Discussion
(Apologies if I'm posting this in the wrong thread, perhaps it would have been better in Science or Music.)
I'm looking to buy an oscilloscope so that I can plug a synthesiser into it and see what waveforms I'm getting as well as just hearing them.
It's years since I've used a 'scope so would appreciate some guidance. No objection to buying used, but nothing too expensive or too old.
Any suggestions?
I'm looking to buy an oscilloscope so that I can plug a synthesiser into it and see what waveforms I'm getting as well as just hearing them.
It's years since I've used a 'scope so would appreciate some guidance. No objection to buying used, but nothing too expensive or too old.
Any suggestions?
As a minimal approach you could use an iPhone/iPad app
you could try https://www.faberacoustical.com/apps/signalscope/s...
it is pretty impressive and at a minimum will let you use the iPhone mic, but will also support various plug in interfaces.
Otherwise there are lots of very cheap handheld oscilloscopes on amazon that are well under £100. Their accuracy is a weak point but they are fine for your use case.
you could try https://www.faberacoustical.com/apps/signalscope/s...
it is pretty impressive and at a minimum will let you use the iPhone mic, but will also support various plug in interfaces.
Otherwise there are lots of very cheap handheld oscilloscopes on amazon that are well under £100. Their accuracy is a weak point but they are fine for your use case.
There's a vast range of scopes out there.
You can get USB scopes that use your PC as the display (this may be advantageous to you given your intended use).
There are also PC based scopes that use the sound card (or USB audio interface) in your PC.
Have a look on Amazon - there's plenty of choice.
You can get USB scopes that use your PC as the display (this may be advantageous to you given your intended use).
There are also PC based scopes that use the sound card (or USB audio interface) in your PC.
Have a look on Amazon - there's plenty of choice.
I've been keeping an eye on Ebay for a while for a scope for general tinkering and monkeying with electronics. I'm inclined to go for an analogue scope as I'm familiar with them (from about 30 years ago), they aren't going to need a PC to be booted up, I could fix one with a hammer, more or less. But ... digital storage scopes / logic analysers are better if doing digital stuff. I'd be interested to know people's experience with the cheap Chinese two inch thick digital scopes that keep popping up in my ebay and Amazon searches.
I picked up something similar to this a couple of years ago:
https://accudiy.com/collections/oscilloscopes/prod...
Pocket sized and only £70.
M
https://accudiy.com/collections/oscilloscopes/prod...
Pocket sized and only £70.
M
ATG said:
I've been keeping an eye on Ebay for a while for a scope for general tinkering and monkeying with electronics. I'm inclined to go for an analogue scope as I'm familiar with them (from about 30 years ago), they aren't going to need a PC to be booted up, I could fix one with a hammer, more or less. But ... digital storage scopes / logic analysers are better if doing digital stuff. I'd be interested to know people's experience with the cheap Chinese two inch thick digital scopes that keep popping up in my ebay and Amazon searches.
Had one like this for a few years:https://www.amazon.co.uk/CCDSO-Portable-Oscillosco...
Seems to do the job. I use it for fault finding electrical circuits - here it is in action when I was trying to make a rev counter that used the generator on a rusty old motorbike. The blue trace is the signal, the yelow is the outputof the circut I made to counts revolutions:
Kicking it over - works perfectly! One trigger per rev.
Revving it to the point the mosfet regulator kicked in and I discovered that I COULDN'T use the generator as a rev counter trigger as the mosfet is shorting out the charging coils for half the wave to restrict the charging voltage at the battery:
And revving it higher than that and the signal turns into noise:
Would recommend!
I bought this oscilloscope, https://video.aliexpress-media.com/play/u/ae_sg_it... mainly because its 2 channel & BNC connectors, I will use on cars for duty cycle etc and so much more, but it does loads of stuff I haven't a clue about and gets great reviews. think it was less than £60 delivered in approx. 5 days. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005953868224.h...
Edited by souper on Thursday 18th July 13:27
I bought this one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005202074391.h... A DSO-TC3 Does more than just an oscilloscope, can be a signal generator and component checker / tester / identifier etc.
I've not used it much but I'm pleased with it whenever I have used it.
Click pic for bigger version
Seems I bought it from Temu under a special offer - paid just over £18 for it, so maybe check there as well.
I've not used it much but I'm pleased with it whenever I have used it.
Click pic for bigger version
Seems I bought it from Temu under a special offer - paid just over £18 for it, so maybe check there as well.
Edited by S6PNJ on Thursday 18th July 13:26
camel_landy said:
ATG said:
cwis said:
Would recommend!
Crazy how compact and relatively inexpensive these things are.M
Another option is polkit, I got one of these on Kickstarter a few years ago but think they’re shipped from abroad so would be a bit more to pay:
https://shop.pokitmeter.com/en-gb/products/pokitme...
Yea also impressed with size and price, sure they were all over a grand and massive things last time i looked (which may have been quite some time ago)
https://shop.pokitmeter.com/en-gb/products/pokitme...
Yea also impressed with size and price, sure they were all over a grand and massive things last time i looked (which may have been quite some time ago)
wombleh said:
Another option is polkit, I got one of these on Kickstarter a few years ago but think they’re shipped from abroad so would be a bit more to pay:
https://shop.pokitmeter.com/en-gb/products/pokitme...
Yea also impressed with size and price, sure they were all over a grand and massive things last time i looked (which may have been quite some time ago)
I would suggest the 702s is better value:https://shop.pokitmeter.com/en-gb/products/pokitme...
Yea also impressed with size and price, sure they were all over a grand and massive things last time i looked (which may have been quite some time ago)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005776961778.h...
or the aneng badged version for £33 which is even better value:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005661605508.h...
The cheapest option is a 'soundcard oscilloscope', personally I'd consider usiung it with a USB soundcard to avoid blowing up the 'puter.
Basically just software, but you could add attenuators or amplifiers and some proteection.
Some of the CD ripping anf audio programs will display a scope-like trace?
The Seeed and similar pocket DSO's are very good but I don't find somne of them intuitive.
Then there are USB things which can be faster than soundacrds, but use the PC for display and storage.
Picoscope is the best known, but I expect the world has moved on.
You should decide what bandwiidth you need, ideally for audio you want to look beyond sample rate, if you are fault finding stuff like switch mode power supplies a scope capable of tens of MHz is good.
Two channels is almost an essential minimum, more is often better.
An analogue scope is perhaps the most foolproof, a digital scope which can capture a single shot waveform is often useful.
Basically just software, but you could add attenuators or amplifiers and some proteection.
Some of the CD ripping anf audio programs will display a scope-like trace?
The Seeed and similar pocket DSO's are very good but I don't find somne of them intuitive.
Then there are USB things which can be faster than soundacrds, but use the PC for display and storage.
Picoscope is the best known, but I expect the world has moved on.
You should decide what bandwiidth you need, ideally for audio you want to look beyond sample rate, if you are fault finding stuff like switch mode power supplies a scope capable of tens of MHz is good.
Two channels is almost an essential minimum, more is often better.
An analogue scope is perhaps the most foolproof, a digital scope which can capture a single shot waveform is often useful.
If it's just for audio, why not just use a phone app like this?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org....
Or, for spectrum analysis, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org....
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org....
Or, for spectrum analysis, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org....
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