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USB DSO: Final Form & Data Captures

Discussion in 'BoM Blogs' started by Blackthorne TA, Apr 20, 2012.

  1. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Remove all ads!
    Here are a few pics of the finished and buttoned up enclosure and a few screen caps of the Oscilloscope software I wrote with the Oscilloscope hooked up to a waveform generator at various waveforms and frequencies.

    Here's the enclosed project without the oscilloscope probe from the top:
    [​IMG]

    Here's the enclosed project without the oscilloscope probe from the bottom:
    [​IMG]

    Here's the project with the probe attached and the left side of my workbench:
    [​IMG]

    Here's a screencap of the oscilloscope capturing a 1MHz sine wave:
    [​IMG]

    Here's a screencap of the oscilloscope capturing a 100KHz sine wave:
    [​IMG]

    Here's a screencap of the oscilloscope capturing a 20KHz triangle wave:
    [​IMG]

    And finally a 1KHz square wave:
    [​IMG]

    So that's it!

    I could go into technical details of the firmware and software, but there doesn't seem to be much interest... :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 20, 2015
    Blackthorne TA, Apr 20, 2012
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  2. Dice

    Dice ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

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    I'm still in awe that you can make something like that. Very nice screencaps of the oscilloscope capturing different wave forms. I especially liked the 1MHz sine wave.
     
    Dice, Apr 21, 2012
    #2
  3. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Thanks! It was a lot of fun and I learned quite a bit. :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Apr 21, 2012
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  4. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    BTA, forgive me if you've already stated this in a prior blog, but just what does this thing do, in layman's terms?
     
    Gaear, Apr 21, 2012
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  5. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Oh, it's an electrical/electronic diagnostic tool. At a very basic level, it measures voltage levels. But since voltages in any device can change very quickly, something like a voltmeter is not adequate for diagnosing high-speed issues or visualizing high-speed electrical signals.

    That's where an oscilloscope comes in. As you can see from the above, it can easily capture a signal that changes a million times per second, and it can capture a wide range of voltage frequencies as you can also see.

    Does that clear it up? If not, just say so and I'll try a different tack.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Apr 22, 2012
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  6. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    Yeah, that covers the basics, thanks.

    Next question - what would you use such a thing for and why? :)
     
    Gaear, Apr 22, 2012
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  7. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Hehe, well like I said it's a diagnostic tool, so one would use it to troubleshoot electronics. Obviously someone with no electronics training or skills would have no use for one. :)

    For me specifically, I thought it would be a useful project to do and I could use it for future projects while at the same time learning something like I laid out in the opening blog post.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Apr 22, 2012
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  8. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    Yeah, I understand about the personal motivation.

    So you could somehow hook it up to your DVD player or something and run diagnostic tests? Neat. ;)
     
    Gaear, Apr 22, 2012
    #8
  9. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I could do that if I knew how the DVD player (or whatever) was supposed to work (i.e. what the voltage waveforms were supposed to look like at various points).

    I remember when I was young my Dad built a vacuum-tube color TV from a kit (Heathkit?), and he had to borrow an oscilloscope from work to figure out that one of the parts was bad. Of course the kit laid everything out for you with schematics etc.

    Not sure how easy that would be with some consumer electronics gadget where user instructions are barely supplied any more :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Apr 23, 2012
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  10. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Neat, interesting screenshots.
     
    Taluntain, May 25, 2012
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  11. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Thanks! I tried to capture a wide range of frequencies and waveforms to give everyone an idea of the capabilities and what it looks like. :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, May 25, 2012
    #11
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