The Mastech MS6701 Sound Level Meter comes with software, but only for Windows (v2.1 works on Windows 10). The meter is attached to the computer via an RS232 cable although a USB-to-serial adapter worked well. The serial communication can be intercepted and decoded on an Agilent MSO-X 2024A oscilloscope. The observations are used to create a Python program, in Linux, that receives packets from the meter and also works around some bugs that the meter and Windows software have.

The first video introduces the meter and how to decode the packets. This is the basis for the second video which is a commentary of the three hour coding session to develop the Python software in Linux.

While the program was developed on Linux, it’s likely to work with a Windows Python interrupter with minimal changes.

An introduction to decoding the protocol used by the Mastech MS6701 sound level meter.

The Linux Python code: Python code on GitHub
Amazon Affiliate link: Mastech MS6701