Overview of Inexpensive Oscilloscope Kit

Welcome to my overview Instructable! This is going to be more of a 'pre-Instructable', where I just review the individual components of the DIY Oscilloscope kit from Gearbest. To follow will be an assembly Instructable and also a usage and final review Instructable.

This kit is an opensource product, allowing you to fully modify it in anyway you want. All of the source can be found on the main product page here. If you make any mods to your kit, be sure to post them and share with others! Maybe after I assemble it I will try to make some mods to it to share!

ENJOY! And you can go and checkout the kit here at GearBest's website.

This kit comes with three sheets of paper in the package.

• One SMD parts list
• One User Manual, including the through hole soldering instructions, and testing/usage information.
• One 'How To Use' document, including a full schematic and operations information.

There are no instructions on assembling the SMD components, but the BOM for the SMD parts gives you the reference name that corresponds to the PCB, making it easy enough to deduct where the components go, this is really only an issue for the resistors, as the two ICs really only fit in one place. The SO14 IC (U2) looks symmetrical, the SMD parts list does include a bit on how to identity pin one on the chip. I will also go over this in my assembly Instructable.

Now, I don't have a fancy microscope that I can use to REALLY inspect a circuit boards quality, but I like to think that my eyes are still working pretty well.

The PCB that comes with this kit is a bare board except for the main processor, a STM32, a 32-bit ARM Cortex microcontroller. A lot of times when I get a kit and there are SMDs already soldered on, I would think that the only assembly that I need to do is solder some through-hole components. However, with this kit that is untrue and for the best! Soldering PTH(plated through hole) components is easy enough on a board like this, so the addition of SMD components that are required to solder on is a great thing in a kit like this. That's the reason to buy a KIT right??

there are a handful of SMD resistors that need to be soldered on along with two additional ICs, one SO14 package and one TO263 package. The resistors in this kit at size 0805, not the easiest, but far from the hardest! (Try soldering some 0402 components by hand!)

Overall the board seems to be very high quality with a very nice red soldermask. All of the silkscreen on the board is easy to read and does not overlap awkwardly. All components are labeled closely and cleanly. I am looking forward to assembing all of the SMD and PTH components on this board!

This kit comes with a multitude of different style components for you to solder and master your skills. There are resistors of a couple different sizes, polarized electrolytic can style capacitors, non-polarized ceramic capacitors, diodes, trim pots, an inductor, some transistors, buttons, switches, headers, a USB Mini port and a BNC connection. With soldering this variety of components, there are going to be a few different techniques required to solder in each one, I will display some of these in my assembly Instructable.

I am no component/brand expert but these components seem to be of good quality for a kit like this. The three position switches grip into the three different positions pretty well so you don't slide past accidently. The push buttons have a nice audible click to them, something that I find a good property that is sort of a bonus just based off of the mechanical nature of the item.

The true test for all of these components will really come once you start using the kit and applying force to the switches buttons and connectors.

There is not much to say here, there are three different package types that are in this kit, the 0805 resistors with five different values, the SO14 IC and the TO263. The SO14 package does have the finest pitch of these components but with a nice sharp soldering iron tip it shouldn't be a problem for beginners.

TFT LCD screens are becoming quite popular in DIY projects, as the price drops and resolutions increase it's easy to see why! I think one of the great things about this kit is that they provide mating headers for attaching the screen. This is a huge advantage for hobbyist who like to pick apart old projects to use components or test with components already lying around. If you had to unsolder this 40 pin connector, you might go crazy and end up just buying another one anyways!

Another good 'freedom' feature is the fact that the board for the LCD has two different orientations for how you want to mount. You could also use the other set of connections for a secondary header that you could use when you temporarily salvage the screen to test out a new project.

Overall the screen looks pretty nice. According the the product page the image is very nice too, compared to another Oscope kit that I have done. Once I get it together and powered on, I will do a side by side of the two.

This kit comes with a short 1' cable to be used with the kit. Of course, you could use any oscope cable that you have lying around. This is a good cable for doing quick measurements in the field, or somewhere that you may not be able to bring a full size scope.

Here are my final thoughts, let's build this thing and play with it! It is hard to judge a kit like this just buy looking at the components sitting in a pile on your desk. I will have a better review of the final kit after I get it assembled and start measuring some signals! Stay tuned for my assembly and usage Instructable along with my final opinions.

Don't forget to go and checkout the product page at GearBest.com for more information!

In the next steps, you will find my assembly instructions for this kit. The kit come with some pretty good instructions, but they don't show the SMD components. Here's how I did it and some of my experiences!

Before I start putting something together, especially a kit, I like to get all of my parts on my workplace and have them somewhat organized so I can find them quickly. One of the most important parts to keep organized, I think, is your SMD components. I like to create a grid on a piece of printer paper and label each square and place the appropriate component in it. For this kit, there were not many SMD components, but I still made the grid to make things a little organized.

Before I start placing components onto my PCB, I like to tin the right most pad of each SMD component. I do the left most pad because I am right handed. This way when I go to place the components, I can hold it with some tweezers in my left hand and just heat up the solder with the soldering iron in my right hand. this keeps you from needing three hands. When placing your symmetrical ICs, be sure that the pin one indicator is actually at pin one before soldering.

Once you have soldered one pin of each SMD component, you can then go on and finish soldering the rest of the pins. Since all components are pinned down, you can freely move the board around to get to a better position for soldering.

The directions that come with this kit actually go in the perfect order. When you are adding PTH components to a PCB, you want to start from the thinnest to thickest. We do this so that when you flip over your board to solder the leads, all of the parts that you want to solder will be pressed against your desk and won't be 'floating' and fall out. After I place my components through the PCB, I tend to bend the leads in opposite directions to help them stay in when I am flipping the board and adding more components.

Before I solder the leads to the PCB, I will put it a bunch of components, bend the leads and then I can solder all of the leads at once. After all of your leads have been soldered, you can then snip the excess. I like to keep my excess in a little container. They work really great for jumpers in other projects.

All you have to do is follow the rest of the directions in the kit and you will end up with something like what I have pictured! If you have any trouble getting components to stay, masking tape is always a good option for temporary holding. If you have any good soldering/assembly tips, feel free to post them in the comments or a link to an Instructable that you have made.