SmartScope by Lab Nation -- anyone ever seen/used one of these?

[ednadolski]

An oscilloscope module that attaches to your laptop or iPhone. I'm mulling over one of these, has anyone ever seen or used one (or anything similar)?

https://www.lab-nation.com/

Looks like a potentially handy tool if you want to see the DCC waveform or do work with Arduino, PWM, etc.   At the very least it looks like a cool toy to check out

(Aside - a far cry from the old HP CRT-and-vacuum-tube scopes that we used in school that were about the size of a large microwave oven  )


Cheers,
Ed

[MK]

If you are good at building electronic kits at 1/10 the cost:

https://www.banggood.com/DSO138-DIY-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kit-SMD-Soldered-13803K-Version-With-Transparent-Acrylic-Housing-p-1051616.html?rmmds=search

[ednadolski]

I saw some of those kits, as well as the assembled ones ("pocket oscilloscopes") that you can get for around $100 or so.  Looks like one of the main differences is the bandwidth.  The 100-200 kHz ones would probably work ok to see a DCC waveform, but for other projects perhaps one might need better (the LN says it can do 30 MHz).

Ed

[C855B]

... The 100-200 kHz ones would probably work ok to see a DCC waveform, ...

Actually, no. The shoulders on a square wave are harmonics of the base frequency, so you need high-frequency capability to get an accurate snapshot of the waveform. The relatively low frequency response would round-off the corners and - worse - also blur any noise component. Neither would be good if you're trying to diagnose a problem. I would want at least a 5 MHz bandwidth.