Handy instrument needs cleaner install
Circuitgear CGR-101 USB oscilloscope, Syscomp Electronic Design, www.syscompdesign.com. Price: $179.
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 10/1/2009 2:00:00 AM
The Circuitgear CGR-101 is a combination 20-Msamples/s oscilloscope, function generator, pulse-width modulation signal generator, and digital I/O module that has the potential to be a handy troubleshooting tool on the bench, in the field, or even at home. While the instrument does what it is supposed to do, getting it to work is more tedious than it should be.
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The software and driver installation process, not usually an issue, gets in the way. The process has too many steps, and if you don’t follow the on-screen instructions exactly, you may never get the instrument to communicate with your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC. That’s what happened to me. I needed a clean copy of Windows before the installation would work. You may not need that if you follow the instructions precisely.
Once I had the oscilloscope working, I found it to be a good educational tool. Syscomp provided a simple test circuit—a transformer—that let me evaluate the instrument. The software is easy to use (once you get through the installation), and I was able to characterize the transformer’s frequency response. The instrument’s vector network analyzer mode is a nice feature, letting you quickly generate Bode plots for gain and phase.
The oscilloscope software needs more triggers than just the level trigger that it provides. Pulse-width triggering, for example, would add value. Furthermore, you have no way to trigger the oscilloscope on a digital pattern unless you write your own application using the instrument’s programming commands. That’s unlike the Link Instruments MSO-19, which has that ability although it has only one oscilloscope channel (Ref. 1). At just $179, though, the CGR-101 is a versatile instrument—if you follow the install directions.
Read my complete review of the Circuitgear CGR-101.
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