DMA Scope: Affordable PC Oscilloscope for PWM Waveforms

AI Thread Summary
Affordable PC oscilloscopes, such as DMA Scope, can be effective for analyzing PWM waveforms, although they may rely on sound cards which can introduce interference. USB oscilloscopes offer better precision and bandwidth, with options available for under $200, making them suitable for hobbyists. Users have reported satisfaction with low-cost USB oscilloscopes that also function as logic analyzers. While sound card solutions are creative, dedicated devices provide superior performance. Overall, exploring both sound card and USB options can meet various budget and performance needs for waveform analysis.
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Hi, i need an oscilloscope but i don't have money to buy one, so i was thinking about some way to use the PC to emulate an osciloscope.
I saw on internet people using the sound board, but they say that's a lot of interference...
So i found a PC Oscilloscope and i wanted to know if it works. I want to use it to see wave forms in a PWM circuit.
Its called dma scope
 
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Any Scope card or module that can interface to a laptop...using USB etc.?
 
I have a PC USB interfaced oscilloscope that is a lot faster than a sound card based one. USB oscilloscopes only limits really are the bandwidth of USB HS at 480 mbps or 5gbps super speed and the storage buffer. Its really nice for hobby stuff. Its not cheap, but its no where near as expensive as a real oscilloscope and it is very compact, about the size of a small external hard drive. I got it for under $200.

The company who made mine is Hantek.
 
Thanks, I'll look into it. I only have an old Tek 465, I can use a storage scope.
 
256bits said:
You can also try. I think it uses the sound card.
http://www.zelscope.com/


Hah! What a brilliant idea. I never thought of using the sound card for that, but that's such an obvious choice, given it already has the required A/D and D/A converters.

I guess this is as close to a software-only solution as one can get.

Of course, a dedicated card or an USB device will have something close to actual precision and will have a much bigger bandwidth - but what a creative idea!
 

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