The most common source for these type of PC-card "instruments" is National Instruments.
If you are teaching about electronics, you would be better off buying a used Tek 475 (or similar) analog scope, you can get a very good one for $300-400. They can learn about the actual circutry, timing, measurement error, etc. without getting heavily into sampling theory and digitial signal processing.
If you want the students to learn "the new way" of electronic instruments, check with National Instruments about used/traded in cards, and software; they may have an educational discount.
There are also some "poor man's" type of scopes made of surplus parts, old TV's, etc.. that you can find in the back pages of Nuts& volts magazine; I don't recommend these if you want the students to learn what they will use in the future, in real-world engineering applications.
Finally, there are mixed-mode instruments that are analog with analog storage, analog with digital storage, analog with digital readouts added, various standard instruments with serial or GPIB interfaces, and s/w from the mfr or 3d party for control and analysis.
See if you can find on some engineer's shelf a catalog/book from Tek or HP, say, from the 1980s or 90's, this is about the vintage that will work and be in your price range.
I have always thought that the one thing that was missing from ALL software, is a "novice button". The first-time user should be able to install something, press "novice", and get the simplest, feature-poor version, without any options. Most novices are glad to see the thing boot up at all, ecstatic if they can perform a simple function like writing something and saving it. I am not a novice, yet, the way I use a word-proceesor even today, is to disable every single feature I can find--otherwise, it fights me every step of the way, trying to correct the spelling of my esoteric tech acronyms, the grammar and syntax of a complex technical report, etc.
OF COURSE the geeks who wrote the program think it's easy to use. It's THEIR program! What about the rest of the planet?
Sometimnes I think that programmers operate with a different set of "Givens" than everyone else. Here are some of them: 1)Disk space is infinite 2)RAM is infinite 3)computer speed is infinite 4)no computer is more than five days old, otherwise it would be in the dump. 5)The number of useless features customers "want" is infinite. 6)The time it takes for a new user to learn a program is zero seconds. 7)End-user patience for ever-changing formats, updates, appearance changes, etc. is infinite. 8) The cost of retraining users is zero....and so on.
Thanks for the breath of fresh air. Sometimes it really, really stinks in here [the computer world].
Has it occurred to anyone that many of us
don't WANT every light switch in our homes to
have an IP address?
We don't NEED to hear, at 0300, a disembodied
voice from the kitchen saying "this toaster has
committed an illegal operation and will be shut
down". We don't need hackers flushing our toilets,
opening and shutting the garage door at random, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
The most common source for these type of PC-card "instruments" is National Instruments.
If you are teaching about electronics, you would be better off buying a used Tek 475 (or similar) analog scope, you can get a very good one for $300-400. They can learn about the actual circutry, timing, measurement error, etc. without
getting heavily into sampling theory and digitial
signal processing.
If you want the students to learn "the new way" of
electronic instruments, check with National Instruments about used/traded in cards, and software; they may have an educational discount.
There are also some "poor man's" type of scopes made of surplus parts, old TV's, etc.. that you can find in the back pages of Nuts& volts magazine; I don't recommend these if you want the students to learn what they will use in the future, in real-world engineering applications.
Finally, there are mixed-mode instruments that are analog with analog storage, analog with digital storage, analog with digital readouts added, various standard instruments with serial or GPIB interfaces, and s/w from the mfr or 3d party for
control and analysis.
See if you can find on some engineer's shelf a catalog/book from Tek or HP, say, from the 1980s
or 90's, this is about the vintage that will work and be in your price range.
Boy, have you hit it on the head.
...and so on.
I have always thought that the one thing
that was missing from ALL software, is a
"novice button". The first-time user should
be able to install something, press "novice", and
get the simplest, feature-poor version, without
any options. Most novices are glad to see the
thing boot up at all, ecstatic if they can perform
a simple function like writing something and saving it.
I am not a novice, yet, the way I use a word-proceesor even today, is to disable every single feature I can find--otherwise, it fights me every step of the way, trying to correct the spelling of my esoteric tech acronyms, the grammar and syntax of a complex technical report, etc.
OF COURSE the geeks who wrote the program think it's easy to use. It's THEIR program! What about the rest of the planet?
Sometimnes I think that programmers operate with a
different set of "Givens" than everyone else.
Here are some of them:
1)Disk space is infinite
2)RAM is infinite
3)computer speed is infinite
4)no computer is more than five days old, otherwise it would be in the dump.
5)The number of useless features customers "want"
is infinite.
6)The time it takes for a new user to learn a program is zero seconds.
7)End-user patience for ever-changing formats, updates, appearance changes, etc. is infinite.
8) The cost of retraining users is zero.
Thanks for the breath of fresh air. Sometimes it really, really stinks in here [the computer world].
Has it occurred to anyone that many of us don't WANT every light switch in our homes to have an IP address? We don't NEED to hear, at 0300, a disembodied voice from the kitchen saying "this toaster has committed an illegal operation and will be shut down". We don't need hackers flushing our toilets, opening and shutting the garage door at random, etc.