UNI-T UT181A DMM USB Communication Tool

• Features: list records, export records to CSV files, realtime monitor (higher sample rate)
• Platform: Linux (tested on PC, Raspberry Pi 2/3, Debian 8/9)
• Ref: How to hack UT181A protocol (Chinese)
• Ver: 0.2
• Updated: 12/16/2017
• Created: 5/11/2017
• Author: loblab

Build

On Windows

1. Download CP2110/4 Software package for Windows, 6.7.4 (I didn't try Linux version as it needs Java).
2. Run the exe to extract files, then from SiliconLabs\MCU\CP2110_4_SDK\Library\Linux, find slabhiddevice_1.0.tar.gz, slabhidtouart_1.0.tar.gz, copy to your Linux

On Linux

sudo apt-get install build-essential pkg-config libusb-1.0-0-dev

tar -xzvf slabhiddevice_1.0.tar.gz
cd slabhiddevice
make
sudo make install

tar -xzvf slabhidtouart_1.0.tar.gz
cd slabhidtouart
make
sudo make install

cd ut181a
make

Special for ARM (Raspberry Pi)

Modify slabhiddevice/Makefile, slabhidtouart/Makefile before build, using the patch file

cd slabhiddevice
patch -b Makefile <ut181a-dir>/slib_sdk/Makefile.arm.patch

cd slabhidtouart
patch -b Makefile <ut181a-dir>/slib_sdk/Makefile.arm.patch

BTW, use "make -f Makefile.orig" to build x86/64 version after patching.

Configuration

udev configration

sudo cp config/50-cp2110.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo service udev restart

Library path

If cannot load library, like this:

error while loading shared libraries: libslabhidtouart.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Run

sudo ldconfig

as /usr/local/lib should be in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/libc.conf.

Or try

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib

Run

bin/armv7l/ut181a # Raspberry Pi
bin/x86_64/ut181a # Intel PC

Usage examples

• ut181a -h: help
• ut181a -m: monitor mode (realtime measurement & transfer)
• ut181a -m | tee monitor.csv: monitor and save to monitor.csv
• ut181a -l: list saved records
• ut181a 1 2 3: transfer recrod 1, 2, 3 to 1.csv, 2.csv, 3.csv
• ut181a -d 3: output diagnosis info, e.g. serail string, UART
• ut181a -s xxx: specify the serial string if you have multiple UT181A connected

History

• 0.2 (12/16/2017): Support command line arguments; output CSV with timestamp in monitor mode; output as precision; control output messages by debug level
• 0.1 (5/11/2017) : PoC version, basically support monitor, transfer