What are the most important aspects of a oscilloscope? What should I be looking out for when buying a used scope?
[QUOTE=demoguy08;33375317]What are the most important aspects of a oscilloscope? What should I be looking out for when buying a used scope?[/QUOTE]
Look for burn in on the CRT, check it with a signal to see if it actually shows anything etc.
When you're buying from ebay, the photo should at the very least show a line. A sine wave is even better. If it's not turned on at all on the pictures, chances are it's not quite as described.
I'll probably be buying one locally due to the weight and shipping costs and such, so I'll hopefully be able to examine it closely. Is 100mhz bandwidth a must or does it depend on what I'll be doing with it? Mainly audio probably, but other stuff occasionally.
And I say 100mhz because it seems to be the most common frequency in the listings when I look at used scopes
[QUOTE=demoguy08;33376085]I'll probably be buying one locally due to the weight and shipping costs and such, so I'll hopefully be able to examine it closely. Is 100mhz bandwidth a must or does it depend on what I'll be doing with it? Mainly audio probably, but other stuff occasionally.
And I say 100mhz because it seems to be the most common frequency in the listings when I look at used scopes[/QUOTE]
Anything 5MHz or higher is fine for audio.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;33376085]I'll probably be buying one locally due to the weight and shipping costs and such, so I'll hopefully be able to examine it closely. Is 100mhz bandwidth a must or does it depend on what I'll be doing with it? Mainly audio probably, but other stuff occasionally.
And I say 100mhz because it seems to be the most common frequency in the listings when I look at used scopes[/QUOTE]
I'd say probably a 20-30MHz is good enough for most work, but if you can find an affordable brand-name scope at 100MHz that WORKS then go for it. Don't even worry if it doesn't have leads, those are easy enough to make yourself.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;33381364]I'd say probably a 20-30MHz is good enough for most work, but if you can find an affordable brand-name scope at 100MHz that WORKS then go for it. Don't even worry if it doesn't have leads, those are easy enough to make yourself.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, typically you can use your Multimeter leads and just buy a few dollar Banana to BNC adapters.
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;33381525]Yeah, typically you can use your Multimeter leads and just buy a few dollar Banana to BNC adapters.[/QUOTE]
Or just buy a run-of-the-mill BNC cable, chop it up, solder in a few resistors and presto.
[url]http://www.cromwell-intl.com/radio/probes.html[/url]
You can even add in a trim cap if you want to get extra fancy with it. :v:
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;33381658]Or just buy a run-of-the-mill BNC cable, chop it up, solder in a few resistors and presto.
[url]http://www.cromwell-intl.com/radio/probes.html[/url]
You can even add in a trim cap if you want to get extra fancy with it. :v:[/QUOTE]
That's my usual style xD
And its more fun that way
When looking though ebay I found this gem:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/o3Pp7.png[/img]
[QUOTE=benjojo;33391605]When looking though ebay I found this gem:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/o3Pp7.png[/img][/QUOTE]
what the fuck all of my rage I want to murder etc.
[QUOTE=benjojo;33391605]When looking though ebay I found this gem:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/o3Pp7.png[/img][/QUOTE]
Maybe there's something stupid simple that's making it smoke, like some dog hair or a bug where it shouldn't be. v:v:v
Or some crispy resistor or capacitor or inductor or transistor... although it must be one tough motherfucker of component
The retarded & absolutely dangerous adventures of Subby!
Shitty iphone 3G pictures included!!!!??!!!!
Arduino buck regulator!??!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is it aiming for 2 volts
[img_thumb]http://www.ieatnoobs.com/arduinoregulator/IMG_0049.JPG[/img_thumb]
aiming for 1 volt
[img_thumb]http://www.ieatnoobs.com/arduinoregulator/IMG_0048.JPG[/img_thumb]
aiming for 4 volts
[img_thumb]http://www.ieatnoobs.com/arduinoregulator/IMG_0050.JPG[/img_thumb]
The code:
[cpp]
// Shitty Regulator V0.11 //
// Helped by ddrl,yo //
int output = 0;
int aim = 816;
int pwm = 0;
void setup()
{
TCCR2B = 0x01;
}
void loop()
{
output = analogRead(0);
if ( output < aim)
{
if (pwm < 255)
{
pwm = pwm + 1;
}
}
else if (output > aim)
{
if (pwm > 0)
{
pwm = pwm - 1;
}
}
analogWrite(3, pwm);
}
[/cpp]
... I was considering buying that smoking scope and attempting repair
[img]http://i56.tinypic.com/fbkgsm.png[/img]
Look what finally arrived!
[editline]23rd November 2011[/editline]
I need tweezers...
Just found a deal on an Altera DE-2 board, going to see how that works out, I'll post again once I find out either way.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FJG6x.jpg[/img]
Managed to get an ENC28J60 Ethernet Controller to work. Right now it only happily flashes a LED when an ARP packet is sent on the LAN, I'll start working on a quick and dirty IP stack for this...
It's also super cool because it uses a Morocco-made 3.3V regulator I found lying around at our hackerspace. :v:
[img]http://flockdraw.com/upload/j7i8eoxd23w4sooww4.png[/img]
Me and Ddrl have been working hard on fixing his scope, we've narrowed down the problem now to a single cap which has shorted letting the 1600V anode voltage into the 175V blanking / chopper circuit.
Next step is to check the power supply has not been damaged by the high voltage.
I had a lot of fun doing this kind of stuff in college. I might try to pick up some parts and pieces someday and try to make something fun...
All we really did in college was make counters and logic gates.
[QUOTE=ruarai;33442633]I know how electricity works, and what logic gates are supposed to do, but I can't find a good tutorial that actually tells me what is happening. Instead I get "make this and this light goes on!". Anyone got any good starter tutorials?[/QUOTE]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/user/nptelhrd#grid/user/7987F30C41A9ADCB]Basic Electronics, Prof T.S.Natarajan - NPTEL[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQxyVuLeCs]MIT Lecture Series 6.002[/url]
Enjoy!
Also if you want to really understand how devices like Op-Amps and logic gates work get a copy of The Art of Electronics, it has
tons of information on all different areas of electronics that I don't think any other resource comes close to matching.
Not extremely interesting, but I got an IRC client through my Arduino's serial connection and the Ethernet shield. I can post code if people want. It doesn't have any epic features yet though.
And once again, if anyone's interested, I still have a HP 16500C Digital Logic Analyzer that I'd like to get rid of.
I'm currently studying electronics at college and over the past few months we've been doing programming (I think we use PIC16F886, but initially we were using [url=http://softwareforeducation.com/wikilekiextra/AQA-Assembler-Simulator.swf] this simulation software[/url]). It's easily one of my favourite part of electronics, and I'm thinking about doing it as a hobby thing at home. I see that the Arduino Uno is a popular choice, but what else would I need to start? Is there like a starter kit I can get?
[QUOTE=howling techie;33460851]I'm currently studying electronics at college and over the past few months we've been doing programming (I think we use PIC16F886, but initially we were using [url=http://softwareforeducation.com/wikilekiextra/AQA-Assembler-Simulator.swf] this simulation software[/url]). It's easily one of my favourite part of electronics, and I'm thinking about doing it as a hobby thing at home. I see that the Arduino Uno is a popular choice, but what else would I need to start? Is there like a starter kit I can get?[/QUOTE]
Just buy a small selection of parts such as resistors, capacitors, LEDs, diodes and transistors along with a digital multimeter, breadboard and a MCU development board.
Depending on how much you want to spend on a MCU there are a number of options:
Buying a MCU and a cheap programmer (I.E USBTiny with an Atmel MCU)
A ready made development board (Ti MSP430 Launchpad, Arduino, PICAXE, etc)
Building your own development board
As your in the UK I highly recommend [url=http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/]Bitsbox[/url] which has very cheap UK delivery for £1.50.
Don't bother with starter kits as they're often very overpriced and you don't get much in them.
Has anyone had experience with the Beagleboard? I've been looking into them and not sure if they are worth the hefty price.
[editline]27th November 2011[/editline]
Bought the TI Launchpad. It may not be as powerful as the Arduino, but it's so cheap I don't worry nearly as much about accidently frying it.
The launchpad is quite nice, not as super-simple as the arduino, but still pretty damn easy to use. The only thing I hate about it is the machine-pin IC socket, though that's not a problem unless you're an idiot like me and somehow manage to snap off a leg in it while simultaneously stabbing yourself in the finger. :v:
[QUOTE=DrLuke;33402187][img]http://i56.tinypic.com/fbkgsm.png[/img]
Look what finally arrived!
[editline]23rd November 2011[/editline]
I need tweezers...[/QUOTE]
This is extremely off-topic but why does DrLuke, ddrl46 and Chryseus keep rating each other dumb?
[QUOTE=demoguy08;33469475]This is extremely off-topic but why does DrLuke, ddrl46 and Chryseus keep rating each other dumb?[/QUOTE]
For some reason DrLuke kept rating my posts dumb after his "i2c" post on the last page so I started rating him dumb as well.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;33469475]This is extremely off-topic but why does DrLuke, ddrl46 and Chryseus keep rating each other dumb?[/QUOTE]
I have no idea, they started it, so I rated back
So I made a v-usb circuit on a breadboard with ATmega16... Haven't tested yet.
I have no idea what I'm going to do when it doesn't work. Any tips?
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