Advice in oscilloscope needs

Question

Hi Guys,

Oscilloscope noob here! I am doing some various tinkering that I think I could use an oscilloscope for and I am wondering if the DS201 will do what I need. I have a bunch of old Commodore 64s that I would like to try and fix so I would like to check that the clock outputs from the various chips are working. Will the Nano be ok for this? Looking at thew review and the specs for the C64 I suspect not?

My other project is I am trying to interface a six button Sega Megadrive controller to a Arduino Pro Micro using the sketch from here: Sega Genesis controllers and Arduino revisited | Jon Thysell

However it is only working in 3 button mode yet the controller appears to work ok with a real megadrive so I want to be able to look at and measure the pulsed sequences that are sent to the controller so I can emulate them exactly with the Arduino. The pulse widths are around 20 microsecs but could be less. So do you think the Nano 201 will be able to show me what the exactly series of pulses being generated by the Megadrive are?

Obviously these are just hobbies so I am not looking to spend a lot of money but if it isnt going to be able to do what I need then I will look elsewhere maybe a second hand something? I have also thought that the Hantek 6022BE might be a better option perhaps?

Edit: Also I am wondering if what would be better for what i am wanting to do would be a logic analyser?

Thanks for the advice,

peterjcs23 · Answer

The DS201 has a bandwidth of 200kHz and clocks are likely to be much higher frequency. Better to check out the Pico range of scopes that run on a PC. Some of them have logic analyser functions. But you need a scope capable of measuring signals at least as fast as the clocks you're interested in.

Robert Peter Oakes · Answer

I would go for a low cost but full oscilloscope

the DS102 has only DC coupling so can not look at small signals with large DC offset

limited to 200Khz at best so no good for uController clock pins and the like which often run in the Mhz ranges

would not handle high speed I2C, SPI signals

for a similar cost you can get a 2 channel scope with a full screen (4-7") depending on model and maker and it will with perhaps a 50Mhz bandwidth (Not sample rate, but actual bandwidth) and this will handle the common microcontrollers etc.

something like the following

500$ :- TBS1000B-EDU Digital Storage Oscilloscope | Tektronix

For 250$ ish you can get one of these that has receved alot of good reviews, check out Dave Jones blog (the EEVBlog) Rigol DS1052E 50MHz Digital Oscope with 2 Channels, USB Storage Access, 1 GSa/sec sampling: Science Lab Oscilloscopes: A…

Hope this helps

Peter

Advice in oscilloscope needs

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