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The WEIRDEST PC Parts we Found on AliExpress

jakkuh_t

Alex pulling out the PCI oscilloscope didn't surprise me.

Though, @AlexTheGreatish, you should have set up a computer before hand with OS, Drivers, and software to run the card to begin with.

 

But in this fairly lengthy post, I hopefully can provide the needed resources to actually get it running. In terms of Labview, it first of isn't needed to run the oscilloscope card, and Labview has a yearly license fee of only 399$ (or 3 Grand for the full version), and honestly, for such a one off thing, I wouldn't be surprised if National Instruments would sponsor such a license to LMG. (Practically almost free publicity, although maybe not directly at their main market...))

 

Though as stated, the manufacturer doesn't state that it needs to use labview. Here is a PDF from Keysight (Formally known as Agilent, that Acqiris were part of when they released this product.) http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5989-7121EN.pdf
The software suite for the card can be found as a downloadable CD from Keysight at: https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?cc=SE&lc=eng&ckey=1325010&nid=-34655.729904.02&id=1325010&cmpid=zzfindacqiris-software-cd-rom (I haven't tried it myself. So I could be totally off on this judgement...)

 

This should include some basic run of the mill software to use the card as if it were a crude stand alone oscilloscope. (And don't blow it up with the 50 ohm mode, it is a costly beginner mistake with this type of test equipment. (100 V (DC + peak AC <10 kHz) @ 1 Mohm, ±5 V DC (2 W) or 0.5 W RMS @ 50 ohm.))

 

Though its 150-250 MHz bandwidth, 0.5-1 Gig samples per second and 8 bit resolution makes it fairly decent. That together with 128K to 8M (depending on how it is optioned up from the factory) samples of memory makes it fairly decent for 700 bucks back in the day. And it is surely one of the more obscure "PC building parts" out there.

 

Compared to Linus' slew of adapters that in the end didn't work. (though, Wireless PCIe sounds interesting...) Though, in terms of PCI based test equipment, one could have gone far deeper down the rabbit hole and gone with a PXI card, it is practically PCIe with a different connector, and it supplies more power. (it is used for automated test gear in factories and calibration labs) Then there is also PC104 cards. (The modern ones use the PCI protocol, though their own fancy connector... But one can buy a whole PC104 computer setup for a few hundred bucks over at Ebay. (It is like an overgrown Raspberry pi aimed at industry.)) Otherwise for stuff that can be plugged into a regular computer, one could always go with one of Xilinx's FPGA development boards. (Though, software here is very much following the phrase "do it yourself" so knowing a hardware description language is somewhat needed...)

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