Building the DSO138 200kHz Oscilloscope Kit - Pt.1

One of the things I think is wrong with how electronics is taught these days, especially in apprenticeships, is that the student is no longer required to start by making their own tools! In the old days of proper industry apprenticeship, a new apprentice would start in the toolshop, by being shown how to make a file. That file would then be used to make screwdrivers, and so onwards... resulting in proper engineers who could turn their hand to anything.

Likewise, in home correspondence courses of the post-war era, budding electrical engineers would start by building their own oscilloscope!

Of course, these days with modern ICs, its harder to understand exactly whats going on, but the idea of starting learning by building your own test equipment, starting I'd suggest with a simple analogue multimeter, is a sound concept.

Of course, so much is available as cheap and useful kits from the Far East these days. Which brings me to the DSO138 - a kit 200kHz single channel digital storage oscilloscope.

Bought on ebay for just over £10 (plus another £3 ish for the box), mine was supplied with a very nicely done PCB, with all the SMT parts already installed, leaving just the through hole parts for me to add. The paperwork consists of three quite glossy colour A4 sheets - circuit diagram, layout diagram, operating and fault-finding instructions, and a photographic step-by-step construction guide, in 'tick-box' style. Far better than I had expected.

Having a maximum bandwidth of only 200kHz means its really just an audio frequency tool, but at just a few inches in size, it could prove handy for simple tests and demonstrations. The resistors supplied are very small, and 5-band marked, so the advise on the instructions to "confirm with a meter" is to be followed!

Over the next few posts I will document my building of this kit, stage by stage.