Game Boy Oscilloscpe???

[Sic]

Elektor Electronics

Scroll down a little bit and you see "gameboy Digital Sampling Oscilloscope back in stock!"

Has anyone ever tried one of these? how neat

[Lonestarjohnny]

I've never tried one but it look's interesting, I have a handheld Fluke but it's back at the factory getting recalibrated, I'll have a need for it this fall for a project I'll be doing down in So. America. I've hauled this one around the world several time's and it's the first time I've ever had a problem out of it, but I guess it should be a very good scope, I paid a chunk for it,
JD

[Sic]

Project down in So. America? very awesome!

I was just wondering about the gameboy oscilloscope due to the "coolness" factor of it...

'scopes are expensive and tbh, i have no way of justifying buying one for several hundred dollars this early in my effects building... however using a gameboy  SCREAMS DIY DIY DIY DIY DIY to me lol

[niftydog]

My boss built one.

Chips are kinda hard to get... actually, make that "hard to get in Australia"!

...and they're INCREDIBLY small and fiddly... so if you're not practiced in the art of surface mount, wait until you ARE practiced, cause you don't wanna kill anything!

In the end it works pretty good, and was a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a commercial hand held.

No backlight though.  And it's a tad fragile if you attache BNC connectors to the board.

[Mark Hammer]

Dig around and you can find tons of stuff under the "hacking Gameboy" banner.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Now I have a use for that old GameBoy of mine :mrgreen:

[petemoore]

If GB can do an osciscope, then there should be a program for computer or a way to get a computer to do an oscilliscope emulation???
 This sure would be nice, we had two scopes, years ago around here that died, I can't seem even to locate the carcasses of them anymore.'
 I think I could really use a scope about now too !!!

[Lonestarjohnny]

Pete, Check out Ossi, and there are a couple more P.C. based Scope's as freeware on the webb somewhere, I'll look for them and shoot ya the site, I'm in my shop now and I have'nt networked this PC to my PC in the house yet,
JD

[Johnny G]

in my school electronics labs there is one of the issues of the elektor magazinne that has the article about making that Game Boy oscilloscope. it looks to be pretty good for a cheap scope and has a suprising number of features. like nifty dog said tho, its all surface mounted stuff so it would be a bit fiddley

however the backlight wouldnt be a problem. there was an add on for gameboys that had a magnifier and a light source that fitted over the screen. pretty much doubled the screen size and gave lighting lol

if people are interested i can try to find both parts of the article and scan them in?

[Marcus Dahl]

in my school electronics labs there is one of the issues of the elektor magazinne that has the article about making that Game Boy oscilloscope. it looks to be pretty good for a cheap scope and has a suprising number of features. like nifty dog said tho, its all surface mounted stuff so it would be a bit fiddley

however the backlight wouldnt be a problem. there was an add on for gameboys that had a magnifier and a light source that fitted over the screen. pretty much doubled the screen size and gave lighting lol

if people are interested i can try to find both parts of the article and scan them in?

Super cool!!!! I think a Gameboy Scope would be great for those of us with no room on our benches.

[ErikMiller]

The GBDSO comes as a ready-built and tested cartridge...

No worries about surface-mount soldering. This one comes already put together. 90 quid is a nice price for that!

[Torchy]

This is a freeware 'scope that uses the soundcard on your pc. Neat  

http://www.geocities.com/nlradiofm/winscope.zip

From the "readme.txt" file ...
Oscilloscope for Windows uses the sound card as an analog-to-digital
converter, providing complete oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer
functionality in Windows environment.

Specifications:
  - Dual trace digital storage oscilloscope with spectrum analyzer
  - 20 Hz - 20 kHz bandwidth
  - 50 ms buffer length
  - data export to Windows clipboard or to file (text format)

Features:
  - single and dual trace mode
  - XY mode (Lissajous patterns)
  - point-and-click waveform and spectrum meter functions
  - cross-correlation coefficient measurement
  - storage tube emulation
  - pretrigger view and armed triggering

[brett]

I tried a product called PCscope, and found it fairly useless if your signal was bouncing around (like guitar signals do).

Must try this winscope software.  It sounds a lot better.

The other alternative is buy an old scope.  My Telemark S32 cost OZ$60.  That's under US$50.

cheers

[Johnny G]

oh cool, i didnt realise that it came ready built i thought it was a kit. im still happy to find the article and scan it in if people want