ppread

ppread is the user-facing readback capture tool. It can dump captured run-length encoded data, or it can switch into export mode and save the capture as PulsePins text sequence format, as VCD, as the exact binary sequence format, or as any combination of those.

Command line arguments:

  • -oe: output enable (bool). If true, we are reading internally generated data. If false, we are reading external data on the device I/O pins. If unspecified, use the hardware default (false).
  • -timeout: controls readback wait bounds. If omitted, ppread uses a conservative default timeout: 2s waiting for the first readback element and 2s for later idle gaps. A positive value is interpreted as time after the last element read, a negative value as time after starting the tool, and -timeout 0 disables timeout protection.
  • -save-vcd <file>: capture the readback stream and save it as a VCD waveform file.
  • -save-text <file>: capture the readback stream and save it in PulsePins text sequence format.
  • -save-binary <file>: capture the readback stream and save it in the exact PulsePins binary sequence format.

If any of -save-vcd, -save-text, or -save-binary is specified, ppread switches into export mode: it captures the readback stream into a Sequence, writes the requested file(s), and prints a concise summary instead of dumping every captured run to the terminal.

Examples

Capture for one second and save the waveform as VCD:

ppread -timeout 1 -save-vcd capture.vcd

Capture for one second and save the readback stream in PulsePins text sequence format:

ppread -timeout 1 -save-text capture.seq

Save both formats at the same time:

ppread -timeout 1 -save-vcd capture.vcd -save-text capture.seq

Save an exact binary capture:

ppread -timeout 1 -save-binary capture.ppbin

When -oe 0 is used, this becomes a simple external logic-analyzer capture workflow for the qout bus and valid signal.