Colin K McCord - Low cost PC-based quad channel real-time storage oscilloscope - PIC 16f877.pdf

Final Year Project
Low cost PC-based quad channel real-time / storage oscilloscope
Final Report
Supervisors:
First: Dr. S. Katzen
Second: Dr C. Tuner
COURSE: BEng (HONS) Electronic Systems
MODULE: EEE516J4 - Honours Project
BY: Colin K McCord
DATE: Friday, 21 June 2002
Friday, 21 June 2002 Final Report Colin K McCord
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS


Dr. S. Katzen: For everything that he has done in helping the project along, and for offering support and
encouraging an interest in the field of microprocessor / microcontroller engineering.

Dr. C. Turner: For everything that he has done in helping the project along, and for offering support and
encouraging an interest in the field of object originated programming.

Dr. Ning Li: For the use of FG Wilson’s electronic laboratory.
EEE516J4 – Honours Project Page I Acknowledgements
Friday, 21 June 2002 Final Report Colin K McCord
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


The following report details the development and implementation of a low-cost PC based quad channel real-
time / storage oscilloscope.

This project attempts to achieve the same functionality as a traditional oscilloscope, using a PIC
microcontroller for data acquisition (including appropriate analogue circuitry) which transfers the data to the
PC (via RS232). A Microsoft Windows based software application will then display the waveform as it would
appear on a traditional CRT oscilloscope. This software application will have additional features not present
on a traditional oscilloscope (. printing / saving waveforms) with greater flexibly as additional features can
be added as their developed without the need for new hardware.

The digital based oscilloscope should display very low frequency waveforms in real-time, but for higher
frequency waveforms it is necessary to read a finite number of samples storing them into RAM. Once the
memory is full (or the preset number of samples has been reached) the PIC will st