Pittsford, NY. Cleverscope CS328 is a new USB-connected all-in-one PC-based mixed signal oscilloscope adapter which brings benefits unavailable from traditional stand-alone oscilloscopes and is even more sophisticated than other PC scope-adapters. This innovative tool delivers an unbeatable combination of affordability, ease of use and documentation of test results with "Copy and Paste" simplicity. You can display real-time analog, math-modified waveforms as well as digital signals simultaneously, using the built-in signal generator as your swept-frequency source, and easily transfer results into other applications such as Word, Excel, etc.

Cleverscope CS328 features two 10-bit, self-calibrating A/D channels, sampling at 100 Megasamples/second simultaneously. Gain and offset automatically adjust for instantly viewable results for inputs from 20mV to 800V full scale. The external trigger is adjustable from 0 to ±20V in 40 mV increments. A huge 4 Megasample buffer allows you to drill down and display detailed information from the very long data buffer. 8 digital inputs are also available, sampling simultaneously at 100 Megasamples/second.

Cleverscope CS328 offers highly flexible mixed-signal triggering, scope and spectrum display – you can trigger from either analog channel or a combination of digital inputs. Useful offset capabilities allow you to see small ac signals on a large ac or dc offset.

The software's built-in math capability - accessed by just typing in an equation - allows Cleverscope CS328 users to display multiple modified waveforms, add or subtract channels, square root, integral, differential, filtering, etc. Users find that the easy-to-use software interface is "light-years in front of other offerings" and math functions like these are only available on expensive standalone scopes!

An optional plug-in signal/sweep generator CS700 provides useful test signals: sine, square: 0.2Hz — 10MHz; triangle: 0.2Hz — 1MHz; with frequency and/or phase shift and sweep capabilities; this is ideal for measuring filter responses or audio amplifier testing!

Cleverscope CS328 PC scope adapter is available now from stock at $999.00 each from Saelig Co. Inc. Pittsford NY. info@saelig.com. Optional built-in CS700 signal/sweep generator is an additional $199.00. eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn Says ...

Saelig's Cleverscope CS328, with its dual 100-Msample/s simultaneously-sampling A/D channels, compares favorably with quite a few mainstream lab scopes—even mixed-signal ones (with both analog and digital inputs) that can cost five times as much.

The CS328 renders a PC a rather sparkling general purpose scope. The unit sports 10-bit resolution on its 1-Mohm DC-coupled or AC-coupled input channels, and shows 60-dB of dynamic range. That's coupled with a 100-MHz analog bandwidth spec. Vertical-input ranges span 20-mV to 800-V, yielding a resolution of 0.02-mV on the 20-V range.

There's also an offset feature that's automatically set from 0 to ±4-V or ±40-V in 10-mV or 100-mV increments. If you choose the CS328's graph view, you can use the offset feature. It will, for example, let you see millivolt-level signals superimposed on much higher DC levels.

Mixed-Signal Operation

As a mixed-signal instrument, the CS328 also packs eight digital channels. Digital levels can be anywhere between -16-V and +20-V, so the system readily accepts virtually any logic family. These inputs can simultaneously sample at speeds between 1500-samples/s to 100-Msample/s.

Each channel (the two analog channels, a trigger channel, and the digital inputs) includes 4-Msamples of storage. That gives you up to 40-ms of simultaneous storage for all channels, with 10-ns resolution.

The system can buffer and store anywhere from two frames to 1000 frames, in sizes from 2-million to 4000-samples. These stored signals can be used as to review captured signals, or to capture up to 1000 trigger events.

Signals In Windows

What’s more, because the CS328 works in conjunction with your Windows PC, and uses USB (Universal Serial Bus) for plug-and-play communications, you get to view captured waveforms on the large screen of a typical PC, instead of a smaller LCD built into a dedicated scope.

Thanks to USB, the system can operate at a 10-frame/s acquisition rate. Just like bench scopes, the system's acquisition modes include single shot, triggered, automatic, repetitive, and multiple frame types.

In use, you can also separately observe time-domain and frequency-domain displays. Digital inputs, if any, can also be displayed. Separate moveable windows display your signals, and you can zoom in on areas of interest. The software that runs on the PC also lets you do signal averaging and filtering, and you get a suite of math functions. Basic hooks support rms, peak, DC, pulse width, period, and frequency measurement.

Of course, being a PC application, you can also readily copy and paste waveforms and data into other Windows applications and annotate files with text. You can also save to disk, and do that automatically on a trigger.

Signal Generator Module

Saelig's press statement (on the left) mentions the CS700 signal generator. It's a plug-in module that can be factory installed or added later in your lab.

It accurately generates sine, square, and triangle output waveforms that can be set anywhere between 0 and 5-V (pk-to-pk) in 10-mV steps, over a frequency range from 0.2-Hz to 10-MHz (triangle wave generation extends only to 1-MHz). You can also vary offset -4-V to +4-V in 10-mV steps. The CS700 will drive 50-ohm loads directly, and is short-circuit proof.

The low harmonic-distortion CS700 module can also be FSK (frequency-shift keyed) and PSK (phase-shift keyed) modulated. FSK can use any two frequencies between 0.2-Hz and 10-MHz. Phase shifts up to 360° can also be cranked in.

The CS700 can also work as a sweep generator. Sweeps can also be synchronized with the scope's spectrum analyzer features in order to make transfer response measurements.

The Cleverscope packs a lot of performance into a compact package, and when you factor in its price at less than a kilobuck, it’s an instrument worth investigating.

Click here to access a datasheet (in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format)

For more details, contact Alan Lowne at Saelig Co. Inc., 1160-D2 Pittsford-Victor Rd., Pittsford, New York 14534. Phone: 585-385-1750. Fax: 585-385–1768 E-mail: info@saelig.com

Saelig, 585-385-1750, www.saelig.com