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Clint Phillips

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Nov 20, 2009, 10:07:57 AM11/20/09
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com

Just to let you know. I worked for Jaycar for 4 years as a shit kicker and a store manager but all of them carry the same stock ‘but I agree they are turnining into a toy shop!!!! Hense why I left’…

Lynx

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Nov 20, 2009, 10:13:36 AM11/20/09
to Connected Community HackerSpace
I'm only new but has anybody seen this yet, is this common knowledge
http://www.seeedstudio.com/


On Nov 21, 2:07 am, "Clint Phillips" <cphillip...@internode.on.net>
wrote:
> Just to let you know. I worked for Jaycar for 4 years as a shit kicker and a
> store manager but all of them carry the same stock 'but I agree they are
> turnining into a toy shop!!!! Hense why I left'.

Michael Borthwick

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Nov 20, 2009, 3:18:41 PM11/20/09
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com
Hi Clint,

It's customary to hang out on a mailing list for a while to get the
feel for how people speak to each other and what the topics of
conversation centre around. As you've just joined and haven't done
that you may not be aware that this mailing list exists primarily to
facilitate co-ordination amongst members of the Connected Community
HackerSpace - which is about getting together regularly in person to
practically support each others work on projects - many which at the
moment revolve around microcontrollers and embedded systems - often
with an open source focus.

Specifically it may be a little different to other mailing lists and
forums you're on in that over time some conventions have developed
which I think would include:

- Not flogging your own products on the list or the hardware supplier
page http://groups.google.com/group/connected-community-hackerspace/web/hardware-resources
- Not swearing (there are some young people subscribed to the list)
- Keeping the signal-to-noise ratio high by by not posting "Hey have
you seen this" links which require the more than 100 people subscribed
to the list to follow the link to see whether you're talking about
Seeed Studios open source hardware products in general or the
interesting open source Digital Storage Oscilloscope that happened to
be featured on their home page at 2:00 am this morning. You need to
explain to people why you feel it might be relevant to their interests
without them needing to follow the link.

We really appreciate your recent gift of the DS18B20's and are putting
them to good use, and your ebay store provides a very valuable service
by providing access to range of interesting components at competitive
prices - perhaps a CCHS member who has direct experience of shopping
at your online store will add it to our list of hardware suppliers.

People have told me how much they enjoy being on this list because
people are helpful, respectful and on topic. I hope you don't take
offence at me bringing you up to speed on these points so you can also
join the ranks of the many valuable contributors.

Yours Sincerely,

Michael Borthwick


Nic Jones

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Nov 20, 2009, 6:20:04 PM11/20/09
to Connected Community HackerSpace
I have a DSO Nano. (I got one of the first run as part of a "learn
ARM" kick I'm on) I'm still in the process of figuring out it's
quirks, but for now I'd say it's excellent for its price.

The interface is pretty rough - things constantly blink at you, there
are spelling mistakes and the navigation and operation of the settings
is non-intuitive. Sometimes I don't know if I can't do something
because it's buggy or I haven't managed to set the thing up right.
For example, I haven't managed to get the single shot mode (misspelled
"SIGN") working yet. There seem to be a few rough spots all through
the code, too. It doesn't always clean up the previous waveform
correctly, leaving little green dots about the screen.

It's 1Msps, but the analog bandwidth isn't specified and I haven't
tested it yet. I'd say it's fast enough for diagnosing audio
circuitry and the basic "is my serial data coming out?" type
questions. The probes are the nice, useful little hook type, but as
such aren't at all impedance-matched, so you'll get artefacts on
anything close to a squarewave. It's not fast enough to be looking at
anything more esoteric than that - it's not going to show you FET
charging so you can tweak shoot-through of your H-bridge.

The tiny size is absolutely brilliant and makes it's really easy to
have on your bench. The screen is more readable than I expected. (Not
as nice as an OLED would have been, but not at all shabby)

I haven't found the source code yet (I haven't really looked, it might
be on their website) but the schematic is in the manual. I'm a little
suspicious they've got the LiPo charging circuitry wrong. It looks a
lot like 5V is basically directly applied to the battery. I suppose
I'll find out when it explodes on me.

I think it's much better than the PC-based oscilloscopes that you can
get for the same sort of money. It's single-channel, which is
obviously pretty limiting, but you can't have everything in a tiny
package like this.

A 'scope is an extremely useful tool for a person to have, but they've
been the domain of "serious" engineers only due to their price. The
DSO Nano is dead cheap and really useful given its form factor. If
firmware updates start showing up it'll be a fantastic scope. If the
software stays this dodgy, it'll just be a pretty good one.

Nic Jones

On Nov 21, 2:13 am, Lynx <cphillip...@internode.on.net> wrote:
> I'm only new but has anybody seen this yet, is this common knowledgehttp://www.seeedstudio.com/

Clifford Heath

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Nov 22, 2009, 10:26:08 PM11/22/09
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com
On 20/11/2009, at 11:20 PM, Nic Jones wrote:
> A 'scope is an extremely useful tool for a person to have, but they've
> been the domain of "serious" engineers only due to their price.

In a word: second-hand.

There are many more sellers than buyers of test equipment of all kinds,
and you can get some remarkable bargains. I got a brand-new (2nd-hand)
Hung Chang dual-trace 20MHz with some very smart trigger options and a
proper 5" screen, for $AU50. No, there are no more from this source :-(.

Clifford Heath.

Hurgh

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Nov 23, 2009, 12:02:08 AM11/23/09
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com
I picked up a 40MHz one (i think it is 40, maybe 44?) for nothing from a friend, but the problem is, I have no idea how to use it :).

I also dont think I am serious enough yet to need to use it, but time will tell, and there is lots of reading to do on the Internet that can help out on how to use it.

Allan


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Andy Gelme

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Nov 23, 2009, 6:51:17 PM11/23/09
to connected-commu...@googlegroups.com
hi Alan,

Hurgh wrote:
> I also dont think I am serious enough yet to need to use it, but time
> will tell, and there is lots of reading to do on the Internet that can
> help out on how to use it.

Are you able to bring it along to the CCHS meeting this weekend ?

I'm sure that there will be a number of people interested in looking at
it ... and willing to figure out with you how to use it.

We've got plenty of things to try it out on.

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