Until recently, hobby-grade digital oscilloscopes were mostly, at most, 8-bit sampling. However, newer devices offer 12-bit conversion. Does it matter? Depends. [Kiss Analog] shows where a 12-bit scope may outperform an 8-bit one.
It may seem obvious, of course. When you store data in 8-bit resolution and zoom in on it, you simply have less resolution. However, seeing the difference on real data is enlightening.
Continue reading “Two Bits, Four Bits, A Twelve-bit Oscilloscope”
We’re suckers for a vintage electronic teardown here at Hackaday, and thus it’s pleasing to see [Thomas Scherrer OZ2CPU] with a 1962 AEG oscilloscope on his bench. It’s definitely seen better days, and is a single-trace 10 MHz unit of the type you might have seen in a typical general purpose electronics lab back in the day.
Pulling the cover off, and as expected there’s a row of tubes each side of the centrally mounted CRT. No printed circuits in sight, and no transistors either, though the rectifiers are selenium parts. After a clean-up it’s time to look at the tubes, and they show the metallic deposits characteristic of long operation. We’re more used to that from older televisions than test equipment,
Gently bringing the power up it looks promising, but there’s a purple glow from one of the PCL82 triode-pentodes. Replacing that and a double-triode results in a ‘scope that surprisingly, is working. It was evidently a high quality device in the first place, with components capable of lasting for over six decades.
We’ve seen more from his bench involving tubes, including this device using a magic-eye tube as the heavy lifter.
You’re designing an oscilloscope with modest storage — only 15,000 samples per channel. However, the sample rate is at 5 Gs/s, and you have to store all four channels at that speed and depth. While there is a bit of a challenge implied, this is quite doable using today’s technology. But what about in the 1990s when the Tektronix TDS 684B appeared on the market? [Tom Verbure] wondered how it was able to do such a thing. He found out, and since he wrote it up, now you can find out, too.
Inside the scope, there are two PCBs. There’s a CPU board, of course. But there’s not enough memory there to account for the scope’s capability. That much high-speed memory would have been tough in those days, anyway. The memory is actually on the analog board along with the inputs and digitizers. That should be a clue.
Continue reading “Oscilloscope Digital Storage, 1990s Style”
These days, if you are in the market for a capable digital voltmeter, you might as well consider getting one with an oscilloscope built-in. One choice is the Owon HDS160, which [Kerry Wong] covers in the video below. The model is very similar to the HDS120, but the multimeter in the HDS160 has more counts–60,000 vs 20,000 as you might expect from the model number.
The internal chip is an HY3131, which is rated at 50,000 counts which is odd since the meter is 60,000 counts, but presumably the meter uses some capability of the chip, possibly putting it out of spec. The oscilloscope is the same between the two models. Almost everything else works the same, other than the capacitance measuring feature, as the video shows.
The difference in cost between the two units isn’t much, so if you are shopping, the small extra cost is probably worth it. Not that a 20,000 count meter isn’t perfectly fine for most normal uses.
[Kerry] really likes scopemeters. He gets excited about bench scopes, too.
The Jye Tech DSO-150 is a capable compact scope that you can purchase as a kit. If you’re really feeling the DIY ethos, you can go even further, too, and kit your scope out with the latest open source firmware.
The Open-DSO-150 firmware is a complete rewrite from the ground up, and packs the scope with lots of neat features. You get one analog or three digital channels, and triggers are configurable for rising, falling, or both edges on all signals. There is also a voltmeter mode, serial data dump feature, and a signal statistics display for broader analysis.
Continue reading “Open Source Firmware For The JYE TECH DSO-150”
Classic demos from the demoscene are all about showing off one’s technical prowess, with a common side order of a slick banging soundtrack. That’s precisely what [BUS ERROR Collective] members [DJ_Level_3] and [Marv1994] delivered with their prize-winning Primer demo this week.
This demo is a grand example of so-called “oscilloscope music”—where two channels of audio are used to control an oscilloscope in X-Y mode. The sounds played determine the graphics on the screen, as we’ve explored previously.
The real magic is when you create very cool sounds that also draw very cool graphics on the oscilloscope. The Primer demo achieves this goal perfectly. Indeed, it’s intended as a “primer” on the very artform itself, starting out with some simple waveforms and quickly spiraling into a graphical wonderland of spinning shapes and morphing patterns, all to a sweet electronic soundtrack. It was created with a range of tools, including Osci-Render and apparently Ableton 11, and the recording performed on a gorgeous BK Precision Model 2120 oscilloscope in a nice shade of green.
If you think this demo is fully sick, you’re not alone. It took out first place in the Wild category at the Revision 2025 demo party, as well as the Crowd Favorite award. High praise indeed.
We love a good bit of demoscene magic around these parts.
Continue reading “Amazing Oscilloscope Demo Scores The Win At Revision 2025”
If you’ve ever fumbled through circuit simulation and ended up with a flatline instead of a sine wave, this video from [saisri] might just be the fix. In this walkthrough she demonstrates simulating a Colpitts oscillator using NI Multisim 14.3 – a deceptively simple analog circuit known for generating stable sine waves. Her video not only shows how to place and wire components, but it demonstrates why precision matters, even in virtual space.
You’ll notice the emphasis on wiring accuracy at multi-node junctions, something many tutorials skim over. [saisri] points out that a single misconnected node in Multisim can cause the circuit to output zilch. She guides viewers step-by-step, starting with component selection via the “Place > Components” dialog, through to running the simulation and interpreting the sine wave output on Channel A. The manual included at the end of the video is a neat bonus, bundling theory, waveform visuals, and circuit diagrams into one handy PDF.
If you’re into precision hacking, retro analogue joy, or just love watching a sine wave bloom onscreen, this is worth your time. You can watch the original video here.
Continue reading “Virtual Nodes, Real Waves: A Colpitts Walkthrough”
