[ultraNoob]

Here's the skinny. My trusted oscilloscope crapped out. Actually, it's the CMOS that is no longer functioning. The standalone system runs off of win95. Yes, win95 with 256mb of ram on a pentium I 100mhz. It's ran in the configuration for almost 13 years without fail, until last month.

Found the CMOS and that damn thing is soldered into the board. Tried to replace the CMOS 2x with used units to no avail. My instincts (used to fix mainframes btw), say bad board.

Before I send it to the recycling yard, I'd like to try and salvage the system. I hope to resurrect my beloved O-scope with a Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 500mb ram, etc..... (spare parts I have lying around). Only thing holding be back from making this happen is the actual O-scope interface card. It's an ISA card.

My question to you tech guru's, is there an interface where I can plug in an ISA card into a PCI or PCIE card?

 

[binary visions]

There's nothing that's cost effective. You'd be better off finding a used machine/motherboard with an ISA slot in it.

Since the bus was substantially different from PCI to ISA, there's no straight, easy converter. You could look at USB to ISA:

http://www.arstech.com/item-USB-2-0-to-ISA-card-ROHS-usb2isar.html

No guarantees that any of this will work, and the above link is $150 assuming it's a card that doesn't need a power supply and you're willing to live without an enclosure.

I actually have a couple of older desktop systems at work we were going to dispose of; I can check and see if any still have an ISA slot, though I tend to doubt it.

 

[ultraNoob]

Thanks for the info BV.

I was hoping for a cost effective fix, but at $150, I might as well pony up another $150 and buy a smaller used one somewhere.

Did some searching and found some android oscilloscope apps. Might be worth looking into. For my applications, I usually don't need more than a 3 channel, and I'm sure for 80% of my work, I can use a 2 channel.

Gotta love technology.

 

[binary visions]

I know. I bought an inexpensive OBDII code reader for my car several years ago. Cost me like $50. All it does is spit back CEL codes and tell me if the various car sensors are ready or not ready.

Now, for $20, I can get a Bluetooth attachment and for another $3, an Android app, and wirelessly streams a thousand more data points to the phone including all the data that you normally have to buy a $200 OBDII reader to see.

I'll take a peek at those old desktops and if one has an ISA slot, you can let me know if you want to work something out with it or just move on to a new scope.

 

[ultraNoob]

Thanks for the offer BV. I'm just gonna go with an upgrade. Hard to let one of my favorite tools give up the ghost, but everything dies eventually right?

Thinking of going with a 4channel blue tooth lead set and a droid tablet.

In the mean time, this should get me by with my laptop:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-5-Channel-5v-Portable-PC-USB-2-0-Oscilloscope-cable-CD-/260892376903?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item3cbe65bf47#ht_1013wt_1059