An oscilloscope, formerly called an oscillograph, and informally known as a scope, CRO (for cathode ray oscilloscope), or DSO (for the most modern digital storage oscilloscope), is a type of electronic test instrument that allows the observation of Constantly variable signal Voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical axis or the y-axis, plotted against time (horizontal or x-axis). Many signals can be converted to voltages and displayed in this way. The signals are often periodic and are constantly repeated so that multiple samples of a signal varying over time as a stable image are displayed. Many oscilloscopes (storage oscilloscopes) can also capture waveforms that are not repeated for a given time and display a constant display of the captured segment. Oscilloscopes are commonly used to observe the exact waveform of an electrical signal.
Oscilloscopes are usually calibrated so that voltage and time can be read as well as possible by the eye. This allows the measurement of the peak-to-peak voltage of a waveform, the frequency of periodic signals, the time between pulses, the time taken for a signal to rise to full amplitude (rise time) and relative synchronization of several related signals. Oscilloscopes are used in science, medicine, engineering and the telecommunications industry. The oscilloscope is one of the most important tools to be used by any electronics enthusiast, but not everyone can afford to have one. As the commercial fields are often too expensive, almost all electronics enthusiasts thought at one point to build one from scratch.
The classical oscilloscope (cathode ray tube) is difficult to build at home due to its size, mechanical fragility, high voltage presence, etc. An alternative solution is the modern "PC oscilloscope", which has the advantage of postprocessing and recording capabilities and class of lower complexity. However, this solution is often not portable, expensive (requires a PC) and dangerous for the PC if it is not isolated from its chassis. The third solution, commonly used by all manufacturers of commercial oscilloscopes, is the digital oscilloscope with LCD display. Therefore, the authors decided to use this solution, and tried to develop it using common parts of the current retailers.