Red Pitaya and Arduino in Industry - Deterministic Instrument Control with SCPI over UART

In industrial automation and production testing, reliable and deterministic communication between controllers and instruments is essential. Wireless links, while convenient for education or lab setups, can introduce delays and interference that are unacceptable in factory environments.

To solve this, Red Pitaya developed an SCPI Arduino library with UART support, enabling direct, wired communication between Arduino controllers and Red Pitaya instruments. This setup provides low-latency, interference-free, and repeatable control — ideal for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, production automation, and long-term monitoring.

With 125 MS/s sampling, 14-bit resolution, and DC–60 MHz bandwidth, Red Pitaya delivers laboratory-grade performance in demanding industrial settings — bridging the gap between open-source flexibility and production-level reliability.

SCPI over UART

Repository: SCPI-red-pitaya-arduino

The library implements the SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments) protocol over UART. Commands such as ACQ:START, ACQ:TRIG NOW, or ACQ:SOUR1:DATA? can be issued from Arduino directly, with the responses processed locally or logged for analysis.

Key Benefits

• Deterministic Timing – Unlike Wi-Fi, UART communication is not subject to jitter or network congestion.
• Low Latency – Immediate command execution and data return, critical for HIL and closed-loop control.
• Robustness – Immune to interference from other wireless systems, making it reliable in noisy factory floors.
• Code Portability – The same SCPI command set is used across all transports. Teams can start development on Wi-Fi, then deploy the same test code over UART in production.

Industrial Applications

Red Pitaya’s SCPI UART control makes it suitable for a wide range of industrial workflows. In hardware-in-the-loop testing, Red Pitaya functions as both the measurement and stimulus instrument while Arduino manages the test logic. In production test fixtures, the deterministic nature of UART ensures consistent results across thousands of test cycles. For continuous monitoring, Red Pitaya provides high-speed acquisition with predictable timing, making it reliable for long-term deployments. It is also widely used for protocol verification, where its oscilloscope and logic analyzer capabilities allow engineers to monitor and decode communication buses directly as part of the test sequence.

Industry Testimonial: Arduino

The UART-based SCPI library has already proven its value in professional environments. At Arduino, Red Pitaya has been integrated into their Continuous Integration with Hardware-in-the-Loop project:

“The STEMlab 125-14 has become an essential tool in our Continuous Integration with Hardware-In-the-Loop project. Thanks to its logic analyzer with advanced decoding and oscilloscope capabilities, it allows us to easily diagnose issues in communication protocols. The intuitive web interface significantly helped to quickly integrate it even with limited prior experience.”
— Ruggero Rossino, Jr Testing Engineer, Arduino

This testimonial reflects how Red Pitaya with SCPI over UART accelerates debugging, improves protocol reliability, and shortens integration time in industrial-grade workflows.

Conclusion

For industrial use cases where timing and reliability cannot be compromised, SCPI over UART is the preferred method of instrument control. It offers deterministic performance, robust communication, and compatibility with Arduino-based controllers widely used in automation and test systems.

By combining Arduino for control and Red Pitaya for measurement, companies can deploy scalable solutions from prototyping through to production with minimal code changes.

👉 Library: SCPI-red-pitaya-arduino
👉 Learn more: Red Pitaya Knowledge Base

FAQ 

Q1: What is SCPI over UART?
SCPI over UART allows Red Pitaya instruments to be controlled via direct serial communication from Arduino, providing deterministic timing and low latency.

Q2: Why use UART instead of Wi-Fi for industrial control?
UART ensures predictable, interference-free communication — critical in production testing, automation, and hardware-in-the-loop systems.

Q3: How does the SCPI Arduino library help developers?
It provides an easy way to control Red Pitaya using standard SCPI commands directly from Arduino, making code portable across Wi-Fi and UART.

Q4: What applications benefit from this setup?
Hardware-in-the-loop testing, production test fixtures, continuous monitoring, and protocol verification all benefit from Red Pitaya’s deterministic performance.

Q5: Is this library open-source?
Yes. The SCPI-red-pitaya-arduino library is open-source and available in Red Pitaya’s public repositories.