Arduino Oscilloscope Under 5 $ - 3 Channel

Oscilloscopes are used by electronics enthusiasts , hobbyists and it is one of the common tools on a workbench . But buying one can get expensive so finally i decided that why not to make one using an arduino. So this basic project will help you increase your skill and in the end you will end up having a nice DIY tool for you bench which will make some things easy for you .

Arduinos are great , they use 8-bit microcontroller which has digital inputs outputs , SPI , I2C lines , Serial Communication , ADC etc . So using arduino for this project would be a nice idea .

Step 1: Materials Required

As i would like to keep things simple and cheap all you need is :

A laptop x1

An Arduino x 1 (UNO,PRO MINI anyone would work i used NANO ) Except MEGA

Jumper Cables x 2

Breadboard x 1

Alligator Clips x 2

Male to Male 3.5 mm cable x 1

An audio source or a signal source of whose waveform you want to see.

Step 2: The Code and the Oscilloscope Program

After you have plugged in the arduino just upload the provided Code in the zip file .

What code does is it just simply reads the analouge voltage on arduino's analouge pin A0 to A5 or A7 (depending upon the board) and then covert that analogue voltage into a value ranging between 0-1023 and then that value is sent to the computer through the usb port .

Pins A0 - A5 or A7(depending upon the board) acts as 6 or 8 channels of the oscilloscope but the software is designed to display only 3 channels at once .

Then when you open up the oscilloscope program after uploading the sketch select the baud rate and COM port then just open up the channels

The oscilloscope program is designed to take the values form the arduino and plot it on a graph and just join those points with a line which gives you a nice looking waveform just like an oscilloscope .

Step 3: Code of Conduct

Step 1 : Plug in your arduino

Step 2 : Upload the code

Step 3 : Put the signal through arduino's pin A0 - A5 or A7 (depending upon the board) in my case i choosed an audio signal coming out from my phone via male to male 3.5mm jack .

Its one end was connected to the phone and on the other end i connected its ground to arduino's ground and the other alligator clip was connected to one of the audio channels (in my case the right channel of the audio signal) .

Step 4 : Open up the oscilloscope program

Step 5 : Select the COM port and select the baud rate

Step 6 : Open up the channels and THERE U GO !!!!!

"REFER THE VIDEO BELOW FOR MORE ..."

Step 4: Features:

Features:

This oscilloscope has a resolution of about : .0049 volts (4.9 mV) per unit.

Refresh Rate - 1Khz

Baud Rate :115200

Voltage Range : 0 - 5v DC

It can display 3 channels at a time

NOTE : Do not exceed the 5v limit on the oscilloscope or else you will fry the arduino .

Limitations:

1. Voltage range cannot be exceeded its lies between 0-5V DC ONLY

2. Any signal above 1kHz would not be detected by the arduino or either it will show garbage values

3. Don't try to measure the AC signals as Analouge pins of arduino are not designed to do so , so at the end you will end up by either damaging the arduino or either it will only show the positive half of the arduino.

Step 5: Well There You Have It !!

So i think that was pretty simple how we can make a simple arduino based Ocillosocpe as this was my first experience with arduino oscilloscopes let me know if i did a mistake . Hope you like it . If you guys have any question post it in the comments section down below .Now you can easily hack into small electronics and can easily find out what kind of wave is going at what voltage level in short you've got a great tool

Have Fun ! and do consider voting me ....