Is It possible to build a useful oscilloscope with a microcontroller and a TV? That's the simple question that started Bruce on the path to developing the TV Scope, which is a minimal oscilloscope that has become a useful tool in Cornell University's neurobiology laboratories. I wanted to see if I could make a useful oscilloscope using only a microcontroller and a television. I had two reasons for making a minimal oscilloscope. First, I thought it would make a good lab exercise for the microcontroller course that I teach at Cornell University. Given the limited length of a lab session, the design complexity must be constrained, so doing everything with one chip makes the lab more tractable for the students. Second, I thought a minimal oscilloscope would be inexpensive enough to use in neurobiology labs. We are currently attempting to build hardware that allows high schools and other limited-budget institutions to perform electrophysiology. My TV Scope will become the central component of a small electrophysiology unit. Plus, it is fun to see how much performance you can squeeze out of a microcontroller, as sort of a hardware haiku.
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