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Why do you think there aren't more "good" USB oscilloscopes?

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NiHaoMike:
I had a different idea on how to improve the scope, and that is instead of having a built in screen, have a HDMI output to connect an off the shelf monitor to it. It would certainly help a lot in regards to limited screen real estate on mixed signal scopes.

TomKatt:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on February 16, 2023, 01:39:32 pm ---I had a different idea on how to improve the scope, and that is instead of having a built in screen, have a HDMI output to connect an off the shelf monitor to it. It would certainly help a lot in regards to limited screen real estate on mixed signal scopes.

--- End quote ---
Many scopes already include some kind of video out, but the problem is that only duplicates what the built-in screen is displaying so the benefit is limited to making things larger - you don't get any more usable real estate out of that option.  Remote web interfaces are similar with the added benefit of being able to manipulate the control settings.

It's too bad there isn't an easy way to upgrade the memory in bench scopes using something like laptop ram modules...  I'm sure DDR3-4 would be too slow for zooming in as the built-in memory serves, but it might be handy to be able to record long waveforms even if the recording was limited to the display points on the screen...   And if using a laptop doesn't make a lot of sense, perhaps the other way around and offer usb mouse / keyboard functionality to the scope to manipulate some more complicated tasks?

Alex Eisenhut:

--- Quote from: TomKatt on February 16, 2023, 12:54:04 pm ---I should have also thought about longevity...   We already have automated equipment running on obsolete Windows operating systems that require physical segregation on our network.  Not to mention servicing equipment with software you sometimes cannot locate any longer.

You can power up a tube based Tek scope from the 1960's and it will likely work like it did when it was new, but I've had to replace equipment just 15 years old because it wouldn't play nice with modern pc's.


--- End quote ---

Yeah wake me up when I can heat my place with a USB scope!

PlainName:
Pukka scopes are all-in-one boxes you can just drop on a bench and use. Mains connector and that's it. USB scopes are at least two modules with interconnecting cable(s), so not quite as convenient. A PC-based scope would really need to be a tablet to get the same convenience, and you could strap the USB box to the back of that, shove it all in an enclosure and have traditional scope.

The PC scope, I would have thought, suffers from the USB connection. USB3 isn't that recent and most USB scopes use USB2 because that's what PCs had. A pukka scope could have a PCI connection (or even a custom one), so maybe now we might see not-a-USB scopes using a PCIe card or similar.

Also, the PC suffers from being anonymous. The scope designer has not control, nor idea, of what is going to be running his software or driving his hardware. Maybe some W10 update does something below the water line and it's not the developer getting the stick for his faultless kit getting the blame.

So far as there not being a market, you could say there is no market for $20 20Gb/s scopes, simply because you can't get 'em. So until and unless there are many almost-expensive but great USB scopes, the market will likely be small and the attraction to develop them (and maybe make a better market) similarly small.

And... a PC ain't going to have knobs to twiddle. I like my Micsig, but I think I would be much happier with the version that has physical knobs.

pcprogrammer:

--- Quote from: TomKatt on February 16, 2023, 03:28:50 pm ---... perhaps the other way around and offer usb mouse / keyboard functionality to the scope to manipulate some more complicated tasks?

--- End quote ---

My 16 year old Yokogawa DL9705 offers this functionality.

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