Design of low cost semi- virtual digital storage oscilloscope

Abstract

The use of personal computers (PC) with the present-day automation, measurement and instrumentation world has opened up the door for Virtual Instrumentation. In this application a module (Arduino uno board) was used to design a semi-virtual instrument which can replace the general purpose instruments in an electronics lab. Arduino uno board is a module based on a single microcontroller. It has its associated software which is very easy to use. The programs are written in C language. In this application arduino is used to design a virtual oscilloscope. A serial communication is performed between arduino and computer. Computer is used to display continuous analog signal that has been given to the input of arduino. Since the input signal can be accessed and displayed using matlab, Fourier transform of the signal is also possible, thus it is also being used as a spectrum analyzer. A square wave has also been generated using Arduino. Hence it can also been used as a function generator.