Anyone use an oscilloscope when working on flashlights?
Me, sometimes, to find bugs when developing a new driver firmware.
Frys.com has some discounted up to 90% off but you have to pick up in store and the nearest one to me is 100 miles away. Tektronix oscilloscopes
Funny this post popped up I just finished picking up a fluke 123 scopemeter that I got a really good deal on, off of ebay.(retails just shy of 2000:money_mouth_face: Its more for use at work but im sure it will probably get used to test and make profiles of all my chargers. maybe measure the PWM that the different drivers are using. Not really to sure what else I could use it for related to flashlights though.
I don't think a scope is all that useful if all you are doing is dropping in existing drivers and emitters into hosts.
But if you modify the circuit boards, or start designing your own circuits, or debugging problems if you start repairing electronics, they are invaluable.
I'm a fan of older Tektronix scopes. You can usually find a good one for around $100 give or take. For many years I used a Tek 2235. Recently my company gave away some old lab equipment using a lottery system and I won a Tek 2440. I could use a set of probes though. Anyone have a pair of P6137's?
LOL, yes I do have a never used pair of those. I use my Hitachi scope and probes. I also have the set of HP logic probe and pulser kit from the same vintage. Old Tek and HP gear, like the Saturn V, ruled the world at one time, no?
I use it all the time for writing firmware and designing switching LED drivers. Just last week I placed an order for a new Agilent DSOX2012A. They have a promo going on at the moment for a free bandwidth upgrade.
Anybody ever used those cheap USB oscilloscopes?
8kHz sampling is pretty low, but usable just for hobbies. At $30 shipped, that’s within budget for me for a good measuring tool, but I wonder if it’s worth the price or would it be just junk?
I have not seen a USB scope worth it’s money yet, but this device is a especially useless one.
8KHz if one channel is used, that’s barely enough to properly show a 1kHz square wave.
For 30 bucks one probably could find a really nice used >20MHz bandwidth analog scope which actually would be useful.
If it has to be USB, I’d rather use a 3$ usb soundcard and free software . . . would perform actually better.
Please don’t waste money on that device. 
last time i use one is when i was in high school J)
Thanks for the tip! I’ll spend my $30 elsewhere then
Around here, there’s no chance to get any used oscilloscope. Nobody will even know what that is (except for EEs of course).
I’ll try USB soundcard method, sharpen my google-fu while at it. Thanks for pointing this out.
I have around 20 ’scopes… from tiny to HUGE. The one I use most is a Tektronix THS730 digital scope. It is battery powered (about the size of a book), has fully isolated input channels, 2 gigasamples/sec - 200 MHz bandwidth.
I actually sold my last Tek ’475… the best analog scope ever built. If you can pick up a ’465 or ’475 in known good condition for cheap ($100-$200), snag it.
@Pulsar13
click
I tried that software for fun some time ago and it worked ok.
I would suggest two antiparallel diodes as input protection and some kind of voltage divider to get a useful input range. (just on a little piece of proto board with the 3.5mm plug)
You can either hunt for a scope probe on ebay then or build one yourself, there are some tutorials on the internet. Won’t be to critical for a couple of kHz.
Many people would (rightfully ) raise their eyebrows on such a ‘scope’, but for watching slow pwm on flashlight drivers or some diy audio/arduino stuff etc. it will be fine and costs not much.
http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4422846/Try-an-oscilloscope-for-under—200 Lists 16 scopes for under $200. :bigsmile:
Yes I know, an old thread. But just so happens I live in Tektronix land, the main corporate campus is only a couple of miles from me. Did you know they have a museum (link)? It was started by X-Tek engineers. If you're ever in the Portland Oregon area, drop by. These photos were taken by me when the museum opened in 2011. They've since moved to the actual Tektronix campus.
Funny you should mention that, here's one of my two scopes, a 475A, being used to measure PWM on a J5 Tactical V1 Pro.
Still works, tubes and all
At my college, we use Keysight Oscilliscopes.
They are awesome apparently, but I haven’t touched one yet.
Nice, according to tekwiki, produced from 1964 to 1975. Apparently, the HV transformer will be problematic?