Propscope testing
fixmax
Posts: 91
Just started testing out the Propscope yesterday. Great job on the software and hardware for that little guy. I'm really impressed on how intuitive it is navigating through the oscilloscopes basic functionality. Anyone with even a smattering of familiarity with oscilloscopes will feel right at home with the PC interface. In addition to testing the various measuring modes, I started testing out the built in function generator.
I have to say when I selected the custom arbitrary waveform tool how amazed I was. This function is a really amazing option to have. I could be wrong, but I was checking pricing on dedicated arbitrary waveform generators, and they look like they start around $1500 and up, so for $300 you get an oscilloscope AND the handy, functional generator. For those who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, you can edit a complete waveform with your mouse button on a popup screen, and click "generate" and "viola" instant custom waveform. Really cool. I'd read about arbitrary waveform generators, but never could justify the expense of one. Great job on that btw.
Overall, I ran software versions 1.04 and 1.05, with the 1.04 appearing to be a bit more stable when going from various modes. Haven't looked at the tv signal generation of the 1.05 - that looked interesting, but I didn't test this. Is this like a NTSC test pattern or something? that would be very handy indeed for debugging text overlay or prop filtering testing. Just curious. Hanno, by the way your my hero. Great effort on the Propscope. I actually own like 3 of your products now - 12blocks, viewport ultra, and now the propscope. Thanks work with the Propscope and the propeller in general, and to you too Parallax for a really great chip to work with. I never cease to be amazed at what it can do.
I have to say when I selected the custom arbitrary waveform tool how amazed I was. This function is a really amazing option to have. I could be wrong, but I was checking pricing on dedicated arbitrary waveform generators, and they look like they start around $1500 and up, so for $300 you get an oscilloscope AND the handy, functional generator. For those who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, you can edit a complete waveform with your mouse button on a popup screen, and click "generate" and "viola" instant custom waveform. Really cool. I'd read about arbitrary waveform generators, but never could justify the expense of one. Great job on that btw.
Overall, I ran software versions 1.04 and 1.05, with the 1.04 appearing to be a bit more stable when going from various modes. Haven't looked at the tv signal generation of the 1.05 - that looked interesting, but I didn't test this. Is this like a NTSC test pattern or something? that would be very handy indeed for debugging text overlay or prop filtering testing. Just curious. Hanno, by the way your my hero. Great effort on the Propscope. I actually own like 3 of your products now - 12blocks, viewport ultra, and now the propscope. Thanks work with the Propscope and the propeller in general, and to you too Parallax for a really great chip to work with. I never cease to be amazed at what it can do.
Comments
The tv feature displays the voltage and a simple graph of ch1 on an NTSC TV- so you can use it even without a pc. You still need to power it.... Of course, you can also measure the NTSC signal with the propscope... Feel free to suggest other tv features/uses...
Have made huge progress to making software even better, will make available when my laptop is finally connected to internet again-I'm tired of internet cafe's!
Hanno
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Co-author of the official Propeller Guide- available at Amazon
Developer of ViewPort, the premier visual debugger for the Propeller (read the review here, thread here),
12Blocks, the block-based programming environment (thread here)
and PropScope, the multi-function USB oscilloscope/function generator/logic analyzer