199 USD Seeed Studio DSO Quad Open Source Oscilloscope

The DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscope) Quad is a pocket size 4 channel digital oscilloscope for common electronic engineering tasks based on STM32F103VCT6 ARM cortex M3 MCU with a 3″ display. It can provide 72MS/s sampling rate with integrated FPGA and high speed ADC and an internal 2MB USB disk can be used to store waveform captures, user applications and to upgrade firmware.

SeeedStudio DSO Quad is not exactly a new product (June 2011), but I was not aware of this type of low cost oscilloscopes until I come across a review today.

Here are the key features of this tiny oscilloscope:

• Pocket size and light weight
• Two 72MS/s analog channels, plus two digital channels
• Signal Generator
• Auto Measurement
• Various Triggering Option
• Easy waveform storage
• Firmware upgrade
• User applications
• Open source

and technical specifications:

• 2x Analog channel: [CH A]  [CH B]
• 2x Digital channel :   [CH C]  [CH D]
• Vertical Scale: 20mV-10V/div (x1 probe)
• Vertical solution: 8 bit
• Input coupling: AC/DC ;
• Max input voltage: 80Vpp (x1 probe)
• Storage: 4K per channel
• Software trigger type: edge, pulse, level
• Hardware trigger type: edge
• Trigger source: CH1/CH2/EXT
• Test Signal generator: 10Hz to 1Mhz
• Storage: internal 2MB USB disk
• Auto measure: Vmax, Vmin, Vpp, Vavr, Vrms, Freq, Period, Pulse, Duty
• Cursor measurement: Level, Voltage
• Display mode: CH1, CH2, EXT, CH1+CH2, CH1-CH2, CH1*CH2
• Sampling mode: real time
• Sampling rate: 1kSa/s – 72MSa/S
• Power: Lipo battery
• Dimension: 98 * 60 * 14.5
• Weight: 80g (without battery)

If you buy the device, the package will come with:

• The DSO Quad
• 2x Mueller MCX oscilloscope probe
• 2x Digital probe
• Battery
• Operation manual

If you are keen on knowing more about the device, watch the video review of (an engineering sample of) the DSO Quad below (12 minutes).

As I mentioned in the title, the DSO Quad is open source and that means both the application (Cortex-M3) and FPGA source code is available at https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/DSOQuad_SourceCode, and you can also download the schematics in PDF format. There is a support forum where firmware updates and documentation are posted, as well as a DSO Quad Wiki.

You can go to Seeed Studio DSO Quad page for further information and to buy the device for 199 USD.

If you look for alternatives, Deal Extreme sells the DS-203 Pocket Mini Oscilloscope that also comes with a 3.0″ LCD and costs 173.99 USD (including shipping). It appears to be the exact same hardware (TBC) and supports DSO Quad firmware. The DS-203 package only includes one probe.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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