At 10:41 PM 2/3/02 -0500, Gary Russell wrote: >Do people consider an oscilloscope a "must-have"? A logic probe just doesn't >cut-it for rapidly changing pins. Does simulation using MPLAB completley >eliminate the need for real circuit checking? (I'd be surprised). You have a question about something that I feel *VERY* strongly about! I consider a scope to be *essential* if you are going to be doing any serious electronics work. I use a dual trace analog scope (Tek 465) as my main tool - I use more it than I use any other instrument. Even more than a multi-meter or DMM. I reach for the scope probe whenever I need to measure a voltage or see just the circuit is doing. Most of the time, voltage measurements are qualitative and do not need a lot of accuracy. Is the supply sitting at about 5V? The scope tells you: yes - about 5V - nice and clean - no ripple or noise. What about that pin on the processor? Touch the probe and see. Spend some money on a used (but working!) analog scope and spend as much or more money on a couple of used (but working!) Tek X10 scope probes. Good scope probes are essential - you will waste much time and frustration working with cheap probes. X10 probes are MUCH more useful than X1 but switchable X1 - X10 Tek probes tend to be expensive - even used. So stick with X10 probes if you are on a budget. eBay or a local hamfest are great places to buy both scopes and probes. If you have any budget left after buying the analog scope and probes, head over to Oricom's site and take a close look at Dan's pocket test bench. Its a nice little add-on for a PC or laptop that gives you digital scope capability, as well as logic analyser, pulse generator, etc. Dan has done a nice job on the package and software and sells it for a very reasonable price. But you won't use it anywhere near as often as the analog scope. dwayne Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 18 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2002) .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email. -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body