USB meter/probe

[alansimpson]

Is there such a USB product available for about 20/30 dollars where you could take in analogue voltages through a USB port and have a pc based multimeter or oscilloscope or data acquisition device?
I know there are pc oscilloscopes available but these do most of the signal recording themselves and simply interface with pc.
This I see as an USB analogue probe possibly capable of output for signal generation. Most of the signal analysis would pc based. Probes could be added if required.
Not knowing much about USB I would assume the there would limitations in terms of band width and voltage levels. However I would think such a device would be a useful tool for electronics work.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

USB 2.0 has a pretty frikkin' high bandwidth (burst) at 480 Mbps...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[itsmoked]

I would doubt there being any anything like that for that little as people generally are in business to make money. Anything they do along those lines took an inordinate amount of time to do the USB software and more yet to do the display SW.

You can buy units that read dozens of channels very quickly but they aren't cheap.

Also you cannot run analog voltages thru USB it's a high speed digital interface.

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Henneshoe]

I have never used one, but they make 'em. It is going to run you more then $20-30. A quick Froogle search found they start at $150, unless you want to risk ebay. Still, better then paying $5000+ for a stand-alone unit.

http://www.google.com/products?q=usb+oscilloscope&oe=utf-8&safe=on&scoring=p

 

[VEBill]

I've got a USB gadget that is an audio I/O device in the form of a short cable (USB to two 3.5mm audio jacks) with a 1-inch diameter plastic lump in the middle that contains the USB<>Audio circuit. Radio Shack or 'The Source by CC' Nexxtech stock number 2516520 - probably long since discontinued (?).

So in principle, plus or minus removing any series caps to make it work down to DC, it is an ADC with a USB 1.0 interface. Bandwidth is probably audio (20kHz). Once you get the audio into the PC using this or any similar device, there is software (even freeware) to display and analyze audio bandwidth signals. Some of those include o'scope functions.

In summary, close but no cigar. But I wanted to show what is (or was) available.