JYE Tech DSO Shell

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

On Saturday I made one of the JYE Tech Digital Storage Oscilloscope kits from JYE Tech.

These are readily available all over the internet and are cheap as chips (I paid about £15- to £16). The SMT parts are pre fitted, but hardware and larger capo and precision resistors you fit yourself.

The quality of the kit was excellent, including the instructions. My DMM claimed that all the discrete resistors were within 1% of their claimed values, allowing for lead resistance of 0R8 which affects its lowest range. Once complete the voltages at various test points on the board all checked out.

It seems unfair to expect something so cheap to be more than a toy, but in fact its bloody brilliant

Having a scope, no matter how basic, is a big boon for any electronic work – even a very basic scope adaptor I made for my BBC micro got me out of a few holes!

This beastie actually complements my old-school Hameg dual trace by giving me waveform capture and analysis, even with limited maximum frequency and amplitude.

It's one shortcoming is that it needs an external PSU, but I'm going to 3D print a pack for a Lion battery, voltage booster and charger to clip behind it.

I did take photos and can include a brief write up of the build in MEW if there's interest.

For the price, I'd say anyone into electronics would be mad not to have one (or two) even if they already have a great big Tek on the bench already! Just invest a few quid in an x10 probe set to go with it.

This is with the supplied lead unconnected, just picking up background mains hum:

This are the signal analysis results:

There are two built in 1KHxz test signals (large and small amplitude) and it was easy to adjust the trimmers to get crsip, square displays.

I may get another two and build them into a 'side by side' box as a bench unit.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Cheap oscilloscope

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

I for one would be interested in a write-up. There are a few similar kits about and you can get one that looks very similar from Amazon for £19.99.

John

[haroldParticipant @harold]

I concur: excellent value and great fun: also much easier to carry than a 'proper' scope. It's worth getting a genuine JTE Tech one, not least because the firmware upgrades usually don't work on the fakes.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Definitely worth a write-up Neil!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by harold on 14/01/2018 14:01:38:

I concur: excellent value and great fun: also much easier to carry than a 'proper' scope. It's worth getting a genuine JTE Tech one, not least because the firmware upgrades usually don't work on the fakes.

I'm 99% confident mine is the real thing… I but not sure how you can be 100% certain. It matches the 'official' photos and fonts and the packaging was excellent.

For avoidance of confusion 'JYE Tech' is the company.

http://www.jyetech.com/Products/LcdScope/e150.php

Neil

[haroldParticipant @harold]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 14/01/2018 14:17:31:

For avoidance of confusion 'JYE Tech' is the company.

http://www.jyetech.com/Products/LcdScope/e150.php

Neil

Indeed. Could a passing Mod correct my post, please?

The website that you linked to tells you how to check that the product that you've already bought is genuine (the boot-up msg agrees with the PCB sticker), but the only way to be sure the seller is genuine seems to be to buy from one of their listed distributors

The on-screen display is really nice. I've been messing with some Quad amps and being able to look at audio waveforms and measure RMS voltages, all for less than £30 in a nice portable package is very welcome.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

I built up the DS0138 version last year, but never put it in a case. It appears to work okay but not used it for anything as yet.

If you do a write up the I think some notes on how to use it for simple fault finding would be very useful. I also have a full size Tekronix scope but do not have a probe set for it.

Colin

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Pretty amazing what you can get these days. I see they also do a 2MHz version (yours is just 200kHz) for £58 – looks ready assembled if you don't fancy doing any soldering.

One downside is that they only do single channel versions. However, for only £200 – 250 you can get dual channel 50-70MHz (1G/s) DSOs from Siglent or Hantek that look and behave pretty much like Tek clones. I have a Siglent one that works very nicely. Scopes like this used to cost as much as a small house!

Murray

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by Colin Heseltine on 14/01/2018 16:29:45:

I built up the DS0138 version last year, but never put it in a case. It appears to work okay but not used it for anything as yet.

If you do a write up the I think some notes on how to use it for simple fault finding would be very useful. I also have a full size Tekronix scope but do not have a probe set for it.

Colin

I've got a few genuine Tek probes that came from the likes of the TDS 4-channel scopes. They are most likely good for a few hundred MHz and IIRC cost an arm and several legs new. If you are interested, I could flog you a few for some beer tokens. They have the smart plugs that tell the scope what gain the probes are (x10, x100 etc).

Murray

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Neil;

Thanks for this post – it does indeed look interesting. I've got a project on the back burner that requires a scope for any chance of completion – and this one has the bandwidth that will allow me to see what's going on.

Having a scope, no matter how basic, is a big boon for any electronic work – even a very basic scope adaptor I made for my BBC micro got me out of a few holes!

Aaaand.. when I was a kid, an 1802 microprocessor (CMOS) could be clocked at 0.0hz, so with a debounced flip-flop, and the most inexpensive analog volt meter (with obligatory missing front cover on the meter) one could trace wiring as it was running essentially DC.

I made lots of 1802 computer stuff….

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Long shot probably but ….

Although I've been building this sort of thing since a teenager I made a classic cods-up of one part of this …. the usual reason – not paying attention.

I soldered in the rotary encoder board flipped over. Realised it straight away and tried to remove it. Unfortunately there are 4 pins from a header to release simultaneously, with very small pads around them and I stripped some pads including the vias.

My best bet now, I think, is to run jumpers from the encoder board direct to the header pins. Trouble is I can only see the traces on the side of the encoder board opposite to the encoder – not those on the encoder side. If anyone has the kit not yet assembled would they mind checking where the traces (if any) run on the encoder side and letting me know?

(I said it was a long shot).

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 11/02/2018 20:11:09:

Long shot probably but ….

Although I've been building this sort of thing since a teenager I made a classic cods-up of one part of this …. the usual reason – not paying attention.

I soldered in the rotary encoder board flipped over. Realised it straight away and tried to remove it. Unfortunately there are 4 pins from a header to release simultaneously, with very small pads around them and I stripped some pads including the vias.

My best bet now, I think, is to run jumpers from the encoder board direct to the header pins. Trouble is I can only see the traces on the side of the encoder board opposite to the encoder – not those on the encoder side. If anyone has the kit not yet assembled would they mind checking where the traces (if any) run on the encoder side and letting me know?

(I said it was a long shot).

 

Hi. I've just built one of these, can not help you with the PCB tracks. But if you go to here :-

**LINK**

 

This guy mounted his encoder directly on the main board ::-

"Another (easier) idea to modify the encoder installation I had after doing that was to put aside the mini-pcb and bend all the encoder pins towards its front face, so it could be soldered directly to the main board (also would require cutting the spindle and both screw pods flush with the mainboard). This would have been easier (and leave more free space) if done from the beginning, but more complex once the encoder was soldered to the mini-pcb."

 

Edited By ian j on 12/02/2018 08:23:00

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

That is astonishingly cheap. I just bought a Tektronics100MHz mixed signal scope for work for around £1500 which came with standard probes.(OK not a comparison with the hobbiest scope) Checking out the intelligent probes which are generally aimed at automatic test equipment and they wanted twice the price of the scope for the probes. and that was each! Electronics pricing is wierd, it's a pure numbers game. Looks very handy Niel.

regards Martin

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 11/02/2018 20:11:09:

Long shot probably but ….

Although I've been building this sort of thing since a teenager I made a classic cods-up of one part of this …. the usual reason – not paying attention.

I soldered in the rotary encoder board flipped over. Realised it straight away and tried to remove it. Unfortunately there are 4 pins from a header to release simultaneously, with very small pads around them and I stripped some pads including the vias.

My best bet now, I think, is to run jumpers from the encoder board direct to the header pins. Trouble is I can only see the traces on the side of the encoder board opposite to the encoder – not those on the encoder side. If anyone has the kit not yet assembled would they mind checking where the traces (if any) run on the encoder side and letting me know?

(I said it was a long shot).

IIRC my impression was the encoder board is symmetrical, you might get away with it.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 12/02/2018 10:52:34:

That is astonishingly cheap. I just bought a Tektronics100MHz mixed signal scope for work for around £1500 which came with standard probes.(OK not a comparison with the hobbiest scope) Checking out the intelligent probes which are generally aimed at automatic test equipment and they wanted twice the price of the scope for the probes. and that was each! Electronics pricing is wierd, it's a pure numbers game. Looks very handy Niel.

regards Martin

I've 3D printed a holder for it, with a Lion battery, a 5V USB charger board, switch and a buck regulator board for 12V.

I just need to wire in an LED (so I don't switch off the scope but not the battery) and fit everything secure with hot melt.

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Neil.

"I've 3D printed a holder for it, with a Lion battery, a 5V USB charger board, switch and a buck regulator board for 12V."

Do you have a link to these parts you bought?

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by ian j on 12/02/2018 08:22:14:

This guy mounted his encoder directly on the main board ::-

That certainly looks like a possibility Ian. However, I since discovered this and I think, in the first instance it would be safer just to get the replacement.

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Yes I agree for just a few pounds that is the best option, but China is shut down for their new year

I'm sure you could get replacement parts direct from JYE where ever they are!

 

PS just to make you feel better I soldered the 4 pin header to the wrong side of the main board and that was after trying it in the correct side! Managed to get it out though.

Edited By ian j on 12/02/2018 16:14:09

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by ian j on 12/02/2018 16:08:54:

I'm sure you could get replacement parts direct from JYE where ever they are!

JYE just referred me to the site I quoted (after I found it first).

PS just to make you feel better I soldered the 4 pin header to the wrong side of the main board and that was after trying it in the correct side! Managed to get it out though.

Thanks for that ….. misery loves company!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by ian j on 12/02/2018 11:47:30:

Neil.

"I've 3D printed a holder for it, with a Lion battery, a 5V USB charger board, switch and a buck regulator board for 12V."

Do you have a link to these parts you bought?

Not the suppliers I used but the same modules:

Charger module

Booster/regulator

[Author]

Posts