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Educational Oscilloscope? — Parallax Forums

Educational Oscilloscope?

Keith YoungKeith Young Posts: 569
in Accessories
I'm currently looking for an oscilloscope for teaching middle/high schoolers. I have raspberry pi's so as far as I know the Parallax scopes are out. I don't think they have Linux drivers.

Do you guys know of any other solutions? Either something with a very cheap screen, or vga/hdmi output, or something with Pi compatible drivers?

Comments

  • SeairthSeairth Posts: 2,474
    You might consider the DSO Nano v3. It's fairly limited, but it's self-contained and relatively inexpensive. If you look around, you can probably find some older V1 or V2 models for even less money. I own a V1 (or is it a V2? I forget. anyhow...) and it's good for low-frequency stuff. Definitely a starter scope...

    If you really want to use the RPi as the front end, you might also check out some of Seeed's other products. For instance, I think the DSLogic Pro can work as a scope and works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

    The nice thing about the Seeed products is that they are all open source, so you have the opportunity for your students to "look inside" for a deeper understanding.
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,148
    This link is a start
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/bitscope-micro/

    Not cheap, and probably an overkill too, but there are useful links in the comments.
    If you do not need analog, there are GPIO Logic analyzers like
    http://abyz.co.uk/rpi/pigpio/piscope.html

    If you want capable Hardware and a Good Screen, this has real appeal
    http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/STM32F746G-DISCO/497-15680-5-ND

    With all this,
    * STM32F746NGH6 MCU 1 MB Flash, 340 kB RAM
    * USB functions: virtual COM port, mass storage, debug port
    * 4.3-inch 480x272 color LCD-TFT with capacitive touch screen

    and MCU info is here
    http://www.st.com/web/catalog/mmc/FM141/SC1169/SS1858/LN1902/PF260869

    3×12-bit, 2.4 MSPS ADC: up to 24 channels and 7.2 MSPS in triple interleaved mode
    2×12-bit D/A converters
    ..
    8- to 14-bit parallel camera interface up to 54 Mbytes/s

    all the hardware platform, including screen, is there for a quite useful
    Analog Scope / Multimeter / Waveform generator / Logic Analyzer / Frequency Counter...

    and with all this connectivity, someone will link this to a Pi
    * USB OTG HS with Micro-AB connectors
    * USB OTG FS with Micro-AB connectors
    * Ethernet connector compliant with IEEE-802.3-2002
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    And now for something completely different...
    http://www.banggood.com/DSO112-2MHz-Touch-Screen-TFT-Digital-Mini-Handheld-Oscilloscope-p-977991.html
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Whit,

    Oh shoot. That banggood scope is totally not what I was looking for in my next scope. But it's so cute I might just have to get one.

    For use in school I'd be worried about it going missing !

    Being old school myself I'm of the opinion that the best scope for educational purposes would be an old style analogue scope. Say two channels and only 20MHz or so. Get one off ebay for cheap.

    An analogue scope gives such a direct connection between what is happening in your circuit and what you see on the screen. The controls are simple, meaningful and direct.

    The digital scopes seem to to have too many layers of abstraction between the student and reality. And too much complication with all their features.




  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,148
    Heater. wrote: »
    Being old school myself I'm of the opinion that the best scope for educational purposes would be an old style analogue scope. Say two channels and only 20MHz or so. Get one off ebay for cheap.
    That's a good idea too, and you can never have too many scopes, so the cute single channel one can complement an old-school scope....
  • Keith YoungKeith Young Posts: 569
    Found another though Whit's find is half the price.

    https://adafruit.com/products/468
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Just be sure not to get this scope: http://www.diyertool.com/qdso-mini-handheld-oscilloscope-with-40mhz-bandwidth.html

    From the page there:

    Very sorry for this stupid product! Fortunately, we invited Dave and Mike to post their professional review. Facts have proved, this is a failed product.
    Here we promise: We will never sell this product and promote products from this manufacturer!

    Hysterical.

    Looks like they will still sell it to your for 105 dollars though!
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,148
    The idea looks good, but I cannot see the actual review ?
    Wonder where it fails ?
    There are always the DSO201 and DSO203 models ?
  • Keith YoungKeith Young Posts: 569
    Just found an interesting site while looking for a good solution for this:

    dangerousprototypes.com/

    Some of you are probably familiar with this site. Anything in particular to check out here?

    In other news I found a project called Sigrok which makes Linux software for some scopes etc. A pretty cool project.

    Also another option for those of you also looking comes from Saleae. However they can be pretty pricey. I have their original Logic, but unfortunately it has no Analog capabilities. I'm also not convinced it's a full on scope where you can make measurements, but I stand to be corrected there.
  • Keith YoungKeith Young Posts: 569
    Another interesting product:

    digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,842,1018&Prod=ANALOG-DISCOVERY&CFID=18496111&CFTOKEN=b75d7e9edc31d6eb-84C5AE98-5056-0201-02CD9D0878AE8606

  • Sir GawainSir Gawain Posts: 32
    I use and enjoy the waveform generator and the oscilloscope from Syscomp.syscompdesign.com
    They have a digital text, great customer service, and are portable.
    Check out the features.
  • DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
    edited 2015-10-23 17:31
    I really like Heater.'s point about going analogue for educational purposes. And they'll be cheap on ebay or from a university that is upgrading.

    However, if you choose to go the USB/digital route, Saleae is an excellent choice. They have a new 4-channel option ($110) and one of those channels is capable of both analog and digital (the other three are digital only). The Saleae software is extremely easy to use and cross-platform.

    https://www.saleae.com/
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,511
    DavidZemon wrote: »
    I really like Heater.'s point about going analogue for educational purposes. And they'll be cheap on ebay or from a university that is upgrading.

    However, if you choose to go the USB/digital route, Saleae is an excellent choice. They have a new 4-channel option ($110) and one of those channels is capable of both analog and digital (the other three are digital only). The Saleae software is extremely easy to use and cross-platform.

    https://www.saleae.com/
    I agree. I have one of their older units and it works very well.

  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    If you can qualify to get the "academic" price for the Analog Discovery, don't hesitate to buy one. At one time there was a $99 student price but all I see now is $149. It's still hard to beat even at that price and the Waveforms software is very good.

    Review:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aymumu3mYl8



    .
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