Systems and methods are disclosed for capturing and interpreting data streams between an instrument and a controlling device. A processor is configured to receive a data stream sent by the instrument to the controlling device and identify data frames in the stream. The processor is configured to search for a bit pattern in the stream, identify bits corresponding to a message length of a first presumed data frame based on a location relative to the bit pattern, and identify a second presumed data frame in the data stream based on the message length of the first presumed data frame. The processor is further configured to identify a second instance of the bit pattern, increase a count, continue scanning, extract and store instrument measurement data or operational metadata from the identified data frames, and analyze or interpret the captured data and metadata for visualization or alerts.