I got an ocilloscope, Now what?

[TVman]

Hi all,                  (Who-nor)
My name is Hunor and I'm 11.
For my birthday I got A vintage 30MHz BK Precision 1474 Analog Oscilloscope.
Whats next?  Function generator? Spectrum analyzer? Power supply? what?


Thanks,
Hunor

[c4757p]

The next thing you wish you had while working on a project.

[zapta]

Hi all,
For my birthday I got A vintage 30MHz BK Precision 1474 Analog Oscilloscope.
Whats next?  Function generator? Spectrum analyzer? Power supply?

Thanks,
Hunor

First, use it to build something. It doesn't matter what tools you have, it's matter what you do with them.

[nowlan]

Dont know enough about your experiences.

I would suggest a cheap DDS pcb/box from ebay, so you can create some signals to drive your experiments. Alternatively a used old school freq gen, but i think the dds are better value.

Then you can start playing with bread boarding some simple circuits. Something with transistors like audio amps, 555 timers, 317 low voltage psu (get a 24v ac plug pack).

Later on you can get a cheap korad style psu or something when you save some money.

I think its time to start building a parts collection, either from grab bags, kits, or salvaging broken equipment. Not sure I would recommend you play with mains equipment.

[TVman]

You should start salvaging parts

Been there, Done that. 

I would suggest a cheap DDS pcb/box from ebay.

Have a few.


I will post some pictures of my lab tomorrow if I can and all will be explained.  But for now  .


Hunor

[TVman]

Here it is.....

[GeoffS]

Your image insertion didn't work. You can't just put a file name between the IMG tags.
Best way is to use the Attachments option and upload your file to the forum.

Ask if you have any problems.

[dr.diesel]

Definitely a power supply, and you can use your new Scope to check it out once completed.  Be super careful on the line side, deadly voltage, or use a ~12v wall wart or your dad's battery charger etc.

[jaxbird]

Step 1: Acquire oscilloscope.
Step 2: Build time machine.
Step 3: World domination  (duh, it's obvious once you've completed step 2)

Nah, congrats on the nice scope, when I was 11, I only had an old analog multimeter. And we had to walk 10 miles to and from school, up hill both ways, in 10 feet of snow, with no shoes. 

Surely a multimeter and something to power your projects must be on the wishlist unless you are already covered.

[Stonent]

Your image insertion didn't work. You can't just put a file name between the IMG tags.
Best way is to use the Attachments option and upload your file to the forum.

Ask if you have any problems.

Another option is upload the image to Imgur.com and copy the BBCODE line and paste it here, that's what I do mostly.

[TVman]

I realize that, sorry!


I do have two meters.
A crap meter and A good analog meter.
I also have A cheap( it's all I can afford ) USD $9.00 soldering iron.
(Soldering iron in upper left corner)

Edit: I had to draw out my dads license plates.
Glad I saw it before I uploaded it!

[Rigby]

Oscilloscope, power supplies (proper ones, but an atx computer supply will do in a pinch), function gen, good soldering iron. Hot air gun.  Parts.  Electronic things that need fixing or need building.

By far the most important part of any lab is the human using it.  Have goals. Find something that needs made and make it.  Find something that is broken and figure out what is wrong with it.  If you have the parts, or can get them, fix it.  Etc.  Just spend time working on this kind of thing.

At age 11 your mind is a sponge, so start soaking stuff up.  Projects.  Projects projects projects.

[TVman]

Your image insertion didn't work. You can't just put a file name between the IMG tags.
Best way is to use the Attachments option and upload your file to the forum.

Ask if you have any problems.

One problem.

I don't like the maximum KB thing on uploading photos.
I had to take 23 pictures till I Found one that was under 1000kbs.
It was very tedious.


Hunor

[Rigby]

Imgur.com is your friend.

[GeoffS]

One problem.

I don't like the maximum KB thing on uploading photos.

Hunor

Resize your images before you upload them. There are any number of ways to do this depending on your operating system.
Or as suggested, use an online image storing service such as imgur, photobucket, flickr, tinypic, etc. etc.

[true]

You've got more lab space than me by a vast margin, I'm a bit jealous

[TVman]

this was my dads place full of junk,
he gave it to me, so i cleaned it out then got it messy again.

[TVman]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

[GeoffS]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

[xwarp]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

Thrift stores and estate sales are also places to find them cheap.

[TVman]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

20-30 pounds?

[xwarp]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

20-30 pounds?

The only way you are going to know is to get a quote.

Is electrolux giving you the psu and paying for shipping also?

If you are covering the shipping, then specs on the psu might be of use to get an approximate of whether the psu is even worth the cost of shipping.

Next question is do you need a power supply right now?

If you can be patient, you will find one at a good price.

Patience young one, "scores" don't find you, YOU have to find them.
 

[TVman]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

20-30 pounds?

The only way you are going to know is to get a quote.

Is electrolux giving you the psu and paying for shipping also?

If you are covering the shipping, then specs on the psu might be of use to get an approximate of whether the psu is even worth the cost of shipping.

Next question is do you need a power supply right now?

If you can be patient, you will find one at a good price.

Patience young one, "scores" don't find you, YOU have to find them.

So what do I do?
Go on eBay?

I'm confused now.

[xwarp]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

(previously posted)

[TVman]

eletrolux has offered a psu to give to me....

Shipping from the UK could get expensive. It might be worth looking on places like Craigslist to see what people are getting rid of.

(previously posted)

I tried Craigslist but it reminded me of E14.

Too many things to click on.....

[xwarp]

I tried Craigslist but it reminded me of E14.

Too many things to click on.....

What exactly do you mean?

Craigslist isn't a site where you just search one time. If something doesn't show up, that doesn't mean that it won't ever.

You have to keep looking.

For example, if happen to want another meter, enter "multimeter", "dvm", or just a brand name.

Don't be specific with the terms as that will limit your search, not to mention, there are times when people will post things with incorrect titles or info because they just don't know what they are selling, they just want to get rid of it.

ETA:

How about swap meets, flea markets, etc, around you?

[jetmorgan]

An easy and fun experiment you can do is to use your scope to look at switch bounce. Hook up one side of a toggle switch to 5 volts, and the other side of the switch to a resistor, the the other side of the resister to ground.  Put your scope probe on the switch side that's connected to the resistor and flip the switch back and forth to see how the switch contacts "bounce"  This exercise will teach you how to use the horizontal time per division knob and the volts per division control.  I've made a really simple video you can watch to get an idea of what you will see. The link is

Have fun with your scope! They are an extremely important tool for electronics work. 

[FrankenPC]

An easy and fun experiment you can do is to use your scope to look at switch bounce. Hook up one side of a toggle switch to 5 volts, and the other side of the switch to a resistor, the the other side of the resister to ground.  Put your scope probe on the switch side that's connected to the resistor and flip the switch back and forth to see how the switch contacts "bounce"  This exercise will teach you how to use the horizontal time per division knob and the volts per division control.  I've made a really simple video you can watch to get an idea of what you will see. The link is

Have fun with your scope! They are an extremely important tool for electronics work.

I believe he has an analog scope. 

[TVman]

An easy and fun experiment you can do is to use your scope to look at switch bounce. Hook up one side of a toggle switch to 5 volts, and the other side of the switch to a resistor, the the other side of the resister to ground.  Put your scope probe on the switch side that's connected to the resistor and flip the switch back and forth to see how the switch contacts "bounce"  This exercise will teach you how to use the horizontal time per division knob and the volts per division control.  I've made a really simple video you can watch to get an idea of what you will see. The link is

Have fun with your scope! They are an extremely important tool for electronics work.

I believe he has an analog scope.

Yes it is an analog scope that I own.

[David Aurora]

The next thing you wish you had while working on a project.

This. A thousand times this.

[TVman]

The next thing you wish you had while working on a project.

This. A thousand times this.

What do you mean?

[Dave]

What do you mean?

You buy stuff when you need it.

[TVman]

What do you mean?

You buy stuff when you need it.

Ok?

[electrophiliate]

Hi TVman. I don't know how much you know already, and I'm not an expert either, but here are some basic suggestions ...

1) Don't attempt to measure the waveform of the mains power (unless you know exactly what you are doing and have the right equipment e.g. high voltage differential probe).

2) Watch this video about scope grounding [EEVblog #279 - How NOT To Blow Up Your Oscilloscope!]:



3) Watch this video too [NJARC Oscilloscope School a.k.a. "Scopes For Dopes"]  (it's long but worth it, especially since you have an older analogue scope).



Others have already made some suggestions about probing simple circuits.

If you have a signal generator or even just a 555 timer in astable mode, you could play around with measuring capacitance and inductance:



Hope that helps, and good luck!

[TVman]

Hmm looks good

Don't know when I can watch it though.

[Stonent]

Hmm looks good

Don't know when I can watch it though.

Any videos by W2AEW are really good to watch.

[TVman]

Hmm looks good

Don't know when I can watch it though.

Any videos by W2AEW are really good to watch.

Oh yes, Alan makes great educational videos.
Good job Alan!

[M0BSW]

This would be a nice simple generator to build.

[madshaman]

I'd say build yourself a triple output bench supply :-)

[TVman]

This would be a nice simple generator to build.

I'm thinking of building a FG and a Psu.

[Rigby]

Both are excellent beginner projects.  Before you build a PSU, you'll need a load to test it with. Also a good project. You'll need a PSU to test the load though... Wonder which came first?

[rs20]

You buy stuff when you need it.

Ok?

Just in case you haven't understood this yet:

Saying "I have an oscilloscope, what tool should I buy next" is, perhaps, the wrong question to ask. You should be thinking about which projects to work on next. As you're working on/preparing for those projects, you'll find yourself thinking:

-- "I need to input a signal into this circuit to test it". OK then, buy a signal gen.
-- "I can't power this circuit!". OK then, buy a PSU.
-- "I can't analyse the timing issues on my PCIe circuit!". OK then, buy a 40 GHz $100,000 oscilloscope, then.

For example, I like working on a lot of digital stuff, so I've never had a signal genenerator. On the other hand, I program Atmel micros a lot, so I splurged on an Atmel Programmer/Debugger. My neighbour might be the opposite, he might well be far better off with a signal gen than a debugger.

The point is, no-one can tell you what tools you should have until you find out what's holding you back from doing the projects that interest and excite you. Wait until you're frustrated by not having something, and then buy it.

[TVman]

Ok,
I was looking on eBay today and found this....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15V-2A-NEW-Precision-Adjustable-Variable-Power-Supply-PS-1502DD-ship-from-US-/331209348058?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d1d9d93da

Or Does anyone in the US have a PSU to sell for a good price or to give away?


Oh, and xwarp is searching through his junk to to sell to me some stuff....
So far he gathered a HP 6215a 0-30v 400MA supply.

Thanks,
Hunor

[Rigby]

What state to you live in?

[TVman]

Can I Pm you this?
 

[Rigby]

Can I Pm you this?
 

yeah of course

[TVman]

PM sent!

[w2aew]

Ok,
I was looking on eBay today and found this....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15V-2A-NEW-Precision-Adjustable-Variable-Power-Supply-PS-1502DD-ship-from-US-/331209348058?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d1d9d93da

Or Does anyone in the US have a PSU to sell for a good price or to give away?


Oh, and xwarp is searching through his junk to to sell to me some stuff....
So far he gathered a HP 6215a 0-30v 400MA supply.

Thanks,
Hunor

for what it's worth, I have  a few of those little 6200 series analog supplies.  I love 'em and use them all of the time.  They are my main bench supplies.  I'm a big fan of *measuring* the voltage at the load rather than relying on what the display on the supply says, so I actually prefer the analog metering on my bench supplies.

[TVman]

Ok,
I was looking on eBay today and found this....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15V-2A-NEW-Precision-Adjustable-Variable-Power-Supply-PS-1502DD-ship-from-US-/331209348058?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d1d9d93da

Or Does anyone in the US have a PSU to sell for a good price or to give away?


Oh, and xwarp is searching through his junk to to sell to me some stuff....
So far he gathered a HP 6215a 0-30v 400MA supply.

Thanks,
Hunor

I have  a few of those little 6200 series analog supplies.  I love 'em and use them all of the time.  They are my main bench supplies.  I'm a big fan of *measuring* the voltage at the load rather than relying on what the display on the supply says, so I actually prefer the analog metering on my bench supplies.

Really? how much?

For what it's worth?

Dunno?

[Dave]

I don't think he was offering to sell them to you. I think he just wanted to let you know that these are good power supplies and you should consider buying one.

[Rigby]

As a first power supply, I would scrounge up an old ATX power supply and then get a handful of those switching regulators on eBay for a few bucks.  They're $12 for 10, shipped from the US.  That'll get you from 12V all the way down to 1.25V, at about 1A per regulator.  That should be plenty for a beginner.

Or, maybe $12 is a bit steep for an 11yo, you can go mow some yards and then head on over to the Radio Shack for an LM317 adjustable regulator, or some 7805 fixed regulators.

You're going to need some breadboards and jumper wire; use Ethernet cable for jumper wire, it's really cheap and lots of people have cables that have stopped working.

I got your PM; you're too far away for me to drive it to you, and shipping is murder on things this heavy.  I think mowing some grass or something and earning your stuff would do you better in the long run, anyway.

[OpenglMan]

Hi Hunor,

Are You an expert in all kind of Arduino things ??

This could be a very good beginning.

[TVman]

As a first power supply, I would scrounge up an old ATX power supply and then get a handful of those switching regulators on eBay for a few bucks.  They're $12 for 10, shipped from the US.  That'll get you from 12V all the way down to 1.25V, at about 1A per regulator.  That should be plenty for a beginner.

Or, maybe $12 is a bit steep for an 11yo, you can go mow some yards and then head on over to the Radio Shack for an LM317 adjustable regulator, or some 7805 fixed regulators.

You're going to need some breadboards and jumper wire; use Ethernet cable for jumper wire, it's really cheap and lots of people have cables that have stopped working.

I got your PM; you're too far away for me to drive it to you, and shipping is murder on things this heavy.  I think mowing some grass or something and earning your stuff would do you better in the long run, anyway.

I have A few 7805s.

And 12USD in not that expensive.

[TVman]

Hi Hunor,

Are You an expert in all kind of Arduino things ??

This could be a very good beginning.

I have an arduino but I barely know how to make an l.e.d blink.

[OpenglMan]

(laughing)

Then, this tutorial could be useful for You...

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/

Enjoy, and maybe in 4 years You will be an expert like Angelo ( http://ascas.tk/about )

[Rigby]

I have an arduino but I barely know how to make an l.e.d blink.

You should do some arduino stuff.  Learn to talk over i2c and spi and serial.  Blink an LED. Fade an LED according to some analog or digital input.

Have fun.

Never give up.

[TVman]

I have an arduino but I barely know how to make an l.e.d blink.

You should do some arduino stuff.  Learn to talk over i2c and spi and serial.  Blink an LED. Fade an LED according to some analog or digital input.

Have fun.

Never give up.

Well I know how to open a sketch.

[electrophiliate]

+1 for the LM317s (or low drop-out equivalents) but you may need some heatsinks too, and +1 for the the cheap Ebay switching regulators, but it might be handier to get different types e.g. a few step-up (boost converter) modules, a few step-down (buck converter) modules, and a few combination auto step-up step-down modules.

[TVman]

Yes I think I'll  get those regulators.

[madshaman]

With LM317s you'll want some 25uF electrolytics on the output, a 0.1uF NP0 ceramic for the input and another for the adjust pin (or a 5-10uF tantalum if you dare).

But a box of 0.1uF and some electrolytics in the 25uF-100uF would do you well.

[TVman]

(laughing)

Then, this tutorial could be useful for You...

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/

Enjoy, and maybe in 4 years You will be an expert like Angelo ( http://ascas.tk/about )

Thanks!