# What oscillascope on a budget?



## phil.green.90813 (May 10, 2016)

Hi there everybody. I am a diy installer. I have been playing for many years but this is the first "proper" install I have done. 
I have sound deadened the doors and boot area, kept the sock locations but upgraded to 4 alpine type r 6.5 components and the swa12t due to the space being needed.
I am on the third box design and the experimentation is enjoyable as well as educational.
The reason for the post is one of setup. I am happy with the use of an oscilloscope although I don't have 1 yet. I have been bitten several times buying second hand analogue scopes from eBay. This has put me off second hand scopes. I cannot afford a new analogue scope but was looking at the pic based digital scopes. These are within the budget I can stretch to. 
Before I purchase such a device, I was wanting to ask if it would be suitable for the task. 
I would not expect to be measuring outside a range of 20Hz to 10kHz for setting gains. 

Would a pic based scope do the job or not??? If so can any one suggest any that are better for this task than the others. 

Thanks in advance

Phil. 


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

For setting gains, just use your ears. Much cheaper and quicker

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## fcarpio (Apr 29, 2008)

SkizeR said:


> For setting gains, just use your ears. Much cheaper and quicker
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


Until you blow a tweeter! Been there and don't want to blow another learning. The tweeter I blew was more expensive than the Oscilloscope, I take the oscilloscope.

Mini Pocket Sized Handheld Digital Storage Oscilloscope Arm DSO Nano DSO201 | eBay


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

Love mine. Can get a rca to bnc adapter for the top to plug rca directly in to the unit 

VELLEMAN HPS140I HANDHELD POCKET SC...p/B004KKTUV6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_pYZmxb30JFB1W


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

Use a multimeter and be done with it. Until you can afford a quality scope.


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## gijoe (Mar 25, 2008)

O-scopes are one of the biggest wastes of money there is for car audio tools. Unless you have a very complicated signal chain with multiple components, then an o-scope is a waste of money.

They are great tools, buy not great for car audio. All they can do is help set gains, which can be done just as well with ears, test tones, and DMMs. I don't use a DMM for gains either, but the money you want to spend on an o-scope can go towards a very nice DMM that will be much more useful in car audio, and every other electronics project that you'll come across.


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

fcarpio said:


> Until you blow a tweeter! Been there and don't want to blow another learning. The tweeter I blew was more expensive than the Oscilloscope, I take the oscilloscope.
> 
> Mini Pocket Sized Handheld Digital Storage Oscilloscope Arm DSO Nano DSO201 | eBay


ive never blown a speaker (besides when plugging them into a wall lol) in my life. play 4k tone, adjust till distortion, back off a hair, done. no harm done


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## jowens500 (Sep 5, 2008)

I use this and can't be beat for $70.


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

^^^ I've used one of those before. It worked.... but man was it cheesy.


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## jowens500 (Sep 5, 2008)

May be cheesy, but it just works and that is all you can ask for these days.


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## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

Velleman oscilloscopes usually come up for sale for about $80 used nice condition on eBay. The thing about an oscilloscope is that after you buy one and get familiar with, you wish you would have spent more money and got one with better resolution. The nano units are good for gains but not much more than that. Scan the Internet and keep your eyes open for a good oscilloscope, good ones pop up for sale cheap but you have to act fast.


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## brumledb (Feb 2, 2015)

If I were buying one I would get the Pico 2204A. It's about ~$150. Its real value is the software that is included, you can do all kinds of measurements with it. 

https://www.picotech.com/support/topic22381.html


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

Perfect timing ... I have one on sale here...

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/car-audio-classifieds/274282-portable-oscilloscope.html


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## FordEscape (Nov 23, 2014)

brumledb said:


> If I were buying one I would get the Pico 2204A. It's about ~$150. Its real value is the software that is included, you can do all kinds of measurements with it.
> 
> https://www.picotech.com/support/topic22381.html


Lol, the link is to my early Q's on the Pico forum.

The Pico 2204A has been a lot of fun for spectrum analysis and I do recommend it if you want to get into that sort of thing. The supplied probes are fine for pre-amp level outputs but if you want to go to post-amplified outputs you will most likely need proper differential probes to protect your equipment.

The software is fantastic as is the extensive support from the manufacturer sponsored forum. Examples of saved plots here http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...rogrammed-ford-head-unit-acm.html#post3668290

Having said that, IMHO it is a total waste of $ if the purpose is setting gains for the reasons already stated.


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## phil.green.90813 (May 10, 2016)

Wow info overload. Much research needed. Thanks guys. Will try the gain set by ear see where I get. 
I get the "set in built eq to flat" put out the tone at peak, undistorted amplitude, then adjust the gain till distortion then back off. 
With my alpine there is a sub volume control. Where should this be set for optimal gain tuning??? 


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## phil.green.90813 (May 10, 2016)

Thanks timelessr1 but I am in the uk.


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

phil.green.90813 said:


> With my alpine there is a sub volume control. Where should this be set for optimal gain tuning???


It doesn't work that way man. Optimal gain tuning...

Set everything flat on the head unit. So flat EQ, no "bass boost", no "loudness", no subwoofer increase, etc etc etc. Then once you set your gain to just under clipping, ANYTHING you increase on the head unit will put you into clipping IN THEORY. Now, the reality of it is that music is dynamic and your gain is set with a sine wave. You could probably set the gain a little higher, or move the EQ up a touch, or use a sine wave recorded at -3db (what most people do) and still never clip the outputs on the amp once you play music through it.


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## Anothertime (Jun 23, 2011)

I own 2 of them. one is a old Heathkit single trace and one is from a Collage that is a duel trace. They DO come in handy for setting gains! I listen to cd recorded in the 70's to the new clipping cd. If all your going to do is use it to set gains, any visual of the signal will come in handy. I normally use a sine wave recording in the around middle of the crossover point with a -10db level and adjust just below the clipping visual.

The -10db is because of the differences in recording levels of the music I listen to.

And you can tell a difference.

but a better investment would be in a USB mic . @ $75.00 UMK1 (mini something dsp.com) and REW and holmimpulse to set up the system

just my 2 cents.. 

Typical.. not worth much..


Warm Regards

Anothertime


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## Justin Zazzi (May 28, 2012)

I wish more people would make use of the oscilloscope function of Room EQ Wizard. It's free. I guess the barrier to entry is making the voltage divider network to protect your sound card from damage. It's not too tough, just requires a pair of resistors, but the potential suck factor is pretty high. Maybe that scares people away?


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## bnae38 (Oct 3, 2015)

Hantek DSO5072P Digital Oscilloscope, 70 MHz Bandwidth, 1 GSa/s, 7.0" Display: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

I bought this one (also on a budget). Mostly happy with it, triggering could be better..

Plenty of options though. FFt is fun to play with..


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## t0n33 (Mar 25, 2016)

Jazzi said:


> I wish more people would make use of the oscilloscope function of Room EQ Wizard. It's free. I guess the barrier to entry is making the voltage divider network to protect your sound card from damage. It's not too tough, just requires a pair of resistors, but the potential suck factor is pretty high. Maybe that scares people away?


I'm gonna have to do some research on this, thanks for mentioning it! I hope it works on line and speaker levels


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