Programmable oscilloscopes for immersion ultrasonics - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: HowToTurnOn
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 04:26:11 am
content: Hello fellow nerds,I'm trying to develop an ultrasonic system for immersion scanning at home for a little startup company. In the past, I've used work owned PCI digitizers and Tektronix oscilloscopes for these applications, however those are a bit pricey for me.To the point: I want to buy an oscilloscope (preferable under $1k but can do more) that can have waveforms continuously pulled from it via programming (Python or C#) and capable of a sample rate of +50MHz.I've looked at the Siglent SDS1104X-E ($500) and SDS1204X-E ($759), Rigol DS1054Z ($349.00), Hantek DSO5102P ($245) and all sorts of random other ones.Has anyone had experience programming/collecting live waveforms with these or other recommendable oscilloscopes/digitizers? What are your thoughts/opinions on them?Thanks!

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 04:53:32 am
content: I don't think any of those will do it at 50MHz+.Apart from the problem of raw data transfer speed (which I don't think will be anywhere near fast enough) you also have another major problem in that the data comes in bursts/batches. It won't be a nice continuous stream, there'll be gaps in the data.ie. They're simply not designed for this.

author: ADT123
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 05:54:24 am
content: For continuous capture applications like this consider a PC oscilloscope that can stream data via USB. Products like the PicoScope 3000 series can send data back to the PC at 125MS/s and have drivers for C#. Depending on what real time processing you need to do on the data you will need efficient code and a fast PC.https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/3000/picoscope-3000-oscilloscope-specifications

author: uski
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 06:08:55 am
content: One of my friend is working with ultrasonic things like you mention.Without giving out his trade secrets, he is using FPGAs and/or embedded processors like iMX.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 06:59:31 am
content: Quote from: HowToTurnOn on October 29, 2020, 04:26:11 amWelcome to the forum.If you're running a Linux system LXI Tools might be of interest.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/open-source-lxi-tools-and-liblxi-v1-0-released-for-gnulinux/It's been tailored for the SDS1104X-E and a number of other Siglent products and it's a fast utility for LAN connectivity.

author: 2N3055
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 07:55:19 am
content: Look at Picoscope..

author: nfmax
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 08:35:38 am
content: Are you operating in pulsed mode, i.e. transmit a pulse, record the echo, wait a bit, and repeat? Can you make the inter-pulse gap longer during development? If so, then almost any cheap oscilloscope with a USB or similar interface should work. Since they almost all have 8-bit digitisers, it can be useful to operate in 'hi-res' mode, where successive ADC samples are averaged together to increase resolution & reduce noise, at the expense of a lower sample rate. Most, but not all, cheap oscilloscopes have this mode.If you can't reduce the pulse rate, look for scope with a large memory that can be operated in segmented mode. This will let you record a 'burst' of pulses, then stop and download them all to the computer. Each segment is a separate time record, corresponding to a separate trigger event.I have no personal experience with oscilloscopes in this price range, but from what I have read, a Siglent or GW Instek may be suitable.

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 12:21:38 pm
content: This may looks a task for the National Instruments line of products

author: chris_leyson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 29, 2020, 12:54:05 pm
content: Analog Discovery will sample at 100Msamples/s, 2 channels at 14 bit.https://store.digilentinc.com/analog-discovery-2-pro-bundle/

author: HowToTurnOn
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 01, 2020, 10:27:05 pm
content: Thank you all for your replies. I'll run through the suggestions and will checkout their specs/do more research! Once I make progress on this project I'll share what worked for me