Has anyone built an Arduino Oscilloscope?

[chris.knudson]

I saw a video today of an ESP32 build of an oscilloscope. It looked like a fairly simple project. Has anyone here tried to build an oscilloscope with an Arduino or an ESP32?

 

[RetiredUnit1]

I saw a video today of an ESP32 build of an oscilloscope. It looked like a fairly simple project. Has anyone here tried to build an oscilloscope with an Arduino or an ESP32?

I saw one on Amazon a year ago when I was looking to upgrade to new tech from an *old* tetronix..

 

[RetiredUnit1]

btw, ended up getting an Owon SDS7102V for about $250....

like everything else the price has skyrocketed.....

Newest low-noise OWON 100Mhz Oscilloscope SDS7102V FFT 1G LAN+VGA limited time | eBay

(Newest low-noise Ultra-thin 100Mhz OWON Digital Storage Oscilloscope SDS7102V. Model SDS7102V. Waveform Math ＋, －, ×, / ,FFT. Analog Bandwidth 100MHz. - Multiple interface：USB；VGA；LAN. 1) 2 units of 100Mhz probes;.

www.ebay.com

 

[chris.knudson]

I saw one on Amazon a year ago when I was looking to upgrade to new tech from an *old* tetronix..

Yeah, I've seen kits on Amazon and Ali Express, which is actually what made me wonder if there were any Arduino ro esp32 projects that I could build. I did find an esp32 project for one, but all of the esp32s that I have don't have enough I/O pins to build one, and I was trying to see if I could build one with the parts I have lying around. I have an Arduino mega, which has plenty of available I/O pins, but I haven't found any code to build one with an Arduino.

Eventually, I'll probably end up buying one, but I know that I am going to want a multi-channel scope with all of the bells and whistles, and I can't really justify that for as much as I would probably use the thing. Back in the early 90s, I worked as a broadcast engineer, and we had some really nice scopes that cost in the 10s of thousands of dollars (even back then). For what I need today, I could probably get by with a single-channel scope with a 5" screen, but I know I would end up splurging on something that I didn't really need.

And, oh by the way, if you picked up that Owon SDS7102V for $250, you got a really good deal.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Yeah, I've seen kits on Amazon and Ali Express, which is actually what made me wonder if there were any Arduino ro esp32 projects that I could build. I did find an esp32 project for one, but all of the esp32s that I have don't have enough I/O pins to build one, and I was trying to see if I could build one with the parts I have lying around. I have an Arduino mega, which has plenty of available I/O pins, but I haven't found any code to build one with an Arduino.

Eventually, I'll probably end up buying one, but I know that I am going to want a multi-channel scope with all of the bells and whistles, and I can't really justify that for as much as I would probably use the thing. Back in the early 90s, I worked as a broadcast engineer, and we had some really nice scopes that cost in the 10s of thousands of dollars (even back then). For what I need today, I could probably get by with a single-channel scope with a 5" screen, but I know I would end up splurging on something that I didn't really need.

And, oh by the way, if you picked up that Owon SDS7102V for $250, you got a really good deal.

Actually, thinking back it may have been purchased around February 2022. But yeah it was a good deal even then.

The guy had five, and had sold 2. I read the feedback of the two people that bought it and they were very happy. I posted the link somewhere on this forum, and soon the other two were gone. Mine does not have the internal battery, and had no carrying case. It may be part of why it was lower...... works great, defaults to auto and just figures it out fast.

 

[chris.knudson]

Actually, thinking back it may have been purchased around February 2022. But yeah it was a good deal even then.

The guy had five, and had sold 2. I read the feedback of the two people that bought it and they were very happy. I posted the link somewhere on this forum, and soon the other two were gone. Mine does not have the internal battery, and had no carrying case. It may be part of why it was lower...... works great, defaults to auto and just figures it out fast.

I'lll probably end up with something similar, but I don't need it now. I may end up buying one of those kits just to have something to play around with in the mean time.

 

[jwin615]

you have to have 2x channels to watch these though

If you get a cheapo, don't forget your DC block. I've read about some that didn't handle oopsie DC well.
2 channels can be handy though. There are some DIY curve tracer circuits out there that can be very useful. May be worth keeping an eye on Govdeals.com. If you have a local tech college, follow them.

 

[chris.knudson]

If you get a cheapo, don't forget your DC block. I've read about some that didn't handle oopsie DC well.

What do you mean by this?

I definitely want at least a 2 channel, but I know that one of these one channel project boards would be at least useful, but I don't know what you mean by "don't handle DC oopsie well" - is this a reference to reverse polarity?, and if so, can't I build that into the circuit?

 

[Paul.Ruby]

I would strongly recommend a Picoscope. DIY scopes are very lacking and usually terrible displays, with lots of lag and poor features. Stand-alone scopes with their own screens are not needed. And really need a decent signal generator that is controlled from within the scope. For example, using a sweep sine wave signal into a circuit and then measuring some output of the circuit, you can trace out the frequency response, which is really important for guitar audio projects. Picoscope software handles all this. At bare minimum, this...

Amazon.com

I also owned Hantek, which are a lot cheaper but their support is terrible and ended up having to throw it away because they don't keep the drivers up to date. It works for a while and eventually, you will not be able to upgrade windows and keep it running.