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Building my own scope

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balnazzar:
Ok, that could be way-over-my-head kind of project, but gathering some information won't hurt.

Here is what I'd like to do, in general terms:

1. Buy a Xilinx Zynq board (or something similar).
2. Buy some decent ADCs and attach them to the board.
3. Use something like Scopy as scope software.

Do you think it's doable?

Alternatively, one could just buy a PCIe ADC board with 4 channels and snap it into a common PC.

Again, it this doable in a reasonably non-nightmarish way?

pcprogrammer:
Depends on your skills of coarse, but it is doable.

Making something really high end and fast is more difficult and expensive though.

It is also the question why. If you need a scope for your hobby it is easier and probably cheaper to just buy one. If it is a hobby to build one then nothing is stopping you to just try. It can be a lot of fun.

balnazzar:

--- Quote from: pcprogrammer on October 20, 2022, 11:21:19 am ---It is also the question why. If you need a scope for your hobby it is easier and probably cheaper to just buy one. If it is a hobby to build one then nothing is stopping you to just try. It can be a lot of fun.

--- End quote ---

I'm motivated by two reasons, essentially:

1. I'm dissatisfied by commercial scopes within my financial reach (say 1 grand).

2. I think I'll learn a lot of things by building my own scope.

That said, I'm having difficulties finding the ADCs, primarily because I don't know exactly where to search, and apart from the main specs (e.g. resolution in bits, etc..), I don't know what to look for... Here is where I need advice.

2N3055:

--- Quote from: balnazzar on October 20, 2022, 11:34:09 am ---
--- Quote from: pcprogrammer on October 20, 2022, 11:21:19 am ---It is also the question why. If you need a scope for your hobby it is easier and probably cheaper to just buy one. If it is a hobby to build one then nothing is stopping you to just try. It can be a lot of fun.

--- End quote ---

I'm motivated by two reasons, essentially:

1. I'm dissatisfied by commercial scopes within my financial reach (say 1 grand).

2. I think I'll learn a lot of things by building my own scope.

That said, I'm having difficulties finding the ADCs, primarily because I don't know exactly where to search, and apart from the main specs (e.g. resolution in bits, etc..), I don't know what to look for... Here is where I need advice.

--- End quote ---

Only do this if you want to learn. Prices for parts scope manufacturers get are very different from prices you will get for same parts at low quantity. FPGA + 2 ADC might cost you more than twice your budget for scope... Not to mention that it is not a beginners quest. There are dozens of open scope projects on net, and dozens topics here on the forum. Some attempted by pro FPGA designers and whatnot. None of them went to working product. Making a scope is a large, very hard project.

balnazzar:

--- Quote from: 2N3055 on October 20, 2022, 11:41:40 am ---Only do this if you want to learn. Prices for parts scope manufacturers get are very different from prices you will get for same parts at low quantity. FPGA + 2 ADC might cost you more than twice your budget for scope... Not to mention that it is not a beginners quest. There are dozens of open scope projects on net, and dozens topics here on the forum. Some attempted by pro FPGA designers and whatnot. None of them went to working product. Making a scope is a large, very hard project.

--- End quote ---

I was thinking.. Let's not consider a FPGA-based project for now. It could be very, very interesting from a learning point of view, but I think it's too hard given my current level of competence. So, let's talk about ADCs on a regular desktop PC.

Consider Digilent Waveforms, a fine piece of software. It does all the things I need, essentially.
It works OOB with any soundcard. A soundcard is essentially a low frequency ADC.
It's not unreasonable to assume it'll work with a PCIe ADC.
The problem is that I'm having a hard time finding pci-express ADCs.

Maybe you can point me towards some manufacturers?

The only one I was able to find is this: https://dev.alazartech.com/en/

Prices are nowhere to be found though.

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