One of the interesting classes from the past semester, was named “Computer Structure”. In this course I learned more about Assembler programming and the structure of microcontrollers.

The course had as a requirement the implementation of a microcontroller based project, so I decided to make a useful tool, with low cost and easy to do: a USB digital oscilloscope.

The following pages detail the development and implementation of a low cost digital oscilloscope based on PIC microcontrollers. This project tries to achieve the same functionalities of traditional oscilloscopes using a PIC microcontroller for the data acquisition (including the proper analog circuitry) which are sent to the PC using the USB port.

I must say that this device has his limitations and they are caused due to the PIC architecture. The used PIC was the PIC18F4550 which it’s maximum sampling speed was about 40 kHz, sufficient for an audio signal but too slow for most cases.

Anyway, if you feel adventurous and want to build this project and you need the project source files, you can drop me some lines throught the Contacts page.