Re: Cheap Oscilloscope

From: Bob Masta (NoSpam_at_daqarta.com)
Date: 06/30/04 

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 12:56:41 GMT

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:08:22 GMT, "Captain Blammo" <eas6@nbnet.nb.ca>
wrote:

>I would really rather like to get myself an oscilloscope, mainly for
>capturing digital signals (though analogue would be nice too) from
>electronics. I am, however, not exactly rolling in money, and so would like
>something that is as cheap as possible without being a piece of junk.
>
>I have seen a couple of "PC oscilloscopes" that connect via a USB port to
>let the PC do the hard work, and was just wondering what everyone's opinion
>on them is. Specifically, I was thinking of the OPTAscope 81M. It can only
>sample waves <60kHz, does that seem like enough for most things? I'd like to
>pipe TV signals in too, what kind of frequencies are they at?
>
>I'd ideally like something that has flexible software (preferably allowing
>you to program your own visualisations with relative ease) if such a thing
>exists. Linux or Windows.
>
>Advice is greatly appreciated!
>
>Ewan
>
>
Ewan, you might want to check out my Daqarta
shareware. Daqarta for DOS will turn an old
junk PC into a real-time scope, spectrum analyzer,
signal generator, etc. If you have or can get
an ISA-bus Sound Blaster card you have everything
you need. If not, you can make an 8-bit data
acquisition "board" for your printer port, often
requiring no more than a handful of resistors,
that will sample at well over 40 kHz. See the
LPTX driver for info on this, including construction details.

Note that Daqarta for DOS requires real-mode DOS,
which rules out Windows systems later than Win9x.
I'm working on Daqarta for Windows, which will be
able to use any Windows sound card.

Having a real-time spectrum analyzer is really useful
if you do any audio work. You can, for example, make
adjustments and watch the effect on distortion and
noise floor. However, it's still a good idea to have a
"real" scope for high-frequency stuff, even if it's a cheapie.

Hope this helps!

Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom
 
            D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
           www.daqarta.com

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