Bitscope *alert*

[dr_when]

Hi,<p>I would be interested if anyone else got stung by Bitscope. I just purchased their BS-50 Pocket Analyser and got it after waiting close to 4 weeks (Australia snail mail). The scope came without a scope probe (who would do that??) but did come with CD, and some mini clips.<p>The device will not work on a Windows 2000 PC with either their Ver 1.0 or V1.1 software. Their "Alpha" version is so horribly buggy it cannot be used for anything practical. They lead you to believe this is a PC based scope but they have obviously never used a scope before. Nothing does what it should and it is slower than a snail even with USB 2.2. I seriously recommend you pass this by and look at Picoscope or some other PC based scope. I wasted $300 and this thing cannot be used for anything. Buyer beware!!!!

[jwax]

Thanks for the warning, dr! Can you return it for refund? Caveat Emptor.
P.S. John Galt- the Scottish novelist?

[pboese]

The recent advertisement in the October Nuts & Volts piqued my interest in the device. I checked the BitScope website and saw a reference to the unit in the news items, but I did not see it listed for sale in their online store. Perhaps it was removed for some reason.<p>A full page ad in the magazine could not have been cheap. Perhaps demand has outstripped the ability of BitScope to provide units or take the time to fully test and debug the units and/or software.<p>Just curious, what are the specs of the machine your tried to run it on? Have you tried it on a Linux box?<p>Thanks for the warning, but It sure looks like a nice product. I applaud the openess of the design and programming manual. Maybe you just got a lemon unit: .i.e. a bad parts mix. I'm sure the company will be happy to refund your money.

[dr_when]

Hi,<p>In all fairness to Bitscope, after having the device for a few weeks and getting them to actually tell me that their DSO software versions 1.0 and 1.1 would not work with my BS-50 Pocket Analyse, I have changed my opinion of the device.<p>I am using their DSO beta 1.2 software and after getting an email from their support staff describing the inconsistancies I am in good shape.
The unit performs very well on this PC running win 2000 and the capturing is nice. You can set a variety of triggers. The software does not save any settings though so each time you run it you have to configure the scope all over. It also does not exactly behave the same as say a Tektronix bench scope. The auto-trigger and "normal" trigger functions are a little different. Same with their Zoom trace capabilities. Not having used other PC based scopes maybe $300 for this is not too bad. I don't know. It is a novel approach though and the hardware is well made. Be sure you buy a good scope probe because it does not come with one. They are also very nice people but being in Australia you have to call them in the evening from the USA. I hope they work on the software... then they might have a real winner.<p>Bob