Oscilloscope idea

[andrew kelley]

Would it be worthwhile to setup an oscilloscope/logic analyzer like this:

100 MS/s A2D, two 8 bit or one 16 bit
interfaced to a ATA/100 Drive (and ancillary logic driving the
signals, for the PIC cant do that)
with a PIC reading logged data off to the PC via USB

or would I be better off to save my pennies and buy a real scope?  I
suspect that maybe the case.
I was looking... $250USD for a 100msps probe-like oscope with a usb
cable coming out of it.(+- 50v input)

Andrew
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[Vasile Surducan-2]

One of the biggest problems with low cost USB oscilloscope it's the software.
If you already touched a proffesional scope and use it, then probably
all those low cost tools will look to you very difficult to use and
many of them useless.
I've payed around $500 for a two channel USB scope + programable
waveform generator and I can't use it properly  because I know how
must look a real tool and become angry everytime I touch it.
Read carefully the specifications. 100MS/s could mean a 10MHz analogic
bandwith or 50MHz analogic bandwith as well. Take a look at software
and ask for a running sample BEFORE buying the tool. The software
screen must look like a real scope and must have all the feature a
real tool has. You can't use a scope which hasn't the amplitude and
time grid and need to move the cursor on the screen to find the time
and aplitude of the signal...

best luck,

On 7/9/08, andrew kelley <leetslacker@...> wrote:

> Would it be worthwhile to setup an oscilloscope/logic analyzer like this:
>
> 100 MS/s A2D, two 8 bit or one 16 bit
> interfaced to a ATA/100 Drive (and ancillary logic driving the
> signals, for the PIC cant do that)
> with a PIC reading logged data off to the PC via USB
>
> or would I be better off to save my pennies and buy a real scope?  I
> suspect that maybe the case.
> I was looking... $250USD for a 100msps probe-like oscope with a usb
> cable coming out of it.(+- 50v input)
>
> Andrew
> --
> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
> View/change your membership options at
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
>

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