[sdiy] scopes

[Grant Richter]

Hi Eric,

>> DeVrys (sp?) Institute used to sell electronics courses and you built a
>> little 2" oscilloscope as part of the training. I repackaged the little
>> scope into a module that you slid 35mm slides into as an optical waveshaper.
>> It took another 25 years before it occurred to me that an ADC->EPROM->DAC
>> did the same thing, but much better. Doh!
> 
> Smaller and with lower power, yes, but "better"?
> 
> Los Alamos Lab once made a flying-spot scanner for use with their
> ultra-high-speed MCP oscilloscopes. As I recall, they could successfully
> detect and store single-event pulses with risetimes of 80 picoseconds
> or better. The thing used a mirror scanner rotating at 12,000 rpm and a PMT.
> They had to do this to observe transducer outputs associated with
> nuclear-weapon test firings. (Can any available ADC chip do this, Grant?)

Your preaching to the choir my friend!

Better was an unfortunate choice of phrase. What I meant was "more
manufacturable". Can you see John Blacet and I hand painting hundreds of
little slides? Ouch!