I have a Bitscope 310U as well, and I'm quite happy with it.  Sure takes a
lot less bench space that the CRO I used to have!

But as with anything, it depends on what you need.  I'm a hobbyist, so my
needs are simple and the Bitscope satisfies them well.  I agree with Marcel
that sometimes you'll see a staircase, but generally I can switch to a lower
voltage range and avoid it.  And personally I have no problem with the UI.
Not as intuitive as twiddling knobs on a real 'scope, but I find it quite
usable.

I find that the 2 analog and 8 digital channels fits my needs well, the
sample rate is more than adequate for me, as is the buffer size.  I'm sure a
lot of PC-attached scopes have the same features, but I like having "PC"
features like FFT and dumping captured waveforms and screen grabs -
something you pay a lot more for on a stand-alone scope.

If my Bitscope died, I'd buy another one, no question.


Regards,
David Meiklejohn


Marcel Birthelmer wrote:
> Hi Bob,
> yes, I do. (It might be a slightly earlier revision from what 
> they have on their site right now, I got it some 3 years ago 
> or so.) So it has some pros and some cons (as always). I'll 
> do my best to list them here, but I haven't used it heavily 
> in quite a while (because I haven't done much digital and I 
> prefer an analog 'scope for analog stuff).
> 
> Pros:
> - 2 scope channels + 8 logic channels + many triggering options
> - reasonably fast capture
> - features like data logging/playback
> - open text-based file formats so that you could take a 
> capture log and with some amount of work convert it into 
> another format
> - features a waveform generator (though I've never really used it)
> - Has an API/SDK available so you can program your own 
> applications for it
> - reasonably fast sampling - I never had a problem with 
> capturing any of the signals I was interested in, but then I 
> never did anything exceeding a handful of MHz.
> 
> Cons:
> - ADC resolution - The ADC is only 8-bit, so if you can't set 
> your voltage range very appropriately for your signal, you'll 
> see a lot of staircases
> - UI hassles - this one is probably mainly my own fault since 
> I was using their UI on 64-bit linux (which, to their credit, 
> worked at all). All of the severe usability problems 
> (crashes, hangups) were dealt with in the last update I 
> downloaded (a few months ago). What remains is just the 
> clunkyness of the UI they have. It's not really obvious what 
> is a button and what isn't, and the documentation isn't 
> immediately transparent as to what the various features actually are.
> - Only 8 logic channels - might not be enough, depending on 
> the application
> 
> Overall, I like having it around, but for quick stuff I 
> prefer my old HP/Tektronix/whatever 50MHz scope, which is 
> more intuitive and responsive. The bitscope definitely fills 
> a niche, though.



-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist