Australia's Science Forum

Does anyone use an on-line alternative for the CRO?

Last year at the St Mary's Conference, Stuart Robertson from Greystanes HS showed us the audacity website, and how to use it instead of a CRO.

I have tried several times to access this site, with no luck. Can anyone help?

Many Thanks,

hi
there are couple of them but these are my favourite:
http://www.crocodile-clips.com/
http://www.doctronics.co.uk/scope.htm

Liz,
There's a CRO alternative called Signal Scope 2.0 at http://www.faberacoustical.com
The cost is $144.83 & they have a demo version you can try. We are thinking about buying it.

Hope this helps
Judy

Hi Lizzie
I use http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net to record my records - LP's - on my computer thence to my iPod. It shows music as a wave file. Hadn't thought about using it instead of a CRO but I can see now how you could. Plug a microphone into the computer instead of the stereo player. (I even edit out the crackles from the records as you can see them when you expand - or stretch - the wave)
Hope this helps
Darelle

You can buy "adaptors" that connect with a computers USB port. That is if you are talking about measuring signals like a CRO. They aren't too expensive but they are usually limited in their voltage range to +/-20 volt but for schools that often isn't a problem.

If you want to generate signals, eg audio sine waves, there are some computer programs that can do that too. The teachers seem to like the simplicity but it pays to have reasonable speakers attached to your computer. Most speakers aren't good with low frequency.

WINSCOPE

This is a handy program to use your pc as a CRO

http://www.mitedu.freeserve.co.uk/Prac/winscope.htm

There will be a workshop at STANSW annual conference 28 November at UNSW on "Physics - Using Winscope"