How can I use my pc as an oscilloscope?

Question

I want to know how i can use my pc to obtain wave forms of AC and DC voltages and also analyse electrical circuits.

Answer 1

What would be involved is not easily done D.I.Y. It would involve designing input signal conditioning circuitry, analog to digital converters. You would need circuitry for the interpretation, conversion and transmission of the digitized signal to the host computer for processing, storage and display purposes. Then of course the complementary software would have to be written. The good news is there are several companies that sell just what your looking for for as little as a few hundred. The newest versions I've seen are a little box that plugs into your USB port and comes with software to allow you to display, analyze, store waveforms and more. One such company, Pico (picotech.com) sells such a device as well as multiple channel logic analyzers and device programmers. Do a search for PC oscilloscopes to find other sources. You should also consider buying an issue of Nuts and Volts. Their advertising is a good way to find out what's out there in the electronics world.

Answer 2

http://www.web-ee.com/Downloads/Sound%20Cards/sound_card.htm

Go down to the Oscilloscope for Windows v2.51

It works, very well, but this one won't measure DC unless you have a sound-card that is DC coupled (most of them aren't DC coupled.

To record DC on your PC, you need an expensive PCI card from National Instruments, or other similar vendor.
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Answer 3

There are several PC cards that are cheaper than a commercial oscilloscope. They usually quote high sample rate, but have limited bandwidth compared to real units.
This is a good comparison, but they don't directly state bandwidth.
http://www.cleverscope.com/resources/Cleverscope%20Comparison%20chart.pdf