[section label=”Introduction”]
Being a PC enthusiast was mostly the influence of having an eletronics-savvy family. Having grown-up in a household with the smell of solder almost always in the air, its only natural that the love for electronics comes as second nature to me. While I’ve mostly kept my electronics tinkering in the backseat when fiddling around components, its always served me quite well in the PC enthusiast hobby. One of the things that I’ve always loved is developing personal solutions to some of the things I do. From DIY thermal probes to USB UV lamps, I’ve dabbled here and there in some electronics DIY. Today we have something a bit more advanced because I’ve been trying to get an oscilloscope to learn a few things and I came across this DIY kit from GearBest: the DSO138 DIY Oscilloscope Kit. Read on!
[section label=”Specifications”]
Specifications
Vertical
- Number of Channel: 1
- Analog Bandwidth: 0 – 200KHz
- Sensitivity: 10mV/Div – 5V/Div
- Sensitivity error: < 5%
- Resolution: 12-bit
- Input Impedance: 1M ohm
- Maximum Input voltage: 50Vpk
- Coupling: DC, AC, GND
Horizontal
- Max Real-time Sampling Rate: 1Msps
- Timebase: 10us/Div – 500s/Div
- Record Length: 1024
- Trigger
- Trigger Modes: Auto, Normal, Single
- Trigger Types: Rising/falling edge
- Trigger Position: 1/2 of buffer size fixed
Display
- 2.4-inch color TFT LCD with 320 x 240 resolution
- Power Supply
- 9V DC (8 – 12V acceptable)
- Supply Current: 120mA
Physical
- Dimension: 117mm X 76mm X 15mm
- Weight: 70 gram (not including cables)
[section label=”Closer Look”]
Closer Look
[section label=”User Experience & Conclusion”]
User Experience & Conclusion
We won’t be diving much in the technical details of this kit and more on the assembly experience and overall usage. Overall, the kit feels like an advanced Lego system with the included manual doing a great job of showing which component goes which. There’s also a troubleshooting guide which outlines the procedures to follow when figuring out what’s wrong with your DSO138 kit.
Moving over to the inclusions, the PCB is printed very well and the labels are clear and easy to read. Outlines of the components are also printed so even if you’re a relative beginner, its going to be hard to get components mixed up. We highly suggest using a multimeter when sorting components and before soldering them to the PCB. This kit is aimed at those with some applied experience with soldering as some of the components really need precision work. You’ll need a few tools for this build: soldering iron, some lead, a solldapullt, a multimeter, a needle-nose tweezer and a side cutter would be everything you need.
If you follow the manual to the letter, there’s really a small margin for error and the guide walks you through trial testing during the assembly. Note that there’s no power source supplied with the kit so you have to provide one yourself. Once you get it started you will most likely need to calibrate it first.
Overall, the kit has is a cheap option if you want to start learning about developing your own board as the kit is open-source with the firmware available for those interested in further fiddling with the application. For general usage, its a good starting point for anyone learning signals and wave forms and being a cheap alternative to exploring oscilloscope functions. We’re still exploring the kit but if you’re like me that can see the potential in something like this, for $18.91 its a really good value.
You’ll see more of this kit in our Facebook page where we play around with stuff. You can grab the DSO138 DSO Digital Oscilloscope kit now from GearBest for $18.91.
