Oscilloscope Question

[cbcnc]

I have a BK Precision 2120 scope. It's a good scope but it's basic. No storage, 20 mhz, dual trace.
It has a Channel 1 output - "A 50Ω output is available for driving a frequency counter or other instruments. The output is 50mv/div into 50Ω."
Is there a simple computer interface and software that would take this signal and display/store it?
It would be nice to be able to catch and analyze transient signals at times.

Thanks,
Chris

[Al_The_Man]

Are you thinking of something like this? http://www.syscompdesign.com/
Are you sure that is signal output? Usually it is just a digital wave train that runs at the frequency you have the sweep set to.
Al.

[cbcnc]

I am assuming that it is just an analog signal of what channel 1 is seeing. The quote above is just what the manual says. It doesn't give any other explanation.
I have seen these sound card O-scopes where a signal is input thru the joystick port and then run thru a O-scope program. Limited range etc.
I'm really only interested in it for the storage aspect.
I'll test it. I can probe a signal with ch 1 and hook ch 2 up to the bnc output.

Chris

[cbcnc]

Al,

It an analog signal of ch 1 but it's inverted. My IPod looks cool on the scope.
I found another section in the manual where it say a bit more:
"CH 1 Out Jack. - Output terminal where sample of ch 1 is available.
Amplitude of output is 50 mv / div of vertical deflection seen on crt when terminated into 50Ω. Output impedance is 50Ω.
After thinking about it I seem to remember that the sound-card scopes are good to about 20 ~ 30 khz. So the one like you show is the way to go.

Thanks,
Chris

[vger]

Chris,
I use a laptop as a virtual instrument for some of the vibration analysis I do. I've got a spectrum analyzer/oscope program that accepts input from the sound inputs (microphone or line input) and does pretty well.
Here is one that is a bit more basic than the one I use and is only $20 compared to the $3K I shelled out.
http://www.zelscope.com/
and another...
http://www.picotech.com/picoscope-os...-software.html
and links to several others.
http://www.bluechillies.com/list/oscilloscope.html

Best of luck
Steve

[pminmo]

It's probably the conditioned output. That is verticle position adjustment on the crt is also summed into the analog signal as well as verticle scale (volts per division).

PC sound card based scopes are slow. The cheap USB scopes are probably the best price/performance deal if you have a PC that fit's your place you want to use the scope. I debated a USB scope then finally spent the bucks and bought a nice Tek digital scope.