Wow, how much would my Dad love this thing???
I call my Dad every Monday (our time, Tuesday his time) and we talk for around an hour. Of course there are often a bunch of emails that go back and forth a lot as well.
Most of the time (but certainly not all of the time) we talk tech. Be it wind generators, solar panels, inverters, battery chargers and all the usual sort of stuff that two blokes can get up to on opposite sides of the planet.
Often times we will be brainstorming a problem that Dad has. I know what tools he has on hand and so its always fun to try and help him use what he has to get the problem solved (or get around it).
One of the most important tools is a scope. In the old days it was called a CRO, cathode ray oscilloscope.
They really were little tv sets with a bunch of dials on them. Point is, it was (and still is) the only way you can see what the signal is doing. i.e. See electricity.
Dad does not have one. Well, he does, but it really could have done double duty as an anchor for the Titanic (its about the right age too), so it does not get a lot of use.
Also there are issues with running a scope off the same voltage as you are trying to fix. And since Dad’s place runs off batteries and inverters, most of the power is common some how.
Which is a really long winded wind up to this little sucker…..
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/07/osciums-imso-104-turns-ipad-iphone-into-mixed-signal-oscillosc/
Very very very cool. Totally out of our price range. But its new and I’m sure in time the original ipad will come much further down in price and this attachment will also come down as well, but for now, its just really exciting to see such a thing become available.
To me, this is the real power of the tablet computer. Sure you can surf the web on them, but you can do that on your laptop… a laptop is not as portable or have such an amazing battery life as a tablet. So when you turn a tablet into a real useful electronics tool, I get all excited.
One day Dad, one day……