DIY Arduino Oscilloscope with the Nokia 3310 GLCD screen

I’ve seen videos on YouTube using an Arduino and a Graphical LCD screen (GLCD) to create a simple Oscilloscope. The annoying thing is that I found no help whatsoever on how to build one. I spent a few days figuring out how to use the Nokia 3310 LCD screen and then figuring out how to sample an analog port to create a fun oscilloscope effect.

I don’t claim that this device can replace actual test equipment but it might be useful and for $40.00 bucks in total parts it is a blast to play with.

The setup is really simple, connect an Arduino Pro Mini to a Nokia 3310 LCD screen, sample an analog port and then wright the pixels to the screen. I even added two potentiometers, one that adds delay to the sample to essentially provide a basic time scale and another pot that can scale down voltages as long as they are below three volts (the operating voltage of the micro controller). Unfortunately if you want to sample sign waves that have voltages over three volts you are out of luck unless you build an electronic circuit to scale it down somehow.

Another unfortunate feature is that the analog input only shows positive voltage so the scope is really a positive DC or AC scope only. Here again custom electronics could be built but there is something beautiful about keeping it simple.

I don’t have a professional function generator so I could only test its range from 100 ms to about 1 ms scales.

Bottom line, it is definitely fun to build and play with, it also makes a cool EMF detector

Supporting files:

Here is the Sketch

01/* 
02###########################################################
03  Title:       Arduino Oscilloscope
04  Purpose:     Use a Nokia 3310 GLCD screen with the arduino
05  Created by:  Fileark. see Fileark.com for more info.
06  Note:        Please reuse, repurpose, and redistribute this code.
07  Note:        This code uses the Adafruit PDC8544 LCD library  
08###########################################################
09 */
10 
11#include "PCD8544.h"
12 
13// pin 3 - Serial clock out (SCLK)
14// pin 4 - Serial data out (DIN)
15// pin 5 - Data/Command select (D/C)
16// pin 7 - LCD chip select (CS)
17// pin 6 - LCD reset (RST)
18PCD8544 nokia = PCD8544(3, 4, 5, 7, 6);
19 
20// a bitmap of a 16x16 fruit icon
21static unsigned char __attribute__ ((progmem)) logo16_glcd_bmp[]={
220x06, 0x0D, 0x29, 0x22, 0x66, 0x24, 0x00, 0x01, 0x87, 0x00, 0x27, 0x6C, 0x20, 0x23, 0x06, 0x00,
230x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x10, 0x10, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, };
24#define LOGO16_GLCD_HEIGHT 16 
25#define LOGO16_GLCD_WIDTH  16 
26 
27int channelAI = A0;      // select the input pin for the Oscilioscope
28int scaleYAI = A1;       // select the input pin for the Y (horizontal) potentiometer
29int scaleXAI = A2;       // select the input pin for the X (Vertical) potentiometer
30 
31int delayVariable = 0;   // define a variable for the Y scale / delay
32int xVariable = 0;       // define a variable for the x scale 
33int
 yCtr = 
0;            // 
define a variable for the y counter used to collect y position into 
array
34int
 posy = 
0;            // 
define a variable for the y position of the dot 
35int myArray[85];         // define an array to hold the data coming in 
36 
37 
38void setup(void) 
39{
40 
41  nokia.init();
42   
43  // turn all the pixels on (a handy test)
44    nokia.command(PCD8544_DISPLAYCONTROL | PCD8544_DISPLAYALLON);
45    delay(500);
46  // back to normal
47    nokia.command(PCD8544_DISPLAYCONTROL | PCD8544_DISPLAYNORMAL);
48   
49  // show splashscreen
50    nokia.display();
51    delay(500);
52    nokia.clear();
53}
54 
55void loop() 
56{  
57  delayVariable = analogRead(scaleYAI);
58  delayVariable = (delayVariable/50);
59  xVariable = analogRead(scaleXAI);
60  xVariable = (xVariable/22); 
61   
62  for(yCtr = 0; yCtr < 85; yCtr += 1)   // the for loop runs from 0 and < 85, it fills the array with 84 records
63    {                                
 
64      posy = analogRead(channelAI);       // read the value from the sensor:
65      myArray[yCtr]
 = (posy/xVariable);   // scale the value based on the x scale
 potentiometer      
66      delay
 
(delayVariable);          
 // scale the y collection of data using the delay from the y 
potentiometer   
67    }
68   
69  yCtr
 == 
0;                          
 // set the counter to zero so we can use it again
70  nokia.clear();                      
 // clear the LCD screen so we can draw new pixels
71  
72  for(yCtr = 0; yCtr < 85; yCtr += 1)  // for loop runs 84 times
73    {
74       nokia.setPixel(yCtr, myArray[yCtr], BLACK); // draw the 84 pixels on the screen
75    }
76   
77  nokia.display();                    
 // show the changes to the buffer
78  yCtr
 == 
0;                          
 // set the counter to zero so we can use it again
79      
80} 