Forem: Manish Joshi

I Built SoftLA: A Software-Only Logic Analyzer for UART & I2C Debugging (No Hardware Required)

Manish Joshi — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 09:08:49 +0000

Embedded and firmware debugging often becomes a guessing game.

UART data gets corrupted.
I2C devices don’t respond.
Code looks correct.
And most of the time, a hardware logic analyzer is not available.

To solve this exact problem, I built SoftLA.

🚀 What is SoftLA?

SoftLA is a software-only logic analyzer that helps debug UART and I2C communication issues using simple pin-level trace logs, without requiring any hardware logic analyzer.

It is designed for:

Embedded developers

Firmware engineers

IoT teams

Students learning real protocol debugging

🔧 What Problems Does SoftLA Solve?
UART Debugging

Detects START bit

Decodes UART byte (LSB first)

Validates STOP bit

Detects framing errors

Example:

UART 1100 0x41 'A' OK

I2C Debugging

Detects START condition

Detects STOP condition

Helps identify bus hang issues

Example:

I2C 1200 START
I2C 2200 STOP

🧠 Why SoftLA is Different

❌ No hardware required

❌ No waveform guessing

❌ No expensive tools

✅ Works from plain text logs

✅ Command-line based (CLI)

✅ CI-friendly

✅ Works on Windows and Linux

This makes SoftLA ideal for automation, regression testing, and CI pipelines.

🪟 Windows SmartScreen Warning (Important)

When downloading softla.exe on Windows, you may see:

“Windows protected your PC”

This happens because the binary is unsigned (common for open-source tools).

How to run:

Click More info

Click Run anyway

Open terminal in the folder

Run:

.\softla.exe samples\uart.log

SoftLA is a CLI tool, not a GUI app, so double-clicking will not show any window.

🛠️ Build & Usage

Build:

gcc src/*.c -Iinclude -o softla

Run:

softla samples/uart.log
softla samples/i2c.log

🔗 GitHub Repository

👉 https://github.com/Manish112233/SoftLA

👤 About the Author

Hi, I’m Manish Joshi, a software engineer working at the intersection of embedded systems, firmware, and developer tooling.
SoftLA was built to solve real-world debugging problems I personally faced.

🏁 Final Thoughts

SoftLA is not a replacement for hardware analyzers —
it is a practical, lightweight, and automation-friendly alternative when hardware is unavailable.

If you work with UART or I2C, I’d love your feedback.

I built a CLI to check if your GitHub repository is complete

Manish Joshi — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 17:09:21 +0000

Every time I share a repo, I ask myself:

– Did I forget a README section?
– Is CI set up?
– Did I add a LICENSE?
– Does this look professional?

Most of the time, something is missing.

So I built a small zero-config CLI that checks repository readiness for me.

It scans your repo and tells you what’s missing:
– Documentation completeness
– License & legal files
– Git hygiene
– CI / automation presence
– Release readiness

Run:
npx repo-health

It works locally, needs no config, and gives instant feedback.

GitHub repo:
https://github.com/Manish112233/repo-health

It’s open-source and free.

Why README.md always goes out of sync (and how I fixed it)

Manish Joshi — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:40:41 +0000

README.md usually becomes outdated after a few commits.

We change code:

add dependencies
change entry points
refactor folders

But README stays the same.

GitHub only creates a README template.
It doesn’t keep documentation in sync.

I wanted a simple solution where:

README updates automatically
manual sections stay untouched
no config or cloud is needed

So I built a small CLI that updates only safe sections of README.md.

Run:
npx readme-fast

It’s open-source and works with existing projects.
Related: I built a CLI that keeps README.md in sync with code.

I built a CLI that keeps README.md in sync with code (GitHub doesn’t)

Manish Joshi — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:37:58 +0000

README files always go out of sync.

GitHub only creates a README template.
It doesn’t update documentation when code changes.

So I built a small CLI called readme-fast.

What it does:

Updates only safe sections of README.md
Never touches your manual content
Runs locally, no config, no cloud

Command:
npx readme-fast

GitHub repo:

https://github.com/Manish112233/readme-fast

It’s open-source and free.
Update: I also wrote about why README.md goes out of sync and how to fix it

👉 https://dev.to/manish112233/why-readmemd-always-goes-out-of-sync-and-how-i-fixed-it