? Logging intermittent glitches? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear how you’ve hacked it. #TestAndMeasurement #Tektronix #Oscilloscope #LabAutomation #EngineeringHacks #DataAcquisition How a free piece of software turned my
We’ve all been there.
If you’ve ever stood in front a $10,000 oscilloscope with a USB stick in one hand and a lab notebook in the other, you know the ritual. Capture the waveform. Save the screenshot. Label the file. Walk to your PC. Import it. Format it. Start over because you forgot the voltage cursor. Connect via Ethernet, GPIB, or even the old-school
Imagine you are characterizing a power supply’s inrush current. You tweak the load. Click "Acquire" on your PC. The waveform appears in Excel. You don't save, transfer, or rename anything. It’s just there . Most people use the "Save Image" button. That’s fine. But OpenChoice has a Waveform to Excel add-in.
Stop Rewriting Waveforms: Why Tektronix OpenChoice Desktop is Your Lab’s Secret Weapon