Oscilloscope through Soundcard

if audie is all you need then its fine. just make sure you don't exceed the cards input using a line input i wouldn't go above 1 V Peak. using the Mic input i wouldn't go above .100 VP.

My Daqarta for DOS software does this for Sound Blaster and a few other cards, and Daqarta for Windows (available in a few months) will do it for any Windows-compatible sound card.

As others have noted, you are limited to audio frequency ranges. The calibration of the input attenuator on sound cards is not generally available. Daqarta for DOS handles this by having different drivers for different card types that I have personally measured. Daqarta for Windows will use a self-calibration method for relative calibration, and assist with absolute calibration. You never get a nice 1,2,5 sequence, but since the software can change the axis scaling and grid, this is of no importance. The main thing is that for inputs of more than a few volts, you may need to provide your own external voltage divider.

The big advantage of these types of systems is that test signal generation can be done coherently with input analysis, without relying on setting trigger levels, etc. This allows waveform averaging for noise reduction, for example.

And since it's all just software anyway, you can have spectrum analysis, spectrograms, histograms, etc. all in the same package. For audio work, having a real-time spectrum is really useful for distortion measurements.

Hope this helps!

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

soundcard. is it safe ? has anyone tried doing it.

Could you provide a link to the software, or name the software you are referring to?

Can anybody recommend a freeware program for this, that is available NOW for Windows XP?

are

Try this link

YD & ECGK,

Thanks for the links, I'll give Oscilloscope/Winscope 2.51 a try.

-- Mark

Winscope 2.51 on

among other places. Haven't tried the scopes on but there's a lot of other nice apps there. The prices are unbeatable.

- YD.

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Oooops, looks like Dazy Web is under maintenance or something. Mark it and try later on, it's worth the wait.

- YD.

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