Would be really nice if someone reverse engineered this (or one with similar performance) frontend properly, and released it as open hardware. I would gladly buy a module with 2 inputs at ~$50.
What features and performance would you expect from something like this?
Would you want everything up to the ADC or the ADC as well? In this particular design the integrated ADC handles most of the gain switching so the front end is simplified.
hmm you are right, I forgot HMCAD1511 is ~$80 in single quantities. That puts my idea out of its misery
![Sad :(](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xsad.gif.pagespeed.ic.L3FGyzQrjB.png)
The way I see it, this rigol can be broken down like this
$100 frontend (4 inputs, adc)
$100 computing (data processing, application processor)
$100 case, supply, screen, keyboard, pcb
$100 software
I was thinking of a building block if someone wanted to experiment/play with/build oscilloscope. Every other piece of the puzzle is available off the shelf, except for a good quality, properly designed and battle tested frontend. Some uni or a MOOC could even do a course on building measurement equipment using module like this and fpga dev board. Currently closest thing I can think of is
-analog discovery, 5MHz analog BW $100-300
-embeddedartists labtool, 3-12MHz analog BW ~$200
-Red Pitaya, 50MHz analog BW, but only 120MHz sampling, $470
-maybe Smartscope? same as red pitaya, but not shipping and most likely not open if/when it ships
ps: forgot one
-BeScope, claimed ?50MHz analog BW, 250MHz sampling, $50, but not a proper frontend