Is this scope any good?

[bitem2k]

I want to buy a scope, but I know nothing about them

does anyone know if **broken link removed** would be anygood?

**broken link removed**

many thanks

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

To be honest, computer scopes like that are more a toy than a real scope, they certainly have their uses, but NOT as a replacement for a real scope.

 

[bitem2k]

Im a poor student!
I cant afford hundreds of £ for a 'proper' scope.

do you think it might be a reasonable first scope?

 

[mcs51mc]

Did you read the specs?

Real-time sampling: 75MS/s one channel, 150MS/s using two channels

What crap is that: higher sampling rate with more channels
Or it's always 75MS/s per channel
Or it's the other way 150MS/s one channel and 75MS/s two channels

and further

Vertical resolution: 8bits/channel

Is that all
Use a PIC and send serial data to the PC and you will have better results!!


Since those guys can't write decent specs I would never buy it !!!

Check the NI Site they have (more or less) cheap USB DAQ pads!
Good, very good stuff...
**broken link removed**

 

[mcs51mc]

Im a poor student!
I cant afford hundreds of £ for a 'proper' scope.

do you think it might be a reasonable first scope?

Off topic : £ what England are you in??

 

[ericgibbs]

Im a poor student!
I cant afford hundreds of £ for a 'proper' scope.

do you think it might be a reasonable first scope?

hi bitem,
The spec looks fine, the 8bit [255 increments] Y axis is a little limited.
The advantage of this type of scope is its small footprint and portability and the fact you can store screen shots.
Also with care it will last a long time.

What's the spec of your PC?

Eric

EDIT:
follow up to hero's Q, what projects do you want to scope??

 

[Hero999]

Well I wouldn't buy it because it doesn't support the operating system I use.

I suppose it's better than no scope at all but it depends on what you want to use it for.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Im a poor student!
I cant afford hundreds of £ for a 'proper' scope.

do you think it might be a reasonable first scope?

No, you could buy a second hand real scope for less money!.

It's something you buy AS WELL as a real scope, not instead of.

 

[bitem2k]

Did you read the specs?


What crap is that: higher sampling rate with more channels
Or it's always 75MS/s per channel
Or it's the other way 150MS/s one channel and 75MS/s two channels

and further

Is that all
Use a PIC and send serial data to the PC and you will have better results!!

hi bitem,
The spec looks fine, the 8bit [255 increments] Y axis is a little limited.

You both seem to disagree about the specs.
Would 75ms/s only per channel be bad?

Check the NI Site they have (more or less) cheap USB DAQ pads!
Good, very good stuff...
**broken link removed**

Do you mean something like this device ?

Whats the difference between this and a PC scope?

Off topic : £ what England are you in??

I’m sorry, I have no idea what you mean.

hi bitem,
follow up to hero's Q, what projects do you want to scope??

Im just learning how to program the Pic at the moment, so I want to use peripherals such as the PWM module, and shortly serial transmission, etc.

What's the spec of your PC?

My pc:

Intel 3.4Ghz processor
2048MB Matched pair Gaming ram
300GB SATAHarddrive

 

[Hero999]

You both seem to disagree about the specs.

They aren't disagreeing about the scpecs. They're saying different things about different parts of the specification.

ericgibbs iss saying that 8-bit vertical resolution is poor and mcs51mc is saying that the sample rate might go down if you use more channels.

You appear to be getting stressed (this is indicated by your decision to use bold text), there's no need to get stressed, no one's arguing or having a go at you.

 

[mramos1]

I agree, real scope first.

And Ebay seems to have a ton of them in the US. I know there is a UK ebay, I would look on there. You will be able to get a used scope for the same price range, maybe less.

 

[ericgibbs]

hi bitem,

If you want to examine signals like RS232 serial then the USB scope would easily get the job done.
It would also be OK upto 20mHz[clk] to examine the PIC's PWM output.
Most of the digital voltages will be in the order of 5V and the RS232 say +/-15Vmax.

If you wanted to measure very fast edges/pulses you would get some fall off in performance.

The reason I asked about your PC's spec was just to check that the PC may limit the performance of the USB scope,
the PC spec you have will give no problems.

If you had a steam driven MMX200mHz, running Win98 then this could have given problems.

You can buy S/H 'electronic' scopes, if you decide to go that way, check yellow pages for companies that resell S/H equipment,
also try a local industrial auctioneers.
You can get first class equipment for a good price. Always get a pair of good quality 1/*10 probes.

May I ask which town/county you are in?

Eric

 

[HerbertMunch]

You appear to be getting stressed (this is indicated by your decision to use bold text), there's no need to get stressed, no one's arguing or having a go at you.

No not getting stressed, I dont know what would give you that idea!

Just emboldening my responses to more easily differentiate between other peoples quotes and my responses!

 

[HerbertMunch]

hi bitem,

May I ask which town/county you are in?

Eric

Canterbury, Kent

 

[HerbertMunch]

Whats the difference between a scope and a DAQ?
Daq i.e (https://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/14604)

would this be more suitable?

many thanks (dont worry, Im not getting angry/stressed! )

 

[ericgibbs]

Canterbury, Kent

Hi bitem aka hebertmunch

Reason for asking location was to locate a S/H equipment supplier.
This one is in Bognor Regis
Ask for a catalog.

**broken link removed**

Eric

 

[HerbertMunch]

Nice one cheers mate,

It would appear though, that it is very expensive!

 

[HerbertMunch]

Can someone tellme what the difference between a scope and this is.

thanks

 

[ericgibbs]

Can someone tellme what the difference between a scope and this is.

thanks

Its for Data Logging from external sensors/sources.[slow rate,Data Acquisition (DAQ)]

Example: Temperature recording, etc.

 

[HerbertMunch]

So no use to me then?