Hardware : Construction Tools

Contents:

• Prototyping
  • Wire Wrap
  • Soldering Irons
• Oscilloscopes
  • Analog scopes
  • Digital scopes
• Logic Analyzers
• Logic Probes

Buy Tools & Hardware from Amazon.com

Also:

• 3D printers, Laser Cutters,  Mills, Lathe, Taps

Recommended

• BusPirate: A small open source device that connects a USB host device (PC, MAC, or cellphone / tablet via USB OTG) to electronic stuff. It can speak with several different busses (I2C, SPI, UART, etc...) and devices (LCDs, servos, AVRs, FPGAs, CPLDs, etc...) and can inject signals, or measure voltages. It's a little test bench in your pocket for less than $30. WIth the DroidScriptBusPirate, you can use an Andriod phone as a very easy User Interface.
  http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

Prototyping

• Wire Wrap
  • Oki Industries Wire Wrap page with Technology Guide, Selection Guide, Tools (maunal all purpose $20 tool, manual speed wrap $157.75 tool, etc..), Wire and Kits
  • Vector Electronics WireWrap Tools Slit-n-wrap to elimitate pre-stripping and pre-cutting. $130-$140 kit.

• Soldering Iron
  • Wahl Iso-tip
  • TMPRmod provides temperature regulation of standard AC soldering irons

Signal viewers: oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers

In-Circuit Signal Viewers - Comparison

• Analog
  • Oscilloscopes
    • Wikipedia: Oscilloscopes
    • Analog Oscilloscopes
      See also:
      • Using PC Sound Card
        • https://academo.org/demos/virtual-oscilloscope/ A very nice little browser based o'scope with the sound card as audio input.
        • http://poly.phys.msu.su/~zeld/oscill.html
        • http://nwfs1.rz.fh-hannover.de/~heineman/freeware.htm
        • http://www.brownbear.de/ Analyzer 2000
        • http://www.daqarta.com DAQARTA
        • http://www.SoundTechnology.com SpectraLAB. More of a spectrum analyser.
        • http://www.goldwave.com/features.php
      • http://www.LinkInstruments.com/oscilloscope21.htm
    • Digital Oscilloscopes
      SX based O'Scope from Alberto Geraci of BTX Systemas
      See also:
      • XProtolab The Xprotolab is the first mixed signal oscilloscope with an arbitrary waveform generator in a DIP module. It measures only 1 x 1.6 inches, and can be mounted directly on a breadboard. The Xprotolab can also be used as a development board for the AVR XMEGA microcontroller. $50 as of 2012/10/18
      • http://projectproto.blogspot.com/2010/09/android-bluetooth-oscilloscope.html 2MHz x 2channel +-8volts with bluetooth to Andriod device for display and control. All source code and schematics open sourced.
      • http://retronics.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/the-0-android-oscilloscope/ $0 Android O'scope using headphone / mic jack for audio frequency bandwidth.
      • http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/shb7/posc.html PIC based O-Scope
      • http://www.bitscope.com/ PIC based Mixed Signal Capture Engine called Bitscope. Captures analog and 8 digital channels at 25 Mhz (3kHz min) in a 16K deep buffer so you get an oscilloscope and logic analyzer in one package. Uses a host computer for control and display through USB. A nice piece of engineering and the design is "open" so you can build as much or as little as you want. $150-$245, full on scope, signal gen, decent 20MHz, USB
        • GUI Bitscope software can be found at: http://www.cyberus.ca/~g_will
      • http://panteltje.com/panteltje/pic/scope_pic/ 256K samples/sec, 2 channel, trigger, XY storage oscilloscope also functions as a graphics terminal. PIC 18F14K22 drives a 128 x 64 LCD-19-HG1286418C-VA under RS232 control
      • http://www.xs4all.nl/~jwasys/diy1.html 32M samples/sec for $50 controller chip (fob Netherlands) and cost of PCB, misc.
      • http://sourceforge.net/projects/xoscope/
      • http://133.205.9.101/~elm/reports/wcs/report_e.html 10K samples/sec.
      • http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dljones 5MHz analog bandwith
      • https://www.adafruit.com/product/468 DSO Nano 3, $100 very slow scope 200KHz, built in display
      • http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/DSO-Quad-Aluminium-Alloy-Silver-p-1033.html DSO Quad, $200, scope 10MHz, "interesting" documentation?, built in display
      • https://www.lab-nation.com/ SmartScope $230 full on scope, very limited 8 bit resolution, but good decoders for signal analysis, 30MHz, lovely user interface via USB
      • http://redpitaya.com Red Pitaya $260-$300, full on scope, signal gen, spectrum, etc... good 14 bit resolution, 50MHz, open source, USB

    An oscilloscope is often called an o'scope or simply a scope. One discussion of low-cost scopes: Slashdot: Cheap PC Oscilloscopes - Any Recommendations?

    Another discussion of low-cost scopes and open-source, open-hardware scopes: Open Circuits wiki: oscilloscope

• Digital
  • Logic Analyzers
    See also:
    • http://et.nmsu.edu/~etti/winter97/computers/logic/logic.html PC parallel port logic analyzer. Free software and build the hardware.
    • http://www.logixell.com DOS based data logger/logic analyzer software that works with PC parallel port with cable.
    • http://www.brownbear.de/ Analyzer 2000
    • http://www.xs4all.nl/~jwasys/diy2.html (cached) Windows 95 Parallel Port logic analyser software only. 1M samples/sec. Delayed Trigger.
    • http://www.usbee.com/sxla.html USB 2.0 PC based logic analyzer with I2C Async and SPI bus decoder. < $300
    • http://www.linkinstruments.com/logana4.htm PC hosted, ISA card, 500MSa/s, up to 160 channels, although not both at once
    • http://www.virtualtools.com/ 24 channels with 32k samples a channel and hangs off the parallel port. 20Mhz internal clock, 50 external
    • http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dljones/pcla.htm 32 channels 40Mhz uses PLDs and PC
    • http://www.alta-engineering.com/LOGWEB.HTM
    • USB PC-based Intronix 34 channel logic analyzer sampled at 500 MHz http://pctestinstruments.com/ $389 Includes I2C, SPI and RS232 Interpreters.
  • Logic Probes
    See also:
    • Smart Probe in March 1999 Electronics Now magazine
    • http://www.phanderson.com/PIC/
• Mixed Mode/DSO
• ICE - In Circuit Emulator
• Simulators (why not to use)

meters

Meters (Todo: move "meters you can build for yourself" to Piclist Projects ).

• Measuring inductance
• The Weeder Frequency Counter PIC 16F84 port by Peter Cousens
  See also:
• The PIC based Capacitance meter designed by Fr. Thomas McGahee is mirrored in many places around the web, including http://pic101.com/mcgahee/ , http://www.montanadesign.com/capmeter/, etc.
• http://freenet-homepage.de/dl4yhf/freq_counter/freq_counter.html Frequency Counter with PIC16F628 and LED 7 Segment display.
• http://panteltje.com/panteltje/pic/freq_pic/ (cached 2010/04/12) Frequency Counter in a DB9 backshell. Microchip PIC 16F648A program to measure frequency, and display it via the PC RS232 serial port.
• "Microchip AN611: Resistance and Capacitance Meter Using a PIC 16C622" by Rodger Richey
• An inductance / capacitance meter by Phil Rice VK3BHR http://ironbark.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au/~rice/lc/ based on the PIC16F84. Assembly language source can be downloaded here.
• simple Autorange Capacitance Meter http://www.geocities.com/dariuskrail20/PICCapMeter.html based on the PIC16F873A (schematics and source code here).
• HAM digital projects with PIC microcontrollers http://www.qsl.net/yo5ofh/pic/pic_ham_projects.htm includes several frequency meters and a capacitance meter
• http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/3632/dvm.htm AVR based Video display DVM
• http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9573 open source AVR based multimeter kit.
• http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/november99/c119dp1.htm PIC Base DVOM
• http://web3.foxinternet.net/mwillis/lcdcount.zip PIC based frequency counter
• http://www.edtn.com/embapps/emba035.htm PIC based Video display and Spectrum Analyzer

Signal Generators

• Analog Devices AD9850 DDS has been used to design (Documentation, schematics, sources available at http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/9595/) a signal generator with the following features:
  • Uses two 16F84 microcontrollers, one for a 4x4 keyboard, the other for LCD, encoder, DDS, shift-register as DAC
  • Range 0.1 - 40MHz
  • Steps selectable from 1, 10, 100Hz, 1, 10kHz
  • Step multiplier selectable from 1-9
  • Frequency entry through keyboard in 1Hz precision
  • Keyboard commands to sweep frequency up or down
  • Keyboard command to 'wobble' frequency in 250 steps, with corresponding DAC voltage for oscilloscope X-input which is particularly useful for making measurements on filters.
  • Output level from 0 - +10dBm, level is held constant within 1dB over range.
• "http://www.edtn.com/embapps/emba057.htm "Digital Frequency Synthesis" by Tom Napier in issue 99 (October 1998) of Circuit Cellar INK. Uses a PIC as a Digital Frequency Synthesizer. Richard Ottosen has developed an improved version for the Ubicom SX sxncoex.zip. The April 2004 Newletter discussed other means of generating sine waves.
• http://www.rt66.com/~shera/ppsdiv.zip The PIC source code for a single chip frequency divider that takes a 10 MHz input and produces 9 square wave outputs - one for each frequency decade from 100 kHz to 0.001 Hz (1000 s period), courtesy of Tom Van Baak, tvb@veritas.com:

Calculators

• http://www.hpcalc.org

Hand Tools

Hand Tools: Clamps, Taps

• American Enterprises, 722 Buena Vista Way Suite 366, Oceanside, CA 92056 1-760-439-7777 - Leatherman, SOG and Gerber Multi-tools
• http://www.widget.com/ has fairly decent pricing and a good array of hand tools.
• http://www.harborfreight.com/ is pretty good as well.
• http://www.techni-tool.com/
• http://www.y2ksurvivalfood.com/starlight.html no battery flashlight

Power tools

Power tools: Cordless Tool Battery Systems

• Welders:
  • http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/models/solderer.pdf A simple spot welder using a car battery charger/starter is detailed here:

comments

See also:

• https://youtu.be/z6UJPqQYzNc Time Domain Reflectometer with a scope and a battery: The oscilloscope is set up with a tee connector on one channel; one side of the tee is connected to the cable under test, while the shield conductor of the other side is connected to the negative terminal of a 9V battery. A resistor connected to the center conductor is used to complete the circuit, which sends a brief pulse down the test cable. The scope is set up to capture the outgoing pulse as well as the return pulse, allowing the time between the two to be measured. Some simple math gives the length of the cable, the distance to a fault, or with a little rearrangement, the velocity factor of the cable.
• http://www.tecratools.com Tools, tool kits, tool cases and test equipment for field service technicians.
• http://www.shop.microtec.dk
• richard@wavehook.com refers to " http://www.pc-oscilloscopes.com Providing PC based high speed data acquisition solutions"
• http://www.dansworkshop.com/Homebuilt%20arc%20welder.shtml Homebuilt Arc-welder from old Microwaves, etc...
• http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/ Curve tracer, good scope information.
• http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/01/12/07/191220.shtml Building a Cheap Oscilloscope Using Your PC?
• Bench in a box (an idea)
• http://www.oricomtech.com logic analyzer, A/D measurement/volt/current meter, frequency generator and counter, serial line protocol analyzer, etc. etc. It uses a 16C76-20 and SX28-50 (operating at 60 Mhz). Thats a lot for the money!
• Test equipment suppliers
  • http://www.semiconductoronline.com/content/industrydeals/PageContent.asp

See:

• /techref/scenix/devtools.htm

Questions:

• OK, I fixed the link. Thanks for helping me keep this page up-to-date. Have you tried a Google search for "PIC capacitance meter" ? -- David Cary

• nick sean omalley of cnetrica asks:

  • Hi, As a newcomer to electronics and microcontrollers, what would be the best type of scope to buy(if indeed it is needed)Analogue or DSO also what would be the minimum frequency I should go for, also are the Picolog PC based scopes suitable for uC projects. Thanks in advance