What I wonderful project! I would have loved to built and have something like this as a kid. I eventually got a used 1950s oscilloscope at a flea market in the late 1970s for $50 (what a steal!) and it served me well for many years. Even though you can now get scopes or multi-meters with built in scope functions for less than $100, the would be a wonderful learning project for anyone getting into electronics. Greetings from Canada!
It was fun doing it, although it's taken a while - seeing as I started it before Christmas... I like to think that a video like this might encourage someone out there to try their hand at making one!
@@lishaton I'll bet it was fun. It would really be nice to see someone built it and put in in a nice box to make a practical. One other nice thing about this is it show how much you do with just a few active devices ie tubes/valves as we often saw in old radios and TVs. A far cry from the million or billion transistors we throw at every simple task today.
I remember when the first ICs came out, I wondered even then why they needed so many more transistors than the equivalent discrete component circuit. If course in reality, when it costs no more to include a transistor rather than a resistor on a die, then if there is only going to be a very small improvement in the performance, they'l add the extra transistor. I'm sorely tempted to rebuild this circuit into a box, but seeing as the place is already littered with oscilloscopes of all shapes and sizes, there seems little point in doing so :-(
@@lishaton I must be just slightly younger than you because ICs were already in all the electronics magazines when I was a kid. It always some like cheating to use an IC instead of building a circuit with discrete parts. When I took a VLSI course in university, one of the eye opening things was how the technology of a particular process (NMOS, CMOSm whatever) can often dictate which circuit elements take up a smaller surface area and therefore are cheaper. In many cases replacing a resistor with a FET in constant current configuration tool way less space so I think that's also partially why many more transistors are used. Funny - I also way to many old scopes lying around!
In my early teens the first IC amplifiers were advertised by Radiospares - now RS components here in the UK. I remeber buying a 3 watt one for £3.00 It didn't take me long to short out one of the pins it says not to short out and ... it blew up. Mind you, before it did, I was amazed just how good it was! As far as 'cheating' is concerned, I concur. I don't MIND using an IC in many situations, but that might include 'not enough room for discretes', so I make up my own rules as I go along :-) As for 'scopes... I currently have several 1940s offerings, such as the Test Set 43, Test Set 73, Test Set 34, Monitor 28, GEC Miniscope, my own 'big' commercial scope from a couple of years ago, plus my 1979 one seen in the video.. Too many I say! In the last few yearsI must have sold a few too including a Tektronix and others... Can one use them all?!!
What I wonderful project! I would have loved to built and have something like this as a kid. I eventually got a used 1950s oscilloscope at a flea market in the late 1970s for $50 (what a steal!) and it served me well for many years. Even though you can now get scopes or multi-meters with built in scope functions for less than $100, the would be a wonderful learning project for anyone getting into electronics. Greetings from Canada!
It was fun doing it, although it's taken a while - seeing as I started it before Christmas... I like to think that a video like this might encourage someone out there to try their hand at making one!
@@lishaton I'll bet it was fun. It would really be nice to see someone built it and put in in a nice box to make a practical.
One other nice thing about this is it show how much you do with just a few active devices ie tubes/valves as we often saw in old radios and TVs. A far cry from the million or billion transistors we throw at every simple task today.
I remember when the first ICs came out, I wondered even then why they needed so many more transistors than the equivalent discrete component circuit. If course in reality, when it costs no more to include a transistor rather than a resistor on a die, then if there is only going to be a very small improvement in the performance, they'l add the extra transistor.
I'm sorely tempted to rebuild this circuit into a box, but seeing as the place is already littered with oscilloscopes of all shapes and sizes, there seems little point in doing so :-(
@@lishaton I must be just slightly younger than you because ICs were already in all the electronics magazines when I was a kid. It always some like cheating to use an IC instead of building a circuit with discrete parts.
When I took a VLSI course in university, one of the eye opening things was how the technology of a particular process (NMOS, CMOSm whatever) can often dictate which circuit elements take up a smaller surface area and therefore are cheaper. In many cases replacing a resistor with a FET in constant current configuration tool way less space so I think that's also partially why many more transistors are used.
Funny - I also way to many old scopes lying around!
In my early teens the first IC amplifiers were advertised by Radiospares - now RS components here in the UK. I remeber buying a 3 watt one for £3.00 It didn't take me long to short out one of the pins it says not to short out and ... it blew up. Mind you, before it did, I was amazed just how good it was!
As far as 'cheating' is concerned, I concur. I don't MIND using an IC in many situations, but that might include 'not enough room for discretes', so I make up my own rules as I go along :-)
As for 'scopes... I currently have several 1940s offerings, such as the Test Set 43, Test Set 73, Test Set 34, Monitor 28, GEC Miniscope, my own 'big' commercial scope from a couple of years ago, plus my 1979 one seen in the video.. Too many I say! In the last few yearsI must have sold a few too including a Tektronix and others... Can one use them all?!!
Hi Chris
that's a great little circuit, Clare
Thanx Clare. Considering how simple it is, it's surprising just how well it actually works!