$161 oscilloscope

Potentially pretty useful, especially in a tool bag.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

[ FNIRSI touchscreen o-scope ]

There's two versions; that (#1013) has a touch-screen and the 1014 has knobs. I'm uncertain I'd want to depend on the touch-screen version, but it certainly IS a nice compact form factor.

I could keep one at home. Or in my car.

"Debugging Weapon" finally, Amazon is selling weapons. Kill those lousy oscillations.

... and the USB fails if the cable has the wrong ends; consider USB master A, USB3 A, or USB C, or USB micro for OTG devices, on one end, and USB (slave) B, USB3 B, USB mini, USB micro, USB3 micro, USB C, Lightning, or iPod, or charge-only connection at the other end. Happiness is statistically unlikely, but USB octopus cables are some help. Don't get the charge-only kind...

Bluetooth oscilloscope actually IS a thing, with phone, tablet, or laptop display.

Better as an attached scope with a laptop as the front panel. Then you could actually see the screen without a magnifier. It would also save costs on the touch screen. I expect it would cost more for development of the PC software. All they do now is allow file access to screen captures, no data dumps.

I bought a Hantek attached unit once. A total piece of crap and the PC software wouldn't even run. Some fans hacked it and wrote software for it, but it's still a very low end unit, maybe 10 MHz, I forget. I got a refund without returning it because the delivery paper trail was messed up. Not that I care, the thing has just been sitting.

Lots of crap out there. I don't know if this device is any better. Often the triggering on these units is crap which is a very important feature.

Not with a 100 MHz scope! I did see one at 38 MHz a couple of months ago, but it's more usually 300 MHz or above. (My current record is 14 GHz iirc.) It's pretty cool to be able to get magic 60 GHz transistors for 20 cents.

I remember designing 70-MHz crystal oscillators with 2N5179s back in the day, because 2N3904s were slightly too slow. (Yikes, that was 40 years ago!)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

In my mis-spent youth I designed an RC emitter follower + 7414 schmitt gate as a system power-on reset. The 2N2219 oscillated so hard at 100 MHz it never got the gate input high.

Transistors are so much better now!

Looks very nice

You can buy a Picoscope 2000 for 125USD but then only 10MHz BW. You get protocol analysis for free along with potent FFT

Of course you then need to bring a laptop...

I bought a house about 15 years ago with a fire place. Wanted to use it mainly at Christmas with the whole family. I have only been able to use it 2 times due to the weather being so hot Yesterday it was 70 deg. Should be below 50 deg. About 45 years ago I had just gotten married that summer. Christmas it was about 7 deg F.

I may have to look into the LEDs myself it this keeps up.

This is the middle of North Carolina.

Of course a CK722 would probably have worked too. ;) (plus the base leakage would have lengthened the TC).

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

ahem, well, some of us are still using low f_T devices... B-| even tho', that was purely my attempt at being snarky.

No, I needed an NPN.

But CK722 was my first transistor. It cost $7, a couple of months' allowance.

MAJOR problem: You will be stuck with the Extra charges recurring from "prime".

Some transistors, like BCX70, have hundreds of ohms of Rbb. I wonder if that keeps them from oscillating.

That's why it was SOP to "repurpose" transistors scavenged from redundant PCBs. My school even had some on the floor in the "photographic darkroom", and my physics teacher was more than happy for me to take a couple of boards.

They are for fun. I have one I paid aobut $ 120 and it goes from about

10 kHz to 2 GHz. It will let you set up multi receivers in a 10 MHz spread. Interisting to try and listen to 4 or 5 ham repeaters at the same time.

Even the $ 10 to $ 20 TV type SDR that some software lets you listen in on many other things works well for the price.

They have gotten better lately. More like 10x:

Of course, the plot that ultimately matters is this one:

-- john, KE5FX

On Saturday, December 18, 2021 at 4:51:26 PM UTC, Phil Hobbs wrote: [snip]

[snip]

Indeed, I agree, the boat-anchors deserve love too. I'm not kicking them out of the party. Although todays gear seems more boatier and less anchory than those of previous generations' The labs at work are full of such anchors. (We have a tradition of buying only new, not used, BTW.)

I have a new test coming up that will need to be "mobile" (fixed location, but in the field). So I'll be investigating what kind of performance is possible from a small size form factor. And not requiring an AC mains power generator!

cheers, RS