Oscilloscope-like Programme for PC

[Grant Fleming]

Just thought I would share with the forum a nice little programme for displaying voltage over time signals using the PC's line-in jack. I know there are many of these around and alot of you guys have done all this before on 'real' scopes (so have I) but others might like to try this to see on screen what the PICAXE actually communicates in -bits, 1's and 0's. To figure out then finally get to clearly display for example just a single character that you transmit using sertxd on the screen was quite an achievement for me, a moonwalk moment (not Neil Armstrong but the Michael Jackson type-although it was actually one giant leap for me)!
The programme is called Zelscope and has a 14 day free trial (fully functional) and is available at www.zelscope.com - it costs US$20 if you decide to register. Nowhere as good as the real thing but for those who can't afford a scope yet it will get them used to using one.

Cheers,
Grant

 

[premelec]

Looks good... however note that it is an AC coupled system so won't show DC offsets on your signal and such - sometimes a very significant bit of information... Still a heck of a lot better than just a multimeter!

 

[picaxester]

Heres two that I've tried
http://scopeonpc.tripod.com/index.htm
http://zeitnitz.de/Christian/Scope/Scope_en.html

 

[MFB]

Slow scope/fast stripchart

Although more like a fast strip-chart recorder than a scope, StampPlot Pro is able to display multiple analog (down to DC) and digital channels of data sent from a PICAXE. It is more than able to deal with 9.6 K bps arriving at a PC RS-232 serial port. It can be downloaded free from www.selmaware.com and includes extensive documentation and examples.

 

[Grant Fleming]

Although more like a fast strip-chart recorder than a scope, StampPlot Pro is able to display multiple analog (down to DC) and digital channels of data sent from a PICAXE. It is more than able to deal with 9.6 K bps arriving at a PC RS-232 serial port. It can be downloaded free from www.selmaware.com and includes extensive documentation and examples.

Yes, I have been using StampPlot Pro with a PICAXE for a year or so in a multiple temperature datalogging application, it is very good!

Grant

 

[Steve Joblin]

Here is a post that has a great circuit that you can use to protect your PC Sound Card... http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=21&m=165230