Microchip Pic Oscilloscope DIY Gadget

[keoni29]

Mic-in. U mad

[rocketman221projects]

Give it a Linux GUI and it would make a cool project.

[VeXorian1337]

Hey Dj, I'm really impressed with your work in general. It's really amazing what you do :)

I plan to build a DIY scope myself, but I also want to try to make it more professional(~50 Mhz, more channels, etc) at a moderate budget. I'm particularly skilled in programming PIC's, FPGA's, PC's, etc.. and have sufficient amount of analog/digital electronics knowledge.

Can you recommend me some notes/techniques to build one? Also perhaps give me some directions, suggestions. I really need a scope :(

[aliencurv]

@VeXorian1337 Thank you very much Vex :)

My advice? LOL I ended up purchasing a Nano Scope. It is an open source oscilloscope project that you can purchase online (i got mine from ebay) for $50. The screen is smaller than a regular tube oscilliscope, but it is pretty easy to use :)

If you are still building yours, sample first, then transfer to the computer in a loop. sample, transfer, sample, transfer :)

[VeXorian1337]

@aliencurv Hey, thanks for replying! I'll check the Nano and see if I can buy it, or maybe even build it as you say it's open source. As for making my own version, I was wondering how can you make it really fast? (Like 10-50 M samples/sec). The integrated A/D's in the PIC's can barely reach 100kS/sec.. I can get an external A/D converter, but that would conflict with transfer rates of the PICs. Another thought I had was pipelining several cheap A/D's, but that's still hard to interface..

[aliencurv]

@VeXorian1337 if you want a 50M sample/sec, then consider interfacing with an analog audio amplifier and sampler. Digital oscilliscopes are pretty much audio samplers :) ... you can do some google searches on how to convert an old PC Soundcard into an oscilliscope. That is how i got my idea to begin with

[ecan]

@aliencurv 50 M sample/sec with a soundcard? xDDDDDDD

[pouelchnu]

Now that's pretty cool. I made my own "ghettoscope" last summer using an Arduino Duemilanove with Processing (open source coding project - check it out), but mine wasn't as responsive at this one. Is it real time? I mean, is it sampling a voltage on one of its pins or is it reading a file?

[aliencurv]

@pouelchnu thanx dude. it is sampling the voltate on one of the ADC pins of the microchip pic. It samples the buffer, then it sends the data over the rs232. If i were to sample and write to the rs232, it would affect the sample rate by the uart speed (which was 115,200 baud). I never did use this setup for anything. I have a digital oscilloscope that has measuing, zooming, scrolling and hold features etc... something i'll never be able to replace in a reasonable ammount of time lol

[misterDtD]

Very nice =)

[MrJustbecuase]

can u give me some code

[iofthestorm123]

Your website seems to be down. But it seems like all you needed was the PIC and a serial port or usb to serial on your PC. That's pretty awesome, really cheap way to get a workable oscilloscope since PICs are basically free.

[morpher44]

Nice work. I think you are smart to use a PIC for sampling.

I was thinking of doing a similar thing with the PIC32 -- a very nice little PIC.

[intelligentone]

so what compiler are you using?

[VATEC6000]

check my pc oscilloscope, it doesn't need any external thingies like microchips. its just pure c#

[HebaHC]

yeah, VATEC6000's oscilloscope is awesome, damn epic all the professional dj's should use it cuz it's so hypercool y'know

[devin122]

you got your square and sine waves mixed up

[aliencurv]

lol thanx . i did mention that in the video description :) . didn't want to make the video all over again just because i labelled it wrong lol

[Zachary1080p]

hey what's the sampling rate?

[jucket911]

I almost fell out of my chair when I read the comments. The dude says "Ya, your project is kool, but F%$&K windows!"

It like saying you have a kool tv, but it was made in China so it sucks.

[32rob10]

Nice, darn fast graphics for C#, did you use managed GDI+? I've adopted the same languages for use in my projects, C/C# makes a good mix. I've had mixed results with managed graphics code though...

[aliencurv]

i simply used system.drawing and system.drawing.draw2d

but i buffer everything with a bitmap . then write it to the panel's graphics

thanx btw :)

[MickLionheart]

I thought it was pretty cool, except that you used windows, fuck windows. Linux.

[aliencurv]

thanx dude . i don't know how to respond to the windows comment . do u think i can write C and Assembler for microcontrollers, but can't write code in linux? ;)

[MickLionheart]

Heh I never said anything about your coding ability, I'm sure you could code for Linux, hell it's easier then coding for windows. I'm just saying that I really dislike windows mainly because of how it gets people to close their minds, it's right down there with the church for me in that sense.

[Hottdaddy2006]

Yeah, Bassnectar is the shit lol.

[namakemonoga]

the website you gave doesn't work can you give the C# code

[namakemonoga]

the website you gave doesn't work...can you send me the C# code for it

[alpha4omega]

hi,could you pls send me the c# code. the one on the pc .

[Jimmypage512]

sweeet didnt realize you can program PIC w/ c#

[aliencurv]

no, the C# code is on the pc as the graphical interface. the C code is on the pic

[MDude1350]

It looks like the square and sine waves are switched around to me, but otherwise, this seems pretty cool.

[aliencurv]

Thanx, it's commented in the video description hehe ..

You can download the windows binary from my website and i can email you the pic code if you'd like to make one ..

the new version that i finished on friday has adjustable sample time, sample delay, trigger, center adjust, and amplification