PC Oscilloscopes

Guest
Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings. When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.

Thanks a lot,

Mark
 
mark349@lycos.com wrote:
Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings. When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.

Thanks a lot,

Mark
Click to expand...
Explain to the boss that a fiscally responsible management team would
have some application in mind before buying equipment. Then hand him a
list of equipment that you actually need along with estimates on how
much time and money it would save...

mike

--
Return address is VALID but some sites block emails
with links. Delete this sig when replying.
..
Wanted, PCMCIA SCSI Card for HP m820 CDRW.
FS 500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer
Wanted 12" LCD for Compaq Armada 7770MT.
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
MAKE THE OBVIOUS CHANGES TO THE LINK
ht<removethis>tp://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/
 
On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:33:09 -0600, mark349@lycos.com wrote:

Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings. When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.
Click to expand...
I'd love to have one small enough to toss into the laptop bag and just
have in reach. None of the ones I've seen, though, have had front-end or
sample rate specs that have really tempted me.

What you might look at instead (a lot depends on your applications, of
course) is one of the Ant USB logic analyzer pods from Rocky Logic. I
got one of the Ant-8 gadgets early on and it really does come in handy.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
 
"mike" <spamme0@netscape.net> a écrit dans le message de
news:4327BBA8.5030506@netscape.net...
mark349@lycos.com wrote:
Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not
very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone
has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings.
When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.

Thanks a lot,

Mark

Explain to the boss that a fiscally responsible management team would
have some application in mind before buying equipment. Then hand him a
list of equipment that you actually need along with estimates on how
much time and money it would save...
Click to expand...
Some just don't want to understand.

Once we needed an AWG to supplement another one in an experiment. I found a
good second market half priced one, about $5K.
Despite it would've been more than paid back during the experiment, we
almost had to hang the boss by the balls to make him buy it (co-signed
letter by the 5 engineers working on the experiment stating that we _wanted_
it, otherwise we'll stop working on it...).
Now, none of the 5 engineers work anymore for them.

--
Thanks,
Fred.
 
Fred Bartoli wrote:
"mike" <spamme0@netscape.net> a écrit dans le message de
news:4327BBA8.5030506@netscape.net...

mark349@lycos.com wrote:

Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not

very

high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone

has

anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings.

When

the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.

Thanks a lot,

Mark

Explain to the boss that a fiscally responsible management team would
have some application in mind before buying equipment. Then hand him a
list of equipment that you actually need along with estimates on how
much time and money it would save...



Some just don't want to understand.

Once we needed an AWG to supplement another one in an experiment. I found a
good second market half priced one, about $5K.
Despite it would've been more than paid back during the experiment, we
almost had to hang the boss by the balls to make him buy it (co-signed
letter by the 5 engineers working on the experiment stating that we _wanted_
it, otherwise we'll stop working on it...).
Now, none of the 5 engineers work anymore for them.
Click to expand...
That's common practice. But a different problem. I've been in
situations where I managed the entire corporate engineering team and had
ZERO signature authority. I couldn't buy a pencil.
I complained...a few months later I was "granted with much fanfare" $100
signature authority. "Now you can go buy that pencil..."

If you wanna have some fun, designate 0.1% in your budget for petty
cash. You'll hear the screams and moans from across the courtyard
as the bean counters take it out...While they spend a cool million on
landscaping.

This guy's problem is that his boss wants to buy stuff he can't identify
a use for. Send me the money, I'll figger out something.
mike

--
Return address is VALID but some sites block emails
with links. Delete this sig when replying.
..
Wanted, PCMCIA SCSI Card for HP m820 CDRW.
FS 500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer
Wanted 12" LCD for Compaq Armada 7770MT.
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
MAKE THE OBVIOUS CHANGES TO THE LINK
ht<removethis>tp://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/
 
mark349@lycos.com wrote:
Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.
Click to expand...
Another option to consider is a card-based scope that plugs into the
motherboard. About twelve years ago we had one from Gagescope that
worked pretty well.

Here is a 12-bit, 200 MHz bandwidth version from Gagescope:
http://www.gage-applied.com/products/digitizer_pci/12_bit/compuScope_12400.htm

Or you can select one with different specs:
http://www.gage-applied.com/products/pci_family.htm

To get a price, you'll need to fill out a form at their website.

HTH,

Mark
 
mark349@lycos.com schreef:

Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings. When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.

Thanks a lot,

Mark
Click to expand...
Elektor Electronics magazine did a nice survey of USB oscillocsopes in
their September 2005 issue. A digital copy can be downloaded from
www.elektor-electronics.co.uk

Richard
 
On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:33:09 -0600, mark349@lycos.com wrote:

Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings. When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.
Click to expand...
One of the biggest problems with these PC based scopes are the trigger
circuits. (Or lack thereof). Since most (all ?) seem to sample data at
a certain rate, and then try to trigger on the data after the fact,
they are almost useless when wants to trigger on a glitch or some
other event which is faster than the data that one wants to look at.

If one wants a portable scope, then buy a portable scope.

Regards
Anton Erasmus
 
In message <1128622035.1bdd5f6c3c0382d4a2395c633892c98e@teranews>, Anton
Erasmus <nobody@spam.prevent.net> writes
On Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:33:09 -0600, mark349@lycos.com wrote:


Hi all,

The company has some decent scopes, but the boss thinks the idea of a PC
based scope is something to have around, especially the USB ones.

Not having any experience, but being totally aware that they are not very
high bandwidth, and have other shortcomings, I am wondering if anyone has
anything good to say about them :) and would like to hear if there are
some that are acceptable, considering all the inherent shortcomings. When
the boss is up for spending two or three hundred bucks, I tend to not
argue, but figure I might as well see if anyone has an opinion on a good
deal, and spend his money when I have a chance.

Again, I know they are not fast, but it would be nice to be able to have
one for something between a voltmeter and a real scope.


One of the biggest problems with these PC based scopes are the trigger
circuits. (Or lack thereof). Since most (all ?) seem to sample data at
a certain rate, and then try to trigger on the data after the fact,
they are almost useless when wants to trigger on a glitch or some
other event which is faster than the data that one wants to look at.

If one wants a portable scope, then buy a portable scope.

Regards
Anton Erasmus



The good fature is the built in spectrum analyzer, but for wide dynamic
Click to expand...
range and one off pulses go analogue
--
dd
 
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