Lab Nation Digital Oscilloscope

[floppybootstomp]

Today I tried my Lab Nation digital oscilloscope with my new touch screen monitor and I’m rather chuffed with this setup. I can pinch the waveform and do all kinds of things with it just by touching the screen, it’s quite a novelty for me.

I could also install the app on my Android phone making this ‘scope very portable but I haven’t done that yet. The pictures show the setup in my spare room/workshop including the oscilloscope itself and a case for it I bought from CPC for a tenner. I actually bought two of those cases, one for the ‘scope, USB lead and one case for the other leads and probes.

The oscilloscope is USB powered and dual channel and has a host of functions most of which I haven’t familiarised myself with yet but I did notice it has a built in function generator. It’s pictured here with an old school waveform generator and frequency counter.

The computer I’m using with the ‘scope is fairly low spec:

MSI H110M Pro-VD Plus Motherboard
Intel i3 7100 3.9Ghz 2 Core Kaby lake CPU with stock cooler
1 module Corsair Value Select 8Gb DDR4 Memory
Kingston 240Gb SSD Drive (in swappable caddy)
Seagate 2Tb SATA Drive
Pioneer BD-R209 Bluray RW Optical drive
On board graphics.
Asus Xonar Sound card
Coolermaster desktop ATX case.
Hanns.G HT225HPB 21.5” Touchscreen monitor
Logitech MX330 Wireless Keyboard/Mouse combo
Win 10 Pro OS

The computer replaced the sound system I had in that room and I now have my music stored on the 2Tb HDD. It’s played back using the computer volume control via a home made 75Watt x 2 Class A/B amplifier through a pair of Q-Accoustic 3020 loudspeakers.

So far so good, I do prefer this setup to my former CRT Oscilloscope I just hope it proves to be reliable. I did manage to sell my old CRT scope so that helped pay for this. Also sold a couple of audio bits which paid for the monitor.

In time I’ll probably replace the amp/loudspeakers with a pair of powered monitors.

I'll just add that if you're in the market for a reasonably priced touchscreen monitor and a 21.5" screen is big enough for you I'm very impressed with this Hanns.G monitor - recommended.

 

[Ian]

I've been looking at oscilloscopes recently (probably one of the low end Hanteks, or similar), but I didn't really consider getting a USB powered scope like this. Is the software any good? It looks pretty polished on their website.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've been looking at oscilloscopes recently (probably one of the low end Hanteks, or similar), but I didn't really consider getting a USB powered scope like this. Is the software any good? It looks pretty polished on their website.

I can't really comment with any authority just yet as I haven't used it much but when I've been playing with it I've been quite impressed.

Currently assembling 4 x amplifier modules and will be testing those shortly so that may give me a better idea.

There are quite a lot of basic more economical digital oscilloscopes available and I suspect one of those may have fulfilled my needs but this one had such a range of functions I just had to have it. Not that I'm sure what half of those functions do...

 

[Ian]

It sounds like a handy tool, nevertheless - I'm sure you'll make use of the new functions one day . I do have a very small oscilloscope, but it only does up to something like 200Khz (rather than Mhz) - it does me for the most part too.

Out of interest, how heavily do you use oscilloscopes for audio stuff?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Out of interest, how heavily do you use oscilloscopes for audio stuff?

I think the best answer to that would be 'Infrequently but regularly'

Basically whenever I'm working on a new project. Back in yonder days I'd use a 'scope all the time when fault finding but I try and avoid that now

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

I am in the market for a scope also, but I think I will get the solderin iron first.