chuckT: thx for that link, I used an o'scope once or twice in the past but never really used one if you know what I mean. I'll watch the vid (2+hrs) at the weekend when I have time.

nyef: I appreciate the search but the reason I'm looking at a usb o'scope is space, when not in use I can store it in a drawer.

Garth: "The second one looks very good for the price." Does that mean a) Good piece of kit, go get it, or b) It'll do in a pinch, but look for something better.

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All my stuff

Keep in mind that the USB 'scope requires at least a laptop on the workbench, and that plus the 'scope will take more room on the workbench than many stand-alone oscilloscopes.


Somewhere in between those two. I'd rather have a real, stand-alone 'scope, but if you can't afford one and can't find a school that's giving away ones they've replaced, then get the one you linked to. One thing we all tend to do, and it's valid, is to get something inexpensive at first, and on that, we learn what the value of a more-expensive one is and what features to look for after we've gotten ourselves into the mindset of justifying spending more. If you want something else after a while, the USB 'scope at its cheap price will not have been any big loss.


Old-fashioned oscilloscopes with knobs and switches are mostly pretty intuitive. I have seen scopemeters though which resemble a huge DMM with a large screen and serve as an oscilloscope too (with suitable probes) which look like they would be really nice after you get through a long learning process because they're not intuitive at all. Anything new that you get should come with a manual anyway, showing how to access functions beyond the rudiments.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

I found a cheap Oscilloscope. Type STM32 Oscilloscope into Ebay. Can you believe $22.86 or a little cheaper?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DSO138-2-4-TFT- ... 2a4f54c58b

The second runner up is Mini Portable nano Arm DS0201 Handheld Pocket Sized Digital Storage Oscilloscope for $62.48 or a little more:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Pocket-Siz ... 2a41ca9231

I would recommend against those two for 6502 work, since they're only 1MHz (you need at least about 10MHz (25MSPS+) to get a decent representation of a 1MHz square wave) and they only have one input. Something they have which might be very valuable in other fields is the 12 bits.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Neither of these is of any use for 6502 work, they are simply far too slow. They are only any good for audio work.

For 6502 work, the sample rate needs to be AT LEAST ten times higher than the CPU clock frequency and ideally better than 20 times the CPU clock frequency as Garth suggests.

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Shift to the left,
Shift to the right,
Mask in, Mask Out,
BYTE! BYTE! BYTE!