[sdiy] Pocket oscilloscope

[gordonjcp at gjcp.net]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 08:26:05PM -0400, Marc Israel wrote:
> There are some pocket oscilloscopes in my price range like the dso nano and such. Was curious if they would work to show me waveforms if I had made a small triangle wave oscillator or square wave to know what kind of waveform I creating when experimenting. Are they fast enough. I know they wouldn't show me as much as a higher desktop model oscilloscope but would I be able to see what I was creating in small low power circuits, or would it be a waste of money.

If you're looking for an oscilloscope at a budget-sensitive price, pick up a nice old dual-trace analogue 'scope from someone near you.  Look on eBay, search "nearest first" and when you find one ask if they'll show you how to use it if you don't know how it works or if they'll let you try it out if you do know.

It'll cost about as much as a decent Chinese takeaway for a perfectly adequate 25MHz-ish 'scope that'll do everything you could possibly need.  My HP quad-trace 100MHz DSO sits with a thick layer of dust on top and my Iwatsu 20MHz analogue is pretty much never switched off, even working on RF stuff...

-- 
Gordonjcp MM0YEQ