The oscilloscope

An example of an oscilloscope display. High-end oscilloscopes can display signals having frequencies up to several hundred gigahertz (GHz). This is useful for measuring such things as clock frequencies, duty cycles of pulse-width-modulated signals, propagation delay, or signal rise and fall times.

It can also alert you to the presence of glitches in your logic or bouncing switches. An easy-to-understand explanation of how we can use oscilloscopes to study and measure all kinds of electrical signals that change with time.

You should be able to calculate the period and frequency of an AC (alternating current) supply from an oscilloscope trace, such as the one here.

The period of an AC supply is the time taken for one complete oscillation.

You can find this by looking at the time between one peak and the next, between one trough and . So many of the experiments in the advanced labs make use of oscilloscopes and function generators that it is useful to learn their general operation. Such an instrument is obviously useful for the design and repair of circuits in which voltages and currents are changing with time. There are also many devices, called transducers , which . This chapter briefly describes these things. Setting oscilloscope controls, calibrating the oscilloscope , connecting probes, and compensating the probes are also . Display an unknown sinusoidal electrical signal on an oscilloscope and measure its amplitude and frequency.

This article discusses the history and development of oscilloscope technology. The modern day digital oscilloscope grew out of multiple developments of analog oscilloscopes , which in turn grew out of the older oscillograph. Every oscilloscope display should be criss-crossed with horizontal and vertical lines called divisions.

The scale of those divisions are modified with the horizontal and vertical systems. The vertical system is measured in “volts per division” and the horizontal is “seconds per division”. Generally, scopes will feature around . While that is the standard application, a second voltage can be applied to the horizontal deflection plates instead of the timing ramp voltage to produce an xy plot.

This section is designed to help you to use the oscilloscope provided on your bench. Various types of oscilloscope are used in the lab. Fortunately, they have some things in common.

Laboratory Exercise 1: Oscilloscope Operation and Basic. Basic Operation of an Oscilloscope. Let me know if you spot an error. This tutorial will guide you through the basics of using an oscilloscope , it is meant for someone with very little or no experience with electronics or oscilloscopes. Oscilloscopes have three major components: an electron gun, horizontal and vertical deflecting plates and a . An oscilloscope measures the voltage and frequency of an electric signal.

It is significant because it shows electrical signals in the form of voltage versus time.