I have just been looking at the latest version of the Gameboy DS. At under £100 it represents incredible value, presumably because the real money is to be made from the £25 plug-in games modules. The combination of two reasonably sized colour displays (one a touch screen), powerful graphics processing and 10-hour battery life could make this product the basis for a lab instrument for the hobbies. I know that a scope interface ‘module’ was produce for the original Gameboy but have been unable to find anything yet for the DS version. Please does anyone have any relevant links? It would be great to have a low cost portable scope and logic state analyser to help with PICAXE projects.
Gameboy DS scope?
- Thread starter xstamp
- Start date
it might be worth looking on the hack-a-day website www.hackaday.com/ there are a lot of projects hacking the gameboy (whcih includes the ds) but there is also a hack on the site to convert an old pda, it's designed for VJing in clubs i think but it has a lot of output ports added (coms, usb etc.)
Dippy,I paid £99 for a single-channel 10Mhz Velleman digital scope from Maplin a couple of years ago. With no backlighting the b&w display is difficult to read and the context sensitive buttons are a real pain to set-up. The Gameboy's high contract colour display and touchscreen interface could be used to overcome these basic problems. As an example of potential price, Elektor sell a £50 electrocardiograph interface module for the original Gameboy, which contains a lot more circuitry than would probably be required for a scope or logic state analyser. So it might be worth keeping an eye on those hacker sites in the future.
SSilver2k2
New Member
Check out the IRC Chatroom #DSDEV on the irc.blitzed.org
They maybe able to help you out.
I am an op in that room btw.
They maybe able to help you out.
I am an op in that room btw.
There have been several previous threads on this forum about low-cost scopes. As far as I can see it, the conlusions are that you basically have three choices:
- (ab-)using your computer's sound card or hacking a device with display like the gameboy. The main issues are it is low bandwidth (audio, i.e. 20 kHz at best), audio cards are AC coupled (so you won't see the absolute levels), triggering etc. tends to be unstable, and you risk your $$$ computer are gameboy if you ever accidentally apply more than a few volts to the input. Overall, nice as a toy but not very useful for true work.
- professional, standalone scope, e.g. low-end Tektronix or other manufacturer. The upside is that this is a highly usable solution. Bandwidth nowadays starts around 50 MHz. I'd go for a digital sampling scope, since it has many advantages over traditional (analog) scopes, last but not least the possibility toe see what happened BEFORE the trigger, and to record longer waveforms. The major downside is price - with few exceptions it's above US$1000 (even used ones on ebay if they are in good condition).
- PC based scope: uses the PC for the main processing tasks and the display, so potentially much cheaper than a comparable standalone unit. I recently got myself a Velleman PCSU1000 that is basic but quite sufficient for my home lab (60 MHz bandwidth and 2 channel + trigger means you can even easily look at the clock signal of an overlcocked Picaxe). Cost around US$300 if you shop around a bit, and includes 2 probes. Attached to the USB port and doesn't even need a separate power supply. A more basic (1 channel, 12 MHz, parallel port) version can be had for little over $100. Picotech.com is another good vendor (bigger selection but tends to be quite a bit more expensive). Virtually all of those scopes double as a decent spectrum analyzer, very useful (decent standalone sampling scopes can do that, too).
Wolfgang
Edited by - womai on 30/04/2007 19:41:15
- (ab-)using your computer's sound card or hacking a device with display like the gameboy. The main issues are it is low bandwidth (audio, i.e. 20 kHz at best), audio cards are AC coupled (so you won't see the absolute levels), triggering etc. tends to be unstable, and you risk your $$$ computer are gameboy if you ever accidentally apply more than a few volts to the input. Overall, nice as a toy but not very useful for true work.
- professional, standalone scope, e.g. low-end Tektronix or other manufacturer. The upside is that this is a highly usable solution. Bandwidth nowadays starts around 50 MHz. I'd go for a digital sampling scope, since it has many advantages over traditional (analog) scopes, last but not least the possibility toe see what happened BEFORE the trigger, and to record longer waveforms. The major downside is price - with few exceptions it's above US$1000 (even used ones on ebay if they are in good condition).
- PC based scope: uses the PC for the main processing tasks and the display, so potentially much cheaper than a comparable standalone unit. I recently got myself a Velleman PCSU1000 that is basic but quite sufficient for my home lab (60 MHz bandwidth and 2 channel + trigger means you can even easily look at the clock signal of an overlcocked Picaxe). Cost around US$300 if you shop around a bit, and includes 2 probes. Attached to the USB port and doesn't even need a separate power supply. A more basic (1 channel, 12 MHz, parallel port) version can be had for little over $100. Picotech.com is another good vendor (bigger selection but tends to be quite a bit more expensive). Virtually all of those scopes double as a decent spectrum analyzer, very useful (decent standalone sampling scopes can do that, too).
Wolfgang
Edited by - womai on 30/04/2007 19:41:15
Mycroft2152
Senior Member
Add to the list the SWAN-ic <A href='http://www.fgcvme.co.uk/swanpage5.html' Target=_Blank>External Web Link</a> from the folks who make the GLCD display chip.
inglewoodpete
Senior Member
I'm in the market for a half-decent 'scope and had a look at the Velleman PCSU1000 pricing in Australia: nearly $A1100 ($US850) plus delivery. Gasp.
Oh well, back to the sound card ;o)
Oh well, back to the sound card ;o)
$850 plus shipping? I'm pretty sure you can find a US distributor who can mail it to Australia for less...
Try here (US$340, and they say "contact us for intl. shipping"
:
http://www.mbelectronics.com/view.aspx?id=327
or here, US$349:
http://www.allspectrum.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=547&gclid=CM_UjPK67IsCFSQsYQodBmsMPA
(they allow international addresses).
or here ($329 and you need to contact them for intl. shipping):
http://www.apogeekits.com/pc_oscilloscope_pcsu1000.htm
I doubt any of those will want even close to $500 for shipping
Wolfgang
Try here (US$340, and they say "contact us for intl. shipping"
:http://www.mbelectronics.com/view.aspx?id=327
or here, US$349:
http://www.allspectrum.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=547&gclid=CM_UjPK67IsCFSQsYQodBmsMPA
(they allow international addresses).
or here ($329 and you need to contact them for intl. shipping):
http://www.apogeekits.com/pc_oscilloscope_pcsu1000.htm
I doubt any of those will want even close to $500 for shipping
Wolfgang
inglewoodpete
Senior Member
Thanks Wolfgang.
I thinks its more about the size of the Australian market and lack of competition than shipping costs (unless our importers use rowboats or camel trains ;o)
I thinks its more about the size of the Australian market and lack of competition than shipping costs (unless our importers use rowboats or camel trains ;o)
You could also try www.designnotes.com for a US$350 Velleman PCSU1000. I have asked for shiping costs to UK, because the local distributor seems to have got thier exchange rate wrong and are asking about £350!
This looks like a very good product but if you are being asked to pay £350, then consider the Digimess (unfortunate name) DS25 digital scope from Farnell Electronics. This is a 25MHz dedicated instrument with two/four channel colour display and USB download option.
This looks like a very good product but if you are being asked to pay £350, then consider the Digimess (unfortunate name) DS25 digital scope from Farnell Electronics. This is a 25MHz dedicated instrument with two/four channel colour display and USB download option.
toxicmouse
Senior Member
i was trying to find some info on the gameboys after i saw a couple variometers use them. i would love to integrate the gameboy with some of my apps but i dont really have the time right now. a google search for gameboy variometer should give a few interesting sites.
hippy
Ex-Staff (retired)
For integration, don't overlook the GBA ( which I'm told has a serial port ) which could allow it to be turned into a smart terminal or display. Once the software side of things has been mastered it may then be an easier step to add-on cartridges and hardware. As "old hat" the GBA should be cheaper than the DS etc, and there should be a fair few about.
Hippy... Yes, the real advantage of the Game Boy series for hacking, compaired with a PDA etc, is that they provide direct access to the system bus via the games cartridge socket. It seems that quite a lot of custom hardware and software has been developed to produce FPGA programmers etc.
demonicpicaxeguy
Senior Member
you do realise the old gameboy screens aren't active matrix meaning anything that moves fast on them will blur