Creating a Sound Card Oscilloscope Probe | How-To Guide

[Rebel]

Any one ever use a sound card + software as an oscillscope?
I just want to know how i can make a probe to use as an oscillscope probe that can be plugged into the Input of a sound card.

Thanks

 

[emu]

For audio frequencies, the probe from a multimeter will be fine. That is to say, a piece of wire will do. However, at radio frequencies, you would require a good oscilloscope with some decent probes. But for a sound card and some software, 2 wires will be sufficient.

 

[BoulderHead]

emu,
I haven't seen a sound card thingy before, but I have seen special made PCI cards that come with all the needed cables/probes to take measurements with. The problem I have with those things is that they still cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars, at least the ones I saw ($300 U.S. and up). For that kind of money I'd rather spend a few hundred more and get a stand alone unit.

 

[Rebel]

Yeah thatnks that is what i figured is that i can use just wires

 

[emu]

When I was 16, I managed to salvage a nice B&K oscilloscope, good to about 20 MHz. It's a pain in the ass to lug around but when I need it, it's the only tool I trust. I've tried some software for use with soundcards using the line-in as a scope but there are limitations.
I use mine mostly for audio testing, and often for bass frequencies. I doubt a sound car will read flat down to about 10 Hz while a good scope will.

What are you going to use it for?

 

[Rebel]

Im going to use it for mainly audio purposes. So i can repair audio equipment and design audio as well.

 

[emu]

If you have an old pentium 133 or something low-level with a soundcard, use that as your test machine. You can afford to fry the soundcard a few times while learning. However, be careful using this scope to repair active components. I don't even know what kind of voltage a soundcard can endure. I'd imagine the input impedance is the standard 10K so keep that in mind. A scope is in the Megaohm range.

 

[BoulderHead]

Where might I download a trial version of the 'sound-card software' so as to experiment with it?

 

[Rebel]

I download a program called WinScope but there are plenty of oscilloscope programs out there that use your sound card and a computer. Most I've seen are either freeware or shareware. But i haven't tested any of the programs yet so i don't know how good they are but I am going to eventually go out and purchase a scope.

 

[BoulderHead]

Thank you for the tip Rebel. They even have a 16-bit version, which is right up my experimental alley. Check it out here;

http://polly.phys.msu.su/~zeld/oscill.html

 

[megashawn]

Just to add in that Mandrake Linux (and probably other distribs) come with it as an option to install. Would be nice to get a decent O scope for less then $1000.

 

[Rebel]

It would but that damn scopes are so expensive.

 

[grady]

I got an O-scope about a month ago from www.testequipmentdepot.com.[/url] It does everything I need for my piddling and the price wasn't too bad. [url]http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/instek/oscilloscopes/gos-620.htm[/URL]

What I don't get is why protoboards are so expensive. :( Mine burned up last night right when I'm trying to work on my final project for instrumentation class too. It was very old.