Nabil Taha
Final Year Project
Low cost PC-based quad channel real-time / storage oscilloscope
Final Report
Supervisors: First: Second: Dr. S. Katzen Dr C. Tuner
COURSE: MODULE: BY: DATE:
BEng (HONS) Electronic Systems EEE516J4 - Honours Project Colin K McCord Friday, 21 June 2002
Friday, 21 June 2002
Final Report
Colin K McCord
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
Dr. S. Katzen: For everything that he has done in helping the project along, and for offering support and encouraging an interest in the field of microprocessor / microcontroller engineering. Dr. C. Turner: For everything that he has done in helping the project along, and for offering support and encouraging an interest in the field of object originated programming. Dr. Ning Li: For the use of FG Wilson’s electronic laboratory.
EEE516J4 – Honours Project
Page I
Acknowledgements
Friday, 21 June 2002
Final Report
Colin K McCord
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following report details the development and implementation of a low-cost PC based quad channel realtime / storage oscilloscope. This project attempts to achieve the same functionality as a traditional oscilloscope, using a PIC microcontroller for data acquisition (including appropriate analogue circuitry) which transfers the data to the PC (via RS232). A Microsoft Windows based software application will then display the waveform as it would appear on a traditional CRT oscilloscope. This software application will have additional features not present on a traditional oscilloscope (e.g. printing / saving waveforms) with greater flexibly as additional features can be added as their developed without the need for new hardware. The digital based oscilloscope should display very low frequency waveforms in real-time, but for higher frequency waveforms it is necessary to read a finite number of samples storing them into RAM. Once the memory is full (or the preset number of samples has been reached) the PIC will stop sampling and transfer the data to the
Low cost PC-based quad channel real-time / storage oscilloscope
Final Report
Supervisors: First: Second: Dr. S. Katzen Dr C. Tuner
COURSE: MODULE: BY: DATE:
BEng (HONS) Electronic Systems EEE516J4 - Honours Project Colin K McCord Friday, 21 June 2002
Friday, 21 June 2002
Final Report
Colin K McCord
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
Dr. S. Katzen: For everything that he has done in helping the project along, and for offering support and encouraging an interest in the field of microprocessor / microcontroller engineering. Dr. C. Turner: For everything that he has done in helping the project along, and for offering support and encouraging an interest in the field of object originated programming. Dr. Ning Li: For the use of FG Wilson’s electronic laboratory.
EEE516J4 – Honours Project
Page I
Acknowledgements
Friday, 21 June 2002
Final Report
Colin K McCord
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following report details the development and implementation of a low-cost PC based quad channel realtime / storage oscilloscope. This project attempts to achieve the same functionality as a traditional oscilloscope, using a PIC microcontroller for data acquisition (including appropriate analogue circuitry) which transfers the data to the PC (via RS232). A Microsoft Windows based software application will then display the waveform as it would appear on a traditional CRT oscilloscope. This software application will have additional features not present on a traditional oscilloscope (e.g. printing / saving waveforms) with greater flexibly as additional features can be added as their developed without the need for new hardware. The digital based oscilloscope should display very low frequency waveforms in real-time, but for higher frequency waveforms it is necessary to read a finite number of samples storing them into RAM. Once the memory is full (or the preset number of samples has been reached) the PIC will stop sampling and transfer the data to the