A 100 LED Oscilloscope
100 square LEDs and discrete components were used to make lonesoulsurfer's low-resolution oscilloscope.
A high-quality oscilloscope is important for visualizing waveforms, producing beautiful and interesting oscillations. As an artistic approach to this classic piece of test kit, maker “lonesoulsurfer” created an oscilloscope with 100 square faced LEDs. While the 10x10 resolution may not be appropriate for analyzing radio signals and the like, it looks fantastic when hooked up to a microphone to visualize sound frequencies.
Electronics used include a 555 timer, along with a 4017 decade counter, LM3914 LED driver, and LM386 amplifier. Noticeably – one might even say refreshingly – missing is a microcontroller, which means it can’t simply be reprogrammed to take on different functions. How this ‘scope displays waveforms, however, can be adjusted via a series of potentiometers and switches. There are also two variations on the build’s PCB depending on if you want to be able to turn off the fine tune horizontal adjustment for a slow frame rate effect.
It comes in a snazzy wooden enclosure, with a fantastic faceplate, and power is provided by a recycled cell phone battery. As of now the device has only been tested a microphone input, but there’s also a BNC connector that can be used to hook up an oscilloscope probe. In true hacker fashion, lonesoulsurfer plans to make such a probe himself to test this functionality!
