Cheap scope with LCD

I just completed assembling the DIY kit. I had to put some washers under the front panel to get the push button switches to work freely.

I agree most people should not attempt this kit due to the SMD parts and the limited documentation. I think the solution to the kit would to have a partial kit with all the SMD parts mounted like the ATmega64.

Update: www.jyetech.com now has a DIY kit with all SMD soldered on for $40 USD.

My kit came with 70 series firmware which I upgraded using a USB to TTL adapter. Works great.

I am greatly impressed with this kit!

Some of the SMD resistors are easily manageable, but for some reason others are a bit tiny. I wonder if that was a matter of cost or availability. I don't know if the smallest parts are 402 (didn't measure them), but that's about the smallest size I can handle with tweezers and soldering iron. I managed to misplace/drop two of those and had a hard time finding them again.

Soldering the ICs is by far the easiest part. I'd even go as far as saying that I would have preferred soldering all the chips myself. All the tiny resistors is what takes hours.

to be really useable and not another toy you'dd need at least an external trigger... latest firmware support external trigger, but you do need to solder resistor and there is no entrance stage nor connector...
I really hope they'll create a new version featuring a good external trigger/or a second signal output.

great product otherwise... I'dd prolly buy the kit with all SMD already soldered if they'll add it to seeedstudio or sparkfun...

They have the all SMD presoldered now.

... latest firmware support external trigger, but you do need to solder resistor and there is no entrance stage nor connector...

JYETech states there are two ways to get an external trigger: a) like stated above and b) by jumpering pin 12 of J5 to pin 4 of J5 to use the 500HZ test signal output alternately as a 500Hz test signal and external trigger input.

See document at http://www.jyetech.com/Products/LcdScope/DN062-13v01.pdf

JYE Tech just created very nice and detailed troubleshooting documentation and posted it on their website.

http://www.jyetech.com/Products/LcdScope/DN062-14v01.pdf

I must admit, that their support is the best.

Now my kit is complete :slight_smile:

As a rule of thumb, your scope's bandwidth should be
at least five times higher than the fastest digital
clock rate in your system under test.
Ref. agilent.com

16 MHz (Arduino clock speed) X 5 = 80 MHZ bandwidth.

Cheap scope with LCD:
bandwidth = 1 MHZ
This o'scope should be good for signals @ 200 KHZ!

You get what you pay for ...
:sunglasses:

It is true, you get what you pay for :slight_smile:

You have to consider that this is a $49 scope ( assembled ) and is by far the most affordable scope on the market.

The comparable Velleman scopes have approx. 2MHz bandwidth and sell for about $130 and up.

Neither the Jyetech nor the Velleman scope can compare to a $5,000 Tektronix, HP or Rigol scope.

:slight_smile:

While I agree you get what you pay for, in many cases, what you get can be quite useful, even if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

If you are designing your own Arduino clone and need to find a 10 nsec glitch or are looking for ghostly reflections in a hinky bus design, you obviously need an oscilloscope with a high bandwidth. Our Dr. Lizardo had all the best equipment while he was working on his oscillation overthruster, I'm sure. :sunglasses: :sunglasses: :sunglasses:

However, many applications created with a 16MHz Arduino have repetitive output signals in the kHz range that it would be handy to visualize during design and troubleshooting and in those cases, an inexpensive o'scope would come in real handy.

Another approach is to use one of the many free PC sound card scopes such as this one: Soundcard Scope

If you don't have a sound card or its otherwise engaged then you could look at this $2 usb sound card: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.22475 It probably won't have the extended frequency response of a good sound card but could be a very cheap solution.

Quality test equipment is like cars.
You wouldn't buy a Yugo or Tata NANO because it was the cheapest?
So picking an O'scope should cover all your general testing needs now and in the future
or you will have a bunch of "clunkers" on your test bench.

Having an O'scope which has 200MSa, SPI, I2C and is USB powered will save you money in the long run.
So save a "little" more money and buy quality.

http://www.linkinstruments.com/mso.htm
:sunglasses:

Why would I WANT to spend more money than necessary?

I bought it to debug serial communications - and for that, it turned out to be great. It is compact, does what it is supposed to do and more.

I'll probably need something better in my next life - haven't even USED a scope in 20 years, much less owned one. For a software guy, it is a somewhat obscure tool...

Oh - and regarding cheap cars, it depends what you need them for. My employer supplies me with a reasonable German car, but if I only needed a car to go to town for shopping once a week, why would I want to spend too much money on it? (We DO have neighbours who appear to see their cars as extensions of their reproductive organs, but they come from - let's say - simple backgrounds.)

If you use a scope often, you'll want something better. If you want to measure something once which the cheap scope cannot do, you still have the option of borrowing or renting one - or use a friend's lab.

I wouldn't pay 1800,00 for a USB scope... NEVER.

What's the point of having to run a PC just to use a scope ?
OK some of the Lecroy scopes actually run windoze on them. That's why you have to use a damn virus scanner for your scope... hilarious.

The Jyetech scope is a nice gadget and fun to solder. Nothing more, nothing less.

A 60 MHz bandwidth, single channel oscilloscope that requires a computer running Windows to function is pretty much useless to me. 12.5 mV vertical step size would be useless for doing most any kind of precision analog design as well. I believe I'd rather save my $249 and put it toward a real instrument when I needed/could afford it.

At least with the $40 o'scope you expect it to have some limitations.

You must define what your minimum requirements are first!

If you want to measure rise and fall times you need an expensive scope.

Soundcard software scopes such as xoscope and so on have nice displays and frequency analysis options, but require a PC/notebook and limited to soundcard specifications.

IMO the JYETech scope is the companion to my $8 DVM. It provides most of my needs at extremely low cost and are standalone devices. If it were battery operated it would match the use of my DVM.

Typically my needs are of the Go/No-Go nature. This scope fills that need very well.

EmilyJane, mem, Fubushi, madworm and mlindeblom made some very good points.

A standalone device gives you a lot more flexibility than a USB device tethered to a desktop PC or a laptop.

Running winblows on a scope is ludicrous. IMHO a Linux, BSD, vxworks or Unix based OS/RTOS would be far more suitable for that application, granted I am somewhat biased.

A $30 some kit or $49 assembled standalone scope is nearly unbeatable.

In order to use a sound card as a scope you need a working computer, sound card, some kind of operating system, a suitable probe and software so your total cost would be way over $30-$49.

A Jyetech scope with a battery backpack would be almost as portable as a battery powered DMM and roughly the same size. It is my understanding the unit can be powered by a 9V alkaline battery instead of the 9V DC adapter, although a Lithium battery would produce better results.

When it comes down to it, it all depends or your budget, your application, your exact requirements and what equipment and resources you already have.

You wouldn't use an M1A2SEP to kill a bug, would you?

A $30 some kit or $49 assembled standalone scope is nearly unbeatable.

In order to use a sound card as a scope you need a working computer, sound card, some kind of operating system, a suitable probe and software so your total cost would be way over $30-$49.

It really depends on your needs. If you want something portable or need a frequency response better than the 20khz from then the LCD scope is a good choice for a low end solution. But there's a lot of stuff that people may want to do while developing a project (and therefore with arduino and computer close at hand) such as looking at servo pulses or switch bounce and for these applications the sound card can be effective and much cheaper choice.

When it comes down to it, it all depends or your budget, your application, your exact requirements and what equipment and resources you already have.

That is absolutely right, and why one shouldn't make a blanket claim that one solution is beats another.

I found that 'scope a good while ago, and was just amazed at the bandwidth for the price.

If I didn't already own a good USB scope/logic analyzer and a good old Tek analog scope, I would have snapped one of those right up.

For those who'd like to try their hand at their own scope designs, there are a couple of inexpensive ADC chips you might consider for your design. If you want to add some external clocking and decoding circuitry, here is a TI chip that will give your project MSPS horsepower that's right up there with the big guys. There are some smaller, slower, cheaper TI ADC chips that might let your project approach the MSPS region without much, or any, glue logic required.

But 2 MSPS for that money is hard to pass up.

Good luck!

Tom

http://www.mindspring.com/~tom2000