Owon's ADS800A is a touch-screen oscilloscope that ships with Android 7.1 on Linux 4.4, on a Nexell S5P4418. Our ADS802A now boots NovaOS on kernel.org Linux 7.2.10: all four cores with the L2 cache, gigabit Ethernet and USB, with the NovaOS scope UI on its own panel. Its FPGA is configured from the unit's own file. Getting an older SoC onto a current kernel is the hard part; the scope software on top is the same NovaOS as on the Rigol scopes. Acquisition is next, so the screen still waits for its first capture.
The firmware package we studied lists the ADS800A and ADS900A models it runs on: the ADS802A, ADS804A, ADS812A, ADS814A, ADS822A, ADS824A, ADS912A, ADS914A, ADS922A and ADS924A. The same scope is sold under other brands: Voltcraft's DOV702 and DOV704, as owners on EEVblog have reported, and CEI's CEI914 and CEI924. What is inside, part by part: Owon ADS800A hardware.
Developed on an ADS802A, the 2-channel base model. We confirm each other model on a real unit before calling it supported.
Owon's V1.0.1.8.2 package read through: the scope app, its native hardware library, the system service and the update format.
Our own kernel for the S5P4418: four cores, the L2 cache, Ethernet, USB, the panel, the clock and the temperature sensor, each checked on our ADS802A.
Configured from the unit's own file and its registers read; next, driving it the way NovaOS drives the Rigol FPGAs, through one standard interface.
The first real trace on the NovaOS UI, then measured against the stock firmware, as on the Rigol scopes.
What runs on our ADS802A today, under NovaOS:
| Part | On our ADS802A |
|---|---|
| Kernel | kernel.org Linux 7.2.10 with our own support for the S5P4418, in place of the stock Linux 4.4.83 |
| Processor | All four Cortex-A9 cores, the 1 MB L2 cache, and the SoC's own timer as the clock source |
| Ethernet | Gigabit, full duplex: under a flood of incoming traffic, 76,851 packets with no errors |
| USB | The host port, and the device port as a network and serial gadget |
| Screen and touch | The 1024 × 600 panel with its backlight and the NovaOS scope UI; the GT928 touch controller is found, touch input not yet tried |
| Clock and sensors | The PCF8563 real-time clock sets the system time; the TMP175 temperature sensor reads |
| FPGA | Configured over slave-serial from the bitstream on the unit's own /oem partition, mounted read-only and checked against its checksum and the FPGA's ID code; its registers read back |
Not done yet: acquisition; the front-panel keys and knobs (their driver is written and waits for its first run on the scope); reloading the FPGA while it is already configured; audio; a restart that comes back up by itself.
The first two-channel scope. Every scope NovaOS ran on before has four channels, so its UI still shows CH3 and CH4 here, marked as having no input on this model. It is being reworked so that a two-channel scope gets a layout made for two channels.
A Nexell S5P4418 (four Cortex-A9 cores, a Mali-400 GPU, 2 GiB of DDR3 and 8 GB of eMMC) runs the scope. A Xilinx Spartan-7 XC7S75 is the acquisition FPGA: it is configured from a file at every boot and read over the SoC's static-memory bus, not PCIe. The front end switches through relays the FPGA drives, ahead of a 12-bit ADC; the stock software sets it up as a TI ADC12DL500-class part. The screen is a 1024 × 600 touch panel.
Every part, how it connects, and how we know each one — with a block diagram — is on Inside the Owon ADS800A.
Every remote interface, read live on our ADS802A:
| Interface | Where | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
| LAN SCPI | TCP port 3000 | SCPI over a raw socket |
| VXI-11 (LXI) | TCP 2023, portmapper on 111 | SCPI over VXI-11, for VISA |
| WebSocket SCPI | Port 8080, path /scpi | SCPI from a browser |
| USBTMC | USB, ID 5345:1235, beside MTP | SCPI over USB |
| Web page | Port 80 | The scope's own web page |
| Remote screen | WebSocket on port 8081 | The 1024 × 600 screen as JPEG frames, and touch |
The command set is Tektronix-style: :HORizontal:SCAle?, :CH1:SCAle?, :CURVe? with :WFMOutpre? for waveforms, in 28 subsystems from acquisition to the built-in generator and the logic channels. Owon documents it in its ADS Series Programming Manual V1.0.1 (22 December 2025), with demo code for C++, Python, VB, MATLAB and LabVIEW. Rigol-style commands such as :TIMebase:SCALe? get no answer.
Every bring-up build goes in through the scope's own Download Mode (hold the Home key at power-on): only the kernel and device-tree partitions are written, and Android's system partition stays as it is. A full install, with a way back to stock, is being built and tested; there is no download for the ADS800A yet.
The same rule as on the Rigol scopes: NovaOS is a separate operating system whose engine drives the hardware directly. It uses no option codes, licence files or patches to Owon's software, so the hardware sets the limits. More in the FAQ.
Thank you to the owners in EEVblog's Voltcraft DOV thread, who mapped this platform first.
We read and measure; we do not publish Owon's code. NovaOS carries no Owon software: the FPGA's bitstream is read from the unit itself at every boot. OWON and Voltcraft are trademarks of their owners. Have an ADS800A, an ADS900A or a DOV702/DOV704, and photos of its board? Tell us.