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Dallas Makerspace DMS Source
Archived from the legacy DMS wiki — content may be outdated.

How to use your scope

How to Use Your Oscilloscope and Other Bench Equipment

Section titled “How to Use Your Oscilloscope and Other Bench Equipment”

Have you ever wanted to know how to use an Oscilloscope? What about a function generator? You can probably guess what a Counter does, but what is it good for? Learn how to put electronic bench equipment to good use! We have a great collection of gear and we’ll demo its use in this presentation. We’ll also go over some of the ways you can get by without a whole set of equipment.

Equipment

Section titled “Equipment”
  • Multimeter
  • Oscilloscope
  • Function generator
  • Counter
  • Spectrum analyzer (maybe on PC if the hardware one is broken)

Demos

Section titled “Demos”
  • Measuring voltage, resistance, and current with a multimeter.
  • Examining the waveform of sounds
  • Examining the spectrum of sounds
  • Making cool Lissajous figures on your scope
  • Measuring Capacitance and inductance with a scope and fnGen (and a counter)
  • Measuring differential signals on an oscope
  • Using the delayed trigger on your Oscilloscope
  • Examining the waveform used by hobby servos
  • On the cheap: measuring L and C with just a handheld DMM and your computer

Equipment Needed for Presentation

Section titled “Equipment Needed for Presentation”
  • Oscope, dual channel
  • Sweeping function generator
  • ‘normal’ function generator (probably the synthesizing fluke)
  • counter (the microwave counter will do)
  • 4x power cables for above
  • 2x BNC-BNC cables
  • 2x BNC Tees
  • 2x Scope probes (one should be 1x and one should be 10x)
  • microphone
  • audio amplifier for microphone
  • Laptop with some sort of ‘oscope and FFT software’ (of which there are many)
  • adapters to plug probes and stuff into the Laptop
  • a few different capacitors
  • a few different inductors
  • a few different resistors
  • alligator clips to connect to above
  • recording or signal source of ‘modem’ sounds
  • source of differential signals
  • bench supply or battery for measuring current
  • hobby servo tester
  • hobby servo
Section titled “Links”

Index:

0:00:00 Opening and Agenda

0:02:50 Brief History of Oscilloscopes – with Al Klase

0:15:00 Start of Basics of Oscilloscopes – with Alan Wolke

0:19:00 Basic Block Diagram of an Oscilloscope

0:19:50 Oscilloscope / Display Overview

0:23:00 Display Section Functions and Controls

0:28:10 Vertical Section Description

0:33:17 Vertical Scale / Coupling Controls, Input Impedance

0:38:04 Vertical Mode Controls

0:48:05 In-circuit Example of using two traces on the oscilloscope

0:52:41 Horizontal Section Description

0:53:48 Horizontal Sweep Types & Controls

1:10:15 Triggering (Synchronization) Section Description

1:13:19 Trigger Source, Mode and Coupling Controls

1:19:56 Trigger Level and Slope Controls

1:23:29 Introduction to Oscilloscope Probes

1:31:45 1X and 10X Passive Probes

1:34:00 10X Probe Compensation and Use Considerations

1:48:48 XY Mode of Operation

2:00:12 Front Panel Control Layout

2:02:20 Pop Quiz!

2:03:00 Wrap Up: Oscilloscope adds Intuitive Feel to circuit operation

2:04:45 Questions and Answers

2:13:35 Brief History of Oscilloscope Tubes

Migrated from the legacy DMS wiki: original page