Software Oscilloscopes

To watch and measure the values and curves produced during an analog computation or simulation you need additional instruments. The Analog Thing contains a voltmeter as instrument to setup the coordinates or OP_TIME values. Depending on the mode of operation in REP with predefined operation time or OP with infinite operation this display may be useful for static or slow moving values only.

typical Yt display of signals on a DSO

To measure faster events or display signal curves the best tool is an oscilloscope. For longer operation times (REP, 0.1-10s) a digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) is preferred rather than an analog oscilloscope with a cathode ray tube (CRT). These DSO did get cheaper in the last years but useful DSO's with minimum 2 channels and XY mode are in the price range of about 150-300 € up. XY mode is useful for many applications and allow a better view of complex signals than displaying them just over the time in Yt mode. The typical Lissajous figures for example require the XY mode.

typical Yt display of signals on a DSO

There are low cost oscilloscope on the market as well in the range of 40-100 € as well but these come with missing features and have mostly only one channel to display like DSO 138 or missing XY mode like DS 212/213. This is only partly useful with analog computations or simulations and all theses cheap handhelds have only a very small display. Some low cost oscilloscopes come without a display and are connected to a computer as display by software. So what are the requirements to met with an oscilloscope for The Analog Thing ?

Minimum requirements

analog oscilloscope with CRT display or software display while connected to computer
2 channels minimum
XY display mode
100 kHz bandwith

Better requirements

4 channels or separate trigger input
DSO type (digital storage)

There is a cheaper alternative for beginners with low budget while using a Soundcard Oscilloscope software. These solutions are based on using a sound input of the computer and a software to display the signal while reading digitized data of AD converters on the soundcard. If your computer contains a sound input you are lucky as you can get the software for free. Unfortunately many newer computers no more have classical sound input in stereo (so called 'line-in') and if so it is mostly only a microphone input as mono (1 channel instead of 2). This is the same lack as an oscilloscope with only 1 input channel.

An alternative to the missing inbuild audio input is a USB device. There are not many line-in stereo devices and most are only mono to use with microphones. A well tested device was the Behringer UFO202 with line-in and line out (each stereo) which is connected to USB, don't need any drivers and suitable for WIN, Mac and Linux in the price range of approx. 20 €. If your computer has already a microphone (mono) input you may buy a second cheap mono "microphone in" USB device for approx. 10 €. Be sure, that there is also an audio input and not just an audio output.

The Analog Thing audio connectors

The Analog Thing is already prepared to work with the above listed classic audio in devices as the used frequencies in an analog computation or simulation is mostly in the range of 20 Hz ... 20 kHz. There are 4 chinch connectors named with X, Y, Z, U which can be used either as signal output or signal input as well. The voltage range of +/- 10V of the reference voltage (representing the analog values 1.0 ... -1.0) is reduced by factor 10 to +/- 1V (representing 0.1 ... -0.1). This is a safe voltage for audio input devices (line in).

To feed signals into a soundcard you need to connect for example X and Y chinch connector to the line in jack of the computer or external sound device. Additional you must choose which signal in your analog circuit should be displayed by connecting any output of a computing element (integrator, summer, multiplier or comparator) to the OUT field on the front panel with a patch cable. If you want to input a signal to your analog circuit you do the same on the patch panel but connect the used chinch connector to an audio output. Some of the software solutions can display incoming signals but also offer signal generators additionally.

What follows is a curated list of Software oscilloscopes (also abbreveated as Softscopes). While basically any modern digital storage oscillscope is formally a softscope, we want to discuss here only software running on commodity/consumer level hardware such as on

Desktops and Laptops: Windows/Mac/Linux
Mobile devices: tablets and smartphones
Embedded: System on chips and microcontrollers, such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino

For data aquisition, several techniques exist:

Soundcard input for mono or stereo audio recording
ADCs on boards for analog to digital conversion, typically embedded within microcontrollers

Soundcard based input

A chinch to stereo jack adapter cable

In this case, the idea is that you connect your Analog Thing to your Soundcard input with a simple Chinch-to-jack adapter, such as depicted in the right. This allows to connect to the 3.5mm phone connector (German: Klinke) which is still present in many notebooks, tablets, smartphones, also for some single board systems (unfortunately not Raspberry Pi). If your system does not have such an input, you may use a USB adapter (often referred to as USB sound card). For a list of possible hardware, see the article about Soundcards.

Note that a single chinch socket has to pins: One for ground, one for the signal. This puts it on equal footing with a BNC connector or a mono phone connector. The adapter shown on the right joins two outputs together to a stereo sound signal.