Open-Hardware Bench Instruments

EEZ Bench Box, Pinecil, Glasgow, Cynthion, NanoVNA, TinySA, Black Magic Probe — the open-hardware instrument family.

The open-hardware-instrument movement matured in the 2020s. By 2026, every major bench instrument category has a credible open-hardware option — sometimes the best option. This page is a cross-cutting tour of the OSHW instrument ecosystem; each tool also appears under its specific category. Pair with all the topical pages: Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers, Power Supplies, Soldering Stations, Spectrum & VNA, Debug Probes, Instrument Software. For OSHW publishing standards see Assembly Documentation.

All-in-one open bench

★ EEZ Bench Box 3 (BB3) / H24005 — the reference open-hardware bench. Modular STM32-based chassis with hot-pluggable modules: 2-channel programmable PSU, AWG, DMM, datalogger. SCPI control. EEZ Studio is the FOSS desktop UI and SCPI scripting IDE. CERN OHL hardware, GPL firmware. Buy assembled or build from public Gerbers and BOM. The aspirational reference for open-hardware bench instrumentation.
EEZ H24005 / DIB — earlier and modular incarnations; same project lineage.
Many "build a bench instrument" GitHub projects exist as one-offs (M5Stack-based PSUs, ESP32 oscilloscope front-ends) — fun, not products.

★ Pinecil V2 — Pine64's open-hardware USB-C PD iron with FOSS IronOS firmware (Apache-2). The clearest "open-hardware tool that's the right answer" pick on this page. See Soldering Stations.
Miniware TS80P / TS101 — IronOS-compatible USB-PD irons; open firmware on closed hardware.
T-962 reflow firmware — community T-962-improvements firmware (GPL) replacing the broken stock firmware. See Reflow Hotplates / Ovens.
Reflow32 / ksolder / Reflowduino — FOSS reflow controllers. Ditto.

★ Cynthion (Great Scott Gadgets) — Apache-2 open-hardware USB protocol analyzer + LA + USB host emulator. See Logic Analyzers.
★ Glasgow Interface Explorer — MIT/BSD open-hardware multitool: LA, protocol analyzer, programmer, JTAG/SWD bridge. iCE40-based. See Logic Analyzers.
iCEBreaker / Fomu / TinyFPGA-BX — DIY FPGA boards with FOSS toolchains (Yosys, nextpnr, Project IceStorm); useful as open LAs and protocol bridges.
Bus Pirate v5 / Ultra — fully open-source multi-protocol bridge.
HydraBus — STM32-based open multi-protocol probe.
Black Magic Probe — open-source GDB-server-on-the-probe SWD/JTAG debugger. See Debug Probes.
JTAGulator — open-hardware JTAG/UART pinout discovery tool.
esp-prog — Espressif's open-hardware FT2232H JTAG probe.
Tigard — open-hardware UART/SPI/JTAG probe with isolation; Star Simpson / Stargirl Flowers design.

★ NanoVNA / NanoVNA-H4 / SAA-2N / LiteVNA-64 — the open-hardware-ish hobby VNA family; designs and firmware on GitHub but with vendor variability. See Spectrum & VNA.
★ TinySA / TinySA Ultra — open-firmware spectrum analyzer family.
HackRF One — open-hardware SDR transceiver.
LimeSDR / PlutoSDR — open SDR platforms.
OpenEMS — FOSS FDTD EM simulator; cross-link with Circuit Simulation.

★ LCR-T7 / TC1 / M328 family — open-firmware ("Transistor Tester") universal component identifier. See Component Testers.
Stickvise — open-hardware PCB vise (CC-BY-SA). See PCB Tools.
PD Buddy Sink — open-hardware PD trigger / sink board (GPL). See USB Power Testers.

★ sigrok / PulseView — see Logic Analyzers and Instrument Software. GPL3.
EEZ Studio — multi-instrument SCPI IDE for the EEZ BB3 and any SCPI device. FOSS.
NanoVNA-Saver / TinySA-Saver / OpenHantek — desktop UIs for OSHW instruments.
probe-rs / OpenOCD / pyOCD — debug stacks. See Debug Probes.
pyvisa / lxi-tools — SCPI / LXI control. See Instrument Software.
scikit-rf — Python S-parameter library.
OpenHTF — production test framework (Apache-2).
IronOS — soldering iron firmware (Apache-2).
Packetry (Cynthion) — FOSS USB packet capture / decoder.

Schematics + BOM + Gerbers publicly available, ideally on GitHub.
Firmware source publicly available with a real OSI-approved license.
Documentation sufficient for an outsider to build and modify.
License: CERN OHL v2 (modern hardware copyleft), Solderpad (Apache-style), TAPR OHL (older). See Assembly Documentation.
The OSHWA Certification is the seal of approval; a surprising number of "open" projects don't qualify.
"Open firmware on closed hardware" (TS101 / IronOS, T-962 / improvements) is a meaningful middle ground — it lets you fix bugs and add features without redesigning the hardware.

Open hardware excels at flexibility, hackability, longevity (no abandoned firmware), community support, education.
Commercial closed instruments excel at out-of-the-box accuracy, calibration certificates, polished GUIs, customer support, certified compliance for regulated work.
For a hobby bench in 2026, 80% of the bench can be open (Pinecil, NanoVNA, TinySA, Cynthion, Glasgow, Pico-as-probe, sigrok, pyvisa) at a fraction of the cost of all-commercial. The remaining 20% (oscilloscope, bench DMM, bench PSU) are usually closed but SCPI-controllable, which is the next-best thing.

You want a fully open-hardware bench: EEZ BB3 + Pinecil + Cynthion + Glasgow + NanoVNA + TinySA + LCR-T7 + Pico-as-probe + sigrok + pyvisa. Total spend: well under $1000.
You want one open instrument to start with: Pinecil V2 (irons) or NanoVNA-H4 (RF) or LCR-T7 (component).
You want to author your own open instrument: EEZ Studio for SCPI prototyping; iCE40 + FOSS toolchain for FPGA-based digital instruments.
You're publishing OSHW seriously: OSHWA-certify it and license under CERN OHL v2.
You need a calibration certificate for regulated work: commercial closed instrument; OSHW isn't there yet for traceable cal.