What is an oscilloscope?

My buddy dave made a “beginner” video about oscilloscopes:

I’m curious if people here learned things from that video…like how much knowledge of oscilloscopes there are.

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I have seen them before at my friend’s lab, but I don’t have one and have only used a digital one in the past. We would need to learn how to use one like the one shown there?

As a general rule, no. The analog scope shown has far too many variables for a beginner, in my opinion. We have been using the Analog Discovery 2 in the course and will user similar low cost tools into the future for CE. But even for the course, it’s not really necessary for the early parts of the course.

I was more curious about peoples’ experiences using scopes for their work, esp at the beginning of of learning electronics.

I have used them in class in the past. What made you decide on the Analog Discovery 2 though?

It has a nice overall amount of features. There is a logic analyzer, spectrum analyzer, signal generator and a power supply (though that only goes from -5V to 5V). The software is cross platform. So overall, it seems like it has the most options for a low end piece of test gear.

I watched the video. I would say for me it wasn’t that helpful now. Maybe 4 years ago it would have been a great basic intro.

I find I use my scopes a bunch for certain parts of projects and then they sit patiently waiting to see use for sometimes quite awhile. But, when I need them, they are indispensable. I wouldn’t want to have to be without one again.

I’ve used a scope for several of the CE 2.0 projects. The video was interesting, but I’ve seen most of the information before. My scope is (was) a 50 MHz 2 channel variety, but it has recently died. When looking for a replacement, what would be considered a more valuable feature - higher frequency (maybe 100 MHz?) or four channels? As I start working with microcontrollers I’m a little concerned that 50MHz won’t let me monitor the signals. Is there a rule-of-thumb regarding how fast a signal can be monitored given the speed of a scope?

I hate to say that it’s so money dependent, but I think it’s a pretty efficient market for oscilloscopes. What is your price range?

Yes Cris, Dave did a wonderful basic intro for scopes. I need to save a link to this for when students have questions…

Hey @AlanFord,

A dead scope sounds like an interesting repair project!

I have a DS1052E, but added a DS1074Z about 2 years ago. The 1074 has a much large screen, is more responsive, more bandwidth, has 2 additional channels, and is also hackable. The DS1054Z, @ $399, looks like a great entry level scope to replace the venerable DS1052E.

This all said, for me, the DS1052E still handles all the CE projects, but working with the DS1074Z is more enjoyable.

Of course, there is that general rule of buy the best tools your budget can handle. That sends you back to Chris’ question about your price range!

Something south of $1K. I’ve had several people suggest the Rigol DS1054Z, but I’d have to hack it to get 100 MHz and I don’t think that improves the sample rate (1 GSa/s). Alternatively, I understand Keysight has a new line of low-end scopes with up to 100 MHz and 2 GSa/s, but only 2 analog channels. Tempting, but I don’t know whether having only 2 channels will be a frustration down the road. Do many uses require more than 2 channels? Or for things that I haven’t gotten into yet (spi, i2c, can) will something like a bus pirate be an alternative to a scope? The curse of the modern world - too many options!

That’s a pretty healthy budge these days.

The four channels…well you don’t know you need it until you need it. It can be good for SPI lines, like you mention, especially if you’re having issues with transmission. However, the real time it’s useful IMO, is when you have 4 analog signals. Imagine an op amp circuit where you’re having a noise issue: 2 probes for the rails, one for for the input, one for the output. Something like that pops up more often than you might think. So if you’re going to spend the money, I would target 4 channels.

I’m not normally doing speedy enough things that I need 100s of MHz, but I do also have that available. I think past a certain point, i’d normally be using a logic analyzer anyway.

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@ChrisGammell - good advice. I haven’t run into diagnosing noise issues yet (knock on wood), but I can see where 4 channels would be very useful.

@AlanFord,

I don’t see the BP as an alternative to a scope. It is good at serial communication prototyping/debuging. It can even show voltage on a pin as a single decimal value that updates. It allows you to send values at chips, via serial, and read results back. I am not aware of any scopes that do that sort of thing, at least not in hobbyist budged.

You can pick them up for $30-40 on Amazon, Sparkfun, Adafruit, Seeed, etc.

I took the day of work for myself and among other things I put together this DSO kit I’ve had for a while, I hooked it up to a 1KHz test signal and it worked pretty good.

Those are fun kits, but much like the “scope” we used for v1 of the course, they become pretty ineffective past the audio range (30 kHz and above). Still, good kits to get started with and better than not having anything.

Right, either way it was a fun kit to put together, had both SMT and through hole parts and when you’re done an LCD screen fires up and you have buttons and switches, is there a better way to spend an afternoon?

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