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Author Topic: Cant afford an oscilloscope  (Read 8336 times)

tammons

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  • Posts: 5
Cant afford an oscilloscope
« on: July 11, 2009, 07:02:40 AM »
I there some device that will give me a frequency readout other than an oscilloscope ??

Testing a 316L Meyers/Lawton type cell, with a Lawton varible type PWM.

robbie47

  • Full Member
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  • Posts: 193
Re: Cant afford an oscilloscope
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2009, 09:49:18 AM »
how about using your microphone input of you PC (or soundcard) + some software.
I've seen on various occasions people use that succesfully

turbo

  • Guest
Re: Cant afford an oscilloscope
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2009, 10:38:28 AM »

tammons

  • Newbie
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  • Posts: 5
Re: Cant afford an oscilloscope
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2009, 03:12:23 PM »
I forgot about that.

Thanks

The Observer

  • Sr. Member
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  • Posts: 397
Re: Cant afford an oscilloscope
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2009, 09:03:04 PM »
Hey Tammons,

I have a couple suggestions.

I wished for an osillyscope and got one off Craigslist for $50 a month ago.

Otherwise, I was going to gamble $25 on an ebay one.
There's tons on ebay, but most are from some large liquidation and say "not tested".

The Observer

P.S. I did find one for sale for a cool $200,000 !

TinselKoala

  • Hero Member
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  • Posts: 13958
Re: Cant afford an oscilloscope
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2009, 09:43:29 PM »
Here :

http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist/weedfreq.htm

M.

Darn, I wish I had known about that before I bought this Fluke counter for 125 bux. The Fluke is nice, a professional instrument, but it has "issues" which is why I got it cheap. But for the work I normally do the above kit would have been better, it looks like.
I recently scored a nice Atek nixie tube counter for really cheap, it needed one 50 cent germanium transistor replaced and now it's working fine.
(The nixie counter in the photo is a GenRad 1191, a true classic.)

I always use a counter in conjunction with my analog scopes; it's a lot more accurate (and easier) than squinting at the screen and doing math. And I never understood why more old FGs didn't automatically include more precise frequency readouts. I guess the instrument designers were of the "component stereos are better" persuasion, mostly.
Suits me, but it is getting crowded in my kitchen.
Still, this is less than 500 bux worth of boat-anchors.