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Tool Cute Little Audio Frequency Oscilloscope

Tool
Susquatch

Susquatch

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I was on Ali looking for 360 degree protractors and got thrown an advertisement for this little toy. I couldn't resist. It seemed impossible but then impossible things sometimes happen on Ali. It was cheap enough to try it out and the ratings were good.

This one in the link below is Amazon but it's the same thing. I can't seem to link Ali today. It came all the way from China with free shipping and no tax in a week on special promo for $49. Seems to be $89 now.

But I gotta say it's easy worth $200 - maybe more. This little rechargeable battery powered single channel digital scope will do 500kHz and also contains a function generator, a component tester, a voltmeter, and some other tools.

For anyone who is afraid of wasting a whack of cash on a full blown scope, this thing is sweet. It would be a great tool for learning electronics. I used it to look at some simple wave forms and to test some miscellaneous transistors I had in a tray on my e-bench. You just stick the leads into the 1 2 & 3 slots on the chip socket, close the lever, and press ok. The thing autodetects the Emitter, Base, & Collector and roughly evaluates its parameters including gain. It will also check diodes, zeners, and more complicated devices.

The function generator does all the standard waveforms including sine, square, pulse, triangle, ramp, and DC. You just choose which and set the parameters and away it goes!

The oscilloscope function is the real gem though. It is a pretty darn good single channel digital storage scope that can handle all the way up to 500khz which is way above audio frequency, but still in that general class. It was a bit kludgy to set the scope up because I'm used to using various knobs not a press and toggle menu. But for someone who doesn't already have a better scope, I think it would be great! In fact, they might even find it easier than setting up with knobs.

I'm quite chuffed with it!

DSO-TC3 Oscilloscope - 3-in-1 Handheld Oscilloscope & DDS Signal Generator & Transistor Tester, 500Khz Bandwidth 10MSa/s Sampling Rate, 6 Types of Waveforms, Transistors Measure https://a.co/d/g60F80C

If you have ever thought about getting an inexpensive oscilloscope, but just couldn't justify something like that, this might be the one. Don't be afraid to ask questions!
 
Susquatch said:
I was on Ali looking for 360 degree protractors and got thrown an advertisement for this little toy. I couldn't resist. It seemed impossible but then impossible things sometimes happen on Ali. It was cheap enough to try it out and the ratings were good.

This one in the link below is Amazon but it's the same thing. I can't seem to link Ali today. It came all the way from China with free shipping and no tax in a week on special promo for $49. Seems to be $89 now.

But I gotta say it's easy worth $200 - maybe more. This little rechargeable battery powered single channel digital scope will do 500kHz and also contains a function generator, a component tester, a voltmeter, and some other tools.

For anyone who is afraid of wasting a whack of cash on a full blown scope, this thing is sweet. It would be a great tool for learning electronics. I used it to look at some simple wave forms and to test some miscellaneous transistors I had in a tray on my e-bench. You just stick the leads into the 1 2 & 3 slots on the chip socket, close the lever, and press ok. The thing autodetects the Emitter, Base, & Collector and roughly evaluates its parameters including gain. It will also check diodes, zeners, and more complicated devices.

The function generator does all the standard waveforms including sine, square, pulse, triangle, ramp, and DC. You just choose which and set the parameters and away it goes!

The oscilloscope function is the real gem though. It is a pretty darn good single channel digital storage scope that can handle all the way up to 500khz which is way above audio frequency, but still in that general class. It was a bit kludgy to set the scope up because I'm used to using various knobs not a press and toggle menu. But for someone who doesn't already have a better scope, I think it would be great! In fact, they might even find it easier than setting up with knobs.

I'm quite chuffed with it!

DSO-TC3 Oscilloscope - 3-in-1 Handheld Oscilloscope & DDS Signal Generator & Transistor Tester, 500Khz Bandwidth 10MSa/s Sampling Rate, 6 Types of Waveforms, Transistors Measure https://a.co/d/g60F80C

If you have ever thought about getting an inexpensive oscilloscope, but just couldn't justify something like that, this might be the one. Don't be afraid to ask questions!
Click to expand...
I see them on FB Marketplace on a fairly regular basis.
Problem is I have no idea what to do with one.
 
Susquatch said:
I was on Ali looking for 360 degree protractors and got thrown an advertisement for this little toy. I couldn't resist. It seemed impossible but then impossible things sometimes happen on Ali. It was cheap enough to try it out and the ratings were good.

This one in the link below is Amazon but it's the same thing. I can't seem to link Ali today. It came all the way from China with free shipping and no tax in a week on special promo for $49. Seems to be $89 now.

But I gotta say it's easy worth $200 - maybe more. This little rechargeable battery powered single channel digital scope will do 500kHz and also contains a function generator, a component tester, a voltmeter, and some other tools.

For anyone who is afraid of wasting a whack of cash on a full blown scope, this thing is sweet. It would be a great tool for learning electronics. I used it to look at some simple wave forms and to test some miscellaneous transistors I had in a tray on my e-bench. You just stick the leads into the 1 2 & 3 slots on the chip socket, close the lever, and press ok. The thing autodetects the Emitter, Base, & Collector and roughly evaluates its parameters including gain. It will also check diodes, zeners, and more complicated devices.

The function generator does all the standard waveforms including sine, square, pulse, triangle, ramp, and DC. You just choose which and set the parameters and away it goes!

The oscilloscope function is the real gem though. It is a pretty darn good single channel digital storage scope that can handle all the way up to 500khz which is way above audio frequency, but still in that general class. It was a bit kludgy to set the scope up because I'm used to using various knobs not a press and toggle menu. But for someone who doesn't already have a better scope, I think it would be great! In fact, they might even find it easier than setting up with knobs.

I'm quite chuffed with it!

DSO-TC3 Oscilloscope - 3-in-1 Handheld Oscilloscope & DDS Signal Generator & Transistor Tester, 500Khz Bandwidth 10MSa/s Sampling Rate, 6 Types of Waveforms, Transistors Measure https://a.co/d/g60F80C
Click to expand...

Susquatch said:
If you have ever thought about getting an inexpensive oscilloscope, but just couldn't justify something like that, this might be the one. Don't be afraid to ask questions!
Click to expand...
Even at $90 it's still not bad.
 
David_R8 said:
I see them on FB Marketplace on a fairly regular basis.
Problem is I have no idea what to do with one.
Click to expand...
My high end scope can probe CAN bus, SPI and I2C messages and decode the analog wave forms into the digital messages. This has been very handy. Like a fool, when I bought the scope, I didn't buy the Serial UART decoding module which is now $1400. Ouch. Didn't think I'd ever need it.

Instead, when I needed to decode an IR Camera pan/tilt communications protocol I bought one of these.
digilent.com

Analog Discovery 2: 100MS/s USB Oscilloscope, Logic Analyzer and Variable Power Supply

Buy Analog Discovery 2 USB oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and multi-function device that allows to measure, visualize and generate mixed-signal circuits.
digilent.com digilent.com

There's a newer faster version announced that will be available soon. If you ever wanted to experiment with and learn electronics this is the cats meow.

Anyway, with that I was able to determine that the pan/tilt module had large delays at the end of messages that cause my software to time out. Once I knew that it was easy to change the software to handle what was going on.
 
It looks a lot more capable than the DSO150 that I have, cost about $25. Even it works for audio, RC servo signals but it doesn’t have all the functions your‘s does.
 
There are a lot of non lab grade tools out there such as Tiny VNA 64 and Tiny SA, non lab grade Oscilloscopes are significantly devices simpler devices and and most of these devices are well below US$130.

What is important on these devices are what is the sample size (the bigger the better), what is the sensitivity (the lower the better), what is the range (the bigger the better), finally what is the cost (the lower the better).

So consider wisely.
 
jcdammeyer said:
My high end scope can probe CAN bus, SPI and I2C messages and decode the analog wave forms into the digital messages.
Click to expand...

I was mostly curious and thinking this would be fun and I could put it into my travel tool kit. I'm not even remotely comparing this little gem with something like yours. I have much more powerful scopes and equipment too - but oddly never needed to decode Canbus and the like after I retired.

Anyway, I posted here precisely for the reasons some have already said: "they wouldn't know what to do with it". At this price point, it would be a cheap entry door into the world of electronics. A low cost learning opportunity if you will. Lots of ways to get into trouble too! Mega Fun!
 
Susquatch said:
I was mostly curious and thinking this would be fun and I could put it into my travel tool kit. I'm not even remotely comparing this little gem with something like yours. I have much more powerful scopes and equipment too - but oddly never needed to decode Canbus and the like after I retired.

Anyway, I posted here precisely for the reasons some have already said: "they wouldn't know what to do with it". At this price point, it would be a cheap entry door into the world of electronics. A low cost learning opportunity if you will. Lots of ways to get into trouble too! Mega Fun!
Click to expand...
The reason I like the Digilent is that it also decode the various message protocols. That's handy since there are so many cheap little modules that use SPI or I2C with Arduinos. But when there isn't a library (although that's rare with Arduinos) it's nice to be able to decode the messages and get that special little gizmo working. Not sure some of the far east modules have the software ability to do that.

Also the Digilent is aimed at teaching/learning so there's that too. I assembled my first Heathkit radio when I was 13 so I've been into electronics my whole life. But I do understand that what appears easy to me may well be overwhelming for someone else.
 
jcdammeyer said:
I assembled my first Heathkit radio when I was 13 so I've been into electronics my whole life. But I do understand that what appears easy to me may well be overwhelming for someone else.
Click to expand...

Ya, I don't even remember what my first heath kit was. It wasn't a radio. I did build a heathkit oscilloscope though! What a beast that was! And a signal generator and and and.

I also taught introductory electrical/electronics for engineering students for a while. I think it's a little like fixing a car or dating a girl. Overwhelming at first but well worth the effort.
 
Susquatch said:
Ya, I don't even remember what my first heath kit was. It wasn't a radio. I did build a heathkit oscilloscope though! What a beast that was! And a signal generator and and and.

I also taught introductory electrical/electronics for engineering students for a while. I think it's a little like fixing a car or dating a girl. Overwhelming at first but well worth the effort.
Click to expand...
My first Heathkit was a shortwave radio. Then over the years there were a few other things. Still have the shortwave radio and a Radio Direction Finder. Building electronics or fixing cars came pretty easy. Dating a girl definitely more of a challenge (at first).

Chris
 
Susquatch said:
Ya, I don't even remember what my first heath kit was. It wasn't a radio. I did build a heathkit oscilloscope though! What a beast that was! And a signal generator and and and.

I also taught introductory electrical/electronics for engineering students for a while. I think it's a little like fixing a car or dating a girl. Overwhelming at first but well worth the effort.
Click to expand...
I still have my Heathkit VTVM. Not sure why.
 
My first Heathkit was a motion detector, IIRC I was 9. Pretty cool for me at the time, I had it rigged up to turn a light on when I entered my bedroom.

I have one of those cheap scopes, mine is an early version and the UI is pretty bad, that being said they can be useful to verify a low frequency waveform. The battery powered aspect (for isolation) is also a bonus. Any scope is a good scope if you don't have one.
 
Yup. Same one. I got one. I'm generally happy with it. It could never substitute for a lab grade oscilloscope but nobody would expect that.

It has a few shortcomings, but for the price it's a device worth having. Great way to learn a little more about electronics without breaking the bank. Since it's powered by an internal rechargeable battery, it's truly isolated and can be used to check almost anything.

My only real complaint is that it's not high voltage protected. So you can't use it to check for noise on a 600 V circuit without suitable additional protection. It would be nice if you could buy such a circuit off the shelf. A protected probe would be even better.
 
Ok, how about this scope meter then. Still cute, and still limited, but perhaps more useful for someone just trying to learn basic electronics......

CAMWAY Oscilloscope Multimeter Intelligent Oscilloscope Automatic Waveform Multimeter 4000-Count Automatic Range Analog Bar Graph 200k High-Speed A/D Sampling 5 KHz ~ 500 KHz Frequency https://a.co/d/9KOJxkd
 
Susquatch said:
Yup. Same one. I got one. I'm generally happy with it. It could never substitute for a lab grade oscilloscope but nobody would expect that.

It has a few shortcomings, but for the price it's a device worth having. Great way to learn a little more about electronics without breaking the bank. Since it's powered by an internal rechargeable battery, it's truly isolated and can be used to check almost anything.

My only real complaint is that it's not high voltage protected. So you can't use it to check for noise on a 600 V circuit without suitable additional protection. It would be nice if you could buy such a circuit off the shelf. A protected probe would be even better.
Click to expand...

This is a very important point to note, especially considering the hobby nature of a device like this. 600V can be very dangerous. I was told in an electrical safety class that more people are killed and injured with 600V than any other voltage. A novice might think, I have measured 240V many times, no big deal to measure 600V. Good analogy might be I have driven my car at 80MPH, so 200MPH should be fine. The increased voltage is one thing, but it's the much higher energy levels that are typically associated with 600V circuits that can make such circuits potentially dangerous.

I would not measure anything in a 600V circuit with anything less than a 1000V CAT III rated meter from a reputable company like Fluke. There are an endless list of multimeters with fake CAT ratings that will fail, many will explode or burst in flames if subjected to 600V. Most of these use a 2c glass fuse suitable for 12V, instead of a suitable HRC fuse. Only exception for me would be a known current limited circuit.

Not trying to come across as a know it all, just don't want anyone to get burnt.

Multimeters that do not appear to meet their safety specs. - Page 1

Multimeters that do not appear to meet their safety specs. - Page 1
www.eevblog.com
 
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