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Cheap PC Oscilloscopes - Any Recommendations?

Posted by Cliff on from the waves-on-screen dept.

Missionary Man asks: "I'm an electronics teacher looking for a good (but reasonably cheap) PC based oscilloscope for classroom demonstration purposes. I've done a reasonable amount of research and come up with a few contenders. Ideally I'd like something with a bandwidth of up to 40MHz and 2 channels. Does anyone have any tales to tell regarding the use of any of these scopes (or any others I haven't found or mentioned) and can recommend a suitable device?"

"Here's the list of my findings so far:

  • The DS2200C from USB Instruments will do 2 channels at 12 bit resolution, but only to 200KHz.
  • The PCS100 from Velleman at QKits runs to 12MHz, but only 1 channel. It has a bigger brother, the PCS500, that has 2 channels and 50MHz bandwidth, but is a lot more expensive.
  • Picotech do cheaper ones, like the ADC-40/42, but these only operate in the KHz ranges.
  • Link Instruments sell the DSO-2102S that runs to 60MHz with 2 channels, but it's a bit out of my price range.
  • Finally, I found the bitscope which seems to be just what I'm looking for, combining a 2 channel scope and an 8 channel logic analyzer for a reasonable price.
I'm hoping to spend US$300-$400. I recognize the software is a fundamental part of the successful operation of these units and any comments regarding the bundled programs would be most helpful too!"

14 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. winamp? by VegetariMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think my media player has an oscilloscope...

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    --Nick
  2. Here's a good one by cscx · · Score: 0, Funny

    Here's a good one, I think it's reasonably priced, too! :)

    1. Re:Here's a good one by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Funny

      They've got to be kidding. $21,500 for a machine that runs on Windows? Why would I want an oscilloscope that blue-screens?

    2. Re:Here's a good one by cscx · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't make me tell you about the time a lab full of $70k Tek logic analyzers for a class I took had to be shut down because the douchenozzle sysadmins put the LAs on the Internet with external IPs (no firewall even), yet never thought of patching them. They all got infected with one of the worms.

    3. Re:Here's a good one by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Funny

      Quite a few scopes by both Tektronix and Agilent run Windows these days.

      Yeah, and they take just about as long to boot up. It's ridiculous. Anything longer than 2 seconds is unacceptable. I can imagine that a bic lighter will soon be computerized and will require a 30 second boot up just to light a joint...err...cigarette...yeah, that's it.

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      What?
    4. Re:Here's a good one by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Funny

      Let me re-word that...At least it doesn't need this to run.

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      What?
  3. Re:Bankruptcy Auctions! by bigberk · · Score: 5, Funny
    I work for a biotech that saved 75% of our initial budget by acquiring medical laboratory supplies from six other biotechs that went bankrupt in recent months
    Six others? OMG, and that didn't in the least suggest to you that maybe you're in the wrong kind of business?
  4. Re:Cheap PC Oscilloscopes by unitron · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...type "Cheap PC Oscilloscopes" into the search box and click "Search".


    If you google for "Cheap PC Oscilloscopes" with the quote marks included all you get is a link to this article.

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    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  5. Re:Bankruptcy Auctions! by The+Clockwork+Troll · · Score: 4, Funny
    Six others? OMG, and that didn't in the least suggest to you that maybe you're in the wrong kind of business?
    How many IT companies have gone out of business in recent years? Does that dictate that the upstart firms with financial discipline and valuable products/services should pack up shop and close their doors? Because it's an industry many have failed in?

    Sorry to go off-topic but since the question was about oscilloscopes I felt I had to add a logic probe!

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    There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
  6. Re:Educational device by I+don't+want+to+spen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Very off-topic, but I remember seeing a demonstration 10-15 years ago of the latest Spectrum Analyser, where the salesman made a big deal of the battery backed RAM saving the settings when the device was switched off. One of the older engineers said "we've got that on the analogue spec analysers, we call it a knob."

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    Don't go to a brothel if you want to buy broth
  7. Re:Educational device by Aussie · · Score: 3, Funny

    I spit upon VB. *spit*

    no no. Spit on Fosters, VB is drinkable.

  8. Re:Bankruptcy Auctions! by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

    At least the equipment ended up at auction. Hope none of the biotech "development" ended up in the dumpster out back. Dawn of the Drosophila Melanogaster!

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    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  9. My 1960's scope takes about 30 seconds by lhaeh · · Score: 3, Funny

    You kids and your fancy new transistorized scopes'

    My 1968 Tek 453 took ~two hours to warm up, and when a tube died we had to walk twenty miles in the snow just to get a new one!

  10. Re:Educational device by Thomas+Shaddack · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...interface+software setup that "isolate" the student from whatever electrical phenomenon...

    Well... there are certain high-voltage phenomenons I *prefer* to be isolated from. ;)