No More Floppy Drives for this Agilent Scope
When [kiwih] picked up an Agilent 54621A scope, he was amused that it had a floppy disk. At one time, it was high-tech to use a disk to transfer scope data to your computer. Today, not so much....
View ArticleHackaday Links: May 24, 2020
We’re saddened to learn of the passing of Gershon Kingsley in December 2019 at the age of 97. The composer and electronic music pioneer was not exactly a household name, but the things he did with the...
View ArticleDigitize An Analogue Oscilloscope
Many of us will possess digital oscilloscopes which offer at an affordable price an array of features once unimaginable on the analogue CRT ‘scopes of yesteryear. But those old analogue beasts were...
View ArticleHantek 3-in-1 Instrument Reviewed
What kid doesn’t want a Swiss Army knife? Maybe that was the idea behind Hantek’s 3-in-1 instrument that [Rui Santos] reviewed in a recent blog post. You can also watch the video version, below. The...
View ArticleTablet Oscilloscope Claims 100 MHz, But Is It?
[LearnElectronics] grabbed a FNIRSI tablet oscilloscope from a vendor from China. The device has a seven-inch touchscreen and claims to be a two-channel 100 MHz scope. But is it? Watch the video below...
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Upgrading the RAM in a 25 Year Old Oscilloscope
From reading his extensive write-ups on the subject, there’s one thing we know for sure: [Tom Verbeure] loves his Tektronix TDS 420A oscilloscope. While it might be older than some of the people...
View ArticleInside a $30,000 8 GHz Scope
One of the best things about the Internet — especially the video part — is that you can get exposed to lots of things you might otherwise not be able to see. Take oscilloscopes, for example. If you...
View ArticleAntique Oscilloscope Gets New Home and Purpose
As the pace of technology charges blindly forward, a lot of older tools or products get left in the dust, forgotten to most but those left with them. This doesn’t mean they’re useless, though. In fact,...
View ArticleToy O-Scope is Dope
Not many of our childhood doll and action figure’s accessories revolved around lab equipment except maybe an Erlenmeyer flask if they were a “scientist.” No, they tended to be toasters, vehicles, and...
View ArticleUpgrading a Classic Function Generator
If you need an oscilloscope, function generator, or other piece of kit for your electronics workbench, there are plenty of modern options. Dropping $4,000 for a modern oscilloscope is nice if you have...
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Cardboard Models Trace Design Process of Vintage Tektronix Miniscopes
There aren’t many brands that inspire the kind of passion and fervency among its customers as Tektronix does. The venerable Oregon-based manufacturer of top-end test equipment has produced more...
View ArticleDead Simple Time-Domain Reflectometry with Just a Battery and an Oscilloscope
“Time-domain reflectometry” sure sounds like something that needs racks of expensive equipment to accomplish. In reality, TDR is just measuring the time between injecting a pulse into a cable and...
View ArticleOscilloscope Learns How to Speak Japanese, and VGA
Nostalgia aside, there are a few things an analog scope can still do better than a digital, with oscilloscope art being a prime example. The blue-green glow of phosphors in a real CRT just add...
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Chasing Down Bad Caps to Save a Troubled PSU
We know what you’re thinking. It’s a bad power supply, of course it was capacitors to blame. But even if we all intuitively know at this point that bad caps are almost always the culprit when a PSU...
View ArticleA Physical Front Panel for Oscilloscope Software
For hackers on a tight budget or with limited bench space, a USB oscilloscope can be a compelling alternative to a dedicated piece of hardware. For plenty of hobbyists, it’s a perfectly valid option....
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Slick Web Oscilloscope is Ready in a Flash (Literally)
A bench oscilloscope is one of the most invaluable tools in the hardware hacker’s arsenal, but even the slimmest digital models are a bit large to be part of your everyday electronic carry. Sure you...
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Reading Floppies with an Oscilloscope
There’s a lot of data on magnetic media that will soon be lost forever, as floppies weren’t really made to sit in attics and basements for decades and still work. [Chris Evans] and [Phil Pemberton]...
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The O’Scope Restoration
These days, a pretty nice oscilloscope can fit in your toolbox and even a “big” instrument is probably something you can tuck under your arm. But that hasn’t always been the case. Consider this old HP...
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Why Buy A New Scope When You Can ‘Just’ Build One?
Hackaday Prize 2021 Finalist ThunderScope is doing exactly that. [Aleska] is building a modular open source PC-connected oscilloscope aiming at four channels and a cool 100 MHz bandwidth with a low...
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Wearable Scope Lets Your Fingers Do The Probing
For frantic hacking sessions where seconds count, this forearm mounted oscilloscope with fingertip probes built by [aniketdhole] might be just what you need. Well, maybe. It’s not immediately clear why...
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