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Does a hobbyist need a Oscilloscope?
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rstofer:

--- Quote from: System Error Message on June 30, 2016, 07:14:16 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on June 30, 2016, 07:12:50 pm ---3 pages on this simple topic?  :palm:
Ofcourse a hobbyist needs a scope! Stupid question because a scope is the only instrument which lets you look at the shape of a signal and electronics is all about shapes of signals :rant:

--- End quote ---

Thats what i've been trying to say, its not just about seeing waves as you can learn a lot from it. Its a must if you want to learn/do electronics.

--- End quote ---

This week my grandson is studying exponential equations. Like v(t) = v * (1-e-t/T)  That certainly looks familiar!  I  put a resistor and capacitor on a breadboard, fed in a square wave about 6T wide from my Digilent Analog Discovery and displayed the result on a DS1054Z.  A neat way to reinforce the lesson plan.

Yes, hobbyists need a scope.  In my view, sooner rather than later.  Add in some kind of signal generator and they can really get a handle on low pass and high pass filters (as well as the more complex filters).  It's all too easy to just read about them and assume they are understood.  It's totally different when you can plot the results of amplitude and phase.  Yes, I know about LTSpice but the simulator isn't the hardware.  Amplifiers, oscillators, tuned circuits and that's before we even get to digital.  For the truly insane, displaying the output of an analog computer solving some 2d order differential equation.


Galenbo:
Why would anyone that even doesn't invest 200->500 euro in electronics be called a hobbyist?
That's the price of a cheap bike, the price of a smartphone, the price of nintendo/xbox/..., a fishing outfit/set or a surfboard costs more.
In my area, a healthy 16-years old can make that amount of money in 2->4 saturdays of work.
nctnico:
Nowadays the problem is that people spend a lot of their money on games, mobiles phones and so on that they don't have money to spend on their hobbies. Sad but true.
Howardlong:

--- Quote from: nctnico on July 05, 2016, 09:24:38 am ---Nowadays the problem is that people spend a lot of their money on games, mobiles phones and so on that they don't have money to spend on their hobbies. Sad but true.

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That's the difference between consumers and creators. I'm not sure if there's been a fundamental change that much in the last forty to fifty years, just that instead of the internet, phones and gaming everyone watched the TV.

Now consumers still have the TV on, they're just playing a game over the internet on their phone at the same time ;-)
onesixright:
I think no. You need to eat, you need water. That fundamental.

But i think hobbyist wants a scope, if he/she wants to learn / understand!

To be a able to see (and understand) the invisible, electricity (signals), you want one (or two...) ;-)

And as someone wrote here, if a hobby doesn't cost money find another hobby  :-DD
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