This Pico-based scope jumped out at us for a couple of reasons. First, the price is incredible! Second, with a Pico W you can wirelessly connect it to an Android device running the analysis software. And third, even if you connect it via USB-OTG to your phone, the entire device is isolated from the circuit you’re probing (assuming you’re not simultaneously charging your phone from a wall wart).
True, it only has 150kHz of analog bandwidth, but for the price and quality of the software involved, it can still be useful for working on all sorts of projects. The logic analyzer portion can run at up to 25MS/s, so many serial protocols can be successfully probed (SPI, I2C, etc). The software looks incredibly well done, with all sorts of features usually found only on benchtop scopes, including FFT and X-Y modes. It even has a basic function generator built-in! And perhaps down the line we’ll see some trickery used to increase the analog bandwidth (time-interleaved ADC sampling?) which would be very cool.
In the meantime, this would be a great scope for a beginner, especially younger hackers who might accidentally probe something that makes the board go “poof!” and release the magic smoke. At this price point, and with fully open schematics, repair and/or replacement isn’t the end of the world!
