Reported issues for Digilent WaveForms MCP Server

Pod holds 17 of 38 problems reported by people outside the maintainer team. Issues filed by the project's own owners, members and collaborators are excluded entirely — a maintainer's release checklist is not a warning to a prospective user.

Back to Digilent WaveForms MCP Server.

Most discussed

Add startup diagnostics to detect DWF SDK silent failure conditions

Summary

Add startup-time environment checks in server.py that detect DWF SDK silent failure conditions and emit clear log warnings, instead of letting tools silently produce no physical output.

Background & Motivation

The DWF SDK has a dangerous failure mode: when certain prerequisites are missing, FDwfEnum() returns 0 devices with no error, or API calls succeed but produce no physical signals. This was discovered during Docker USB passthrough debugging (see `docs/debug-docker-silen

Read the thread · 2026-03-06 · closed · 2 comments

AWG output stops immediately after generate_waveform returns (close resets analog_output)

Problem

Calling generate_waveform to start a continuous waveform (duration=0) does not produce any signal that survives the tool call. Any follow-up measurement — via analog_capture, measure, or an external scope — shows no signal at the W1 pin.

Reproduction

Loopback W1 to Scope CH1+ (or attach external scope to W1)

Call:

generate_waveform(channel=1, waveform="square",
                  frequency=1000, amplitude=2.5, offset=2.5, duration=0)
# → retur

Read the thread · 2026-04-27 · closed · 1 comment

Release v0.1.0

Summary

First release with hardware-validated tools.

Tasks

Update version in pyproject.toml to 0.1.0
Update version in server.json to 0.1.0
Final review of README.md badges and descriptions
Create CHANGELOG (optional)
Push tag v0.1.0 → GitHub Actions publishes Docker image + MCP Registry

Files

pyproject.toml
server.json
README.md

Dependencies

M0 (environment setup) complete
M1 (bug fixes) complete
M2 (power & GPIO) complete
M3 (SPI

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · closed · 1 comment

Hardware validation — analog (W1→CH1 loopback)

Summary

Validate analog tools using a W1 output → CH1 input loopback connection on the AD3.

Tasks

Use generate_waveform to output each waveform type (sine, square, triangle, ramp-up, ramp-down)
Use analog_capture to capture waveforms and verify correct shape
Use measure to verify all 5 measurement types (frequency, min, max, mean, pk2pk) return reasonable values
Append results to docs/hardware-validation.md

Files

docs/hardware-validation.md

Dependencies

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · closed · 1 comment

Add render_image option to protocol decode tools (SPI/I2C/UART)

Summary

Extend the render_image pattern introduced in PR #88 (analog_capture / digital_capture / measure) to protocol decode tools, so that spi_transfer (and future i2c_transfer / uart_transfer) can return an annotated waveform PNG alongside the decoded frame data.

Background & Motivation

PR #88 established the dual-output pattern for capture tools: a vision-capable LLM gets a PNG image (overview / pattern recognition) plus ToolResult.structured_content JSON (machine-readable

Read the thread · 2026-05-11 · open · 0 comments

Add waveform image rendering to capture tools

Summary

Add an opt-in render_image: bool = False parameter to analog_capture, digital_capture, and measure so the tools can return a PNG plot of the captured waveform alongside the existing samples / metrics. Vision-capable LLM clients can then "see" the signal directly instead of having to reason over thousands of raw sample values.

Background & Motivation

When an LLM agent is helping with hardware bring-up or IC debugging, the most useful question is often "does this waveform

Read the thread · 2026-05-09 · closed · 0 comments

Adopt uv.lock for reproducible builds (Docker + CI)

Summary

Commit uv.lock and migrate Docker and CI from uv pip install to uv sync --frozen so that dependency versions are pinned per release tag and lock-file drift is detected automatically.

Background & Motivation

The published image at ghcr.io/kenosinc/dwf-mcp-server:X.Y.Z is currently not reproducible:

Dockerfile installs dependencies with uv pip install --system --no-cache ., which resolves the >= constraints in pyproject.toml (fastmcp>=3.0, dwfpy>=1.0) at b

Read the thread · 2026-05-09 · closed · 0 comments

Hybrid device connection lifecycle (auto-connect + explicit close + idle timeout)

Summary

Replace the per-tool-call open/close device pattern (with dwf.Device(...)) with a hybrid persistent session model: auto-connect on first tool use, keep the device open across calls, support explicit close_device, and auto-close after idle timeout.

Background & Motivation

Currently, all 8 tool call sites open and close the device on every invocation via with dwf.Device(device_id=...) as device:. This causes three problems:

AWG continuous output stops immediately — `

Read the thread · 2026-03-07 · closed · 0 comments

Most recent

Build Docker image without bundled libdwf — install dependencies only

Problem

The current Dockerfile downloads and installs both the Adept 2 Runtime and the WaveForms SDK (which includes libdwf.so) at build time. Since libdwf.so is proprietary (Digilent/NI), bundling it in a publicly distributed Docker image raises licensing concerns.

Approach

Public image: Includes only the Adept 2 Runtime (dependency libraries). libdwf.so is not bundled.
User installation: Users create a derived Dockerfile that installs the WaveForms SDK as an

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · closed · 0 comments

Document libdwf installation and verify AD3 connectivity

Summary

Document the step-by-step procedure to install the WaveForms SDK (libdwf) on the host machine and verify that an Analog Discovery 3 (AD3) is recognized and usable by dwf-mcp-server.

Background

libdwf.so is proprietary and must be installed on the host (never bundled in Docker).
dwfpy depends on libdwf.so at runtime; the server fails at startup if it is missing.
Users with a freshly connected AD3 need a clear, copy-paste-friendly checklist to go from zero to a worki

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · closed · 0 comments

Release v0.2.0

Summary

Major update release including all protocol tools and advanced analog features.

Tasks

Update version in pyproject.toml to 0.2.0
Update version in server.json to 0.2.0
Update README.md (new tool list)
Update CHANGELOG
Push tag v0.2.0 → GitHub Actions publishes Docker image + MCP Registry

Files

pyproject.toml
server.json
README.md

Dependencies

M6 (I2C, UART, CAN) complete
M7 (advanced analog) complete

Size: S

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · closed · 0 comments

Add AM/FM modulation and custom waveform to generate_waveform

Summary

Extend generate_waveform with AM/FM modulation and custom waveform (arbitrary sample array) support.

Tasks

Add modulation parameter (AM / FM / none)
Add modulation_frequency and modulation_depth parameters
Add waveform="custom" + samples: list[float] parameter
Add mock tests
Update README with parameter descriptions

Files

src/dwf_mcp_server/tools/analog.py
tests/test_server.py
README.md

Size: L

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · open · 0 comments

Add trigger settings to analog_capture / measure

Summary

Add trigger configuration parameters to analog_capture and measure for stable waveform acquisition.

Tasks

Add trigger_source, trigger_level, trigger_slope parameters
Use scope.setup_edge_trigger()
Support no-trigger mode (existing behavior) as the default
Add mock tests
Update README with parameter descriptions

Files

src/dwf_mcp_server/tools/analog.py
tests/test_server.py
README.md

Dependencies

#17 (analog API fix)

Size: M

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · open · 0 comments

Add device_telemetry tool

Summary

Add an MCP tool to retrieve AD3 internal telemetry (temperature, voltage, current).

Tasks

Read AD3 PCB / FPGA temperature
Read USB voltage/current, AUX voltage/current
Implement device_telemetry(device_index) tool
Add mock tests
Update README with tool description

Files

src/dwf_mcp_server/tools/devices.py
tests/test_server.py
README.md

Size: S

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · open · 0 comments

Add can_send / can_receive tools

Summary

Expose AD3 CAN protocol functionality as MCP tools.

Tasks

Use device.protocols.can
Implement can_send(device_index, bitrate, id, data, extended) tool
Implement can_receive(device_index, bitrate, timeout) tool
Add mock tests
Update README with tool descriptions

Files

src/dwf_mcp_server/tools/protocols.py
tests/test_server.py
README.md

Size: M

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · open · 0 comments

Add uart_send / uart_receive tools

Summary

Expose AD3 UART protocol functionality as MCP tools.

Tasks

Use device.protocols.uart
Implement uart_send(device_index, baud_rate, data_bits, parity, stop_bits, data) tool
Implement uart_receive(device_index, baud_rate, data_bits, parity, stop_bits, timeout) tool
Add mock tests
Update README with tool descriptions

Files

src/dwf_mcp_server/tools/protocols.py
tests/test_server.py
README.md

Size: M

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · open · 0 comments

Add i2c_read / i2c_write tools

Summary

Expose AD3 I2C protocol functionality as MCP tools.

Tasks

Use device.protocols.i2c
Implement i2c_read(device_index, address, register, length) tool
Implement i2c_write(device_index, address, register, data) tool
Handle NACK (return error response)
Add mock tests
Update README with tool descriptions

Files

src/dwf_mcp_server/tools/protocols.py
src/dwf_mcp_server/server.py
tests/test_server.py
README.md

Size: M

Read the thread · 2026-02-27 · open · 0 comments

The remaining reports are on the project's issue tracker.