Oscilloscope Introduction
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Let's begin! First off, make sure you have read the machine's wiki page and manual.
⚠️ Safety
As with any electric device, avoid humidity, don't operate with opened/damaged housing.
Personal protection: No specific personal protection equipment needed
| Dangers | Precautions |
|---|---|
| Electric Shock | Do not touch exposed circuits when measuring signals on an open device or PCB.
Ensure proper grounding (see Grounding Issues below). Only use insulated probes and handles. Be extremely careful with exposed mains voltage. |
| Grounding Issues | Modern oscilloscopes are grounded through the protective earth conductor of the power cord. Make sure the instrument is grounded properly and the power cord is not damaged.
Do not attempt to operate the oscilloscope "floating" by disabling it's grounding. The ground of all input terminals (and thus the ground lead of any connected probe) is equal to the instrument's ground, which is connected to mains earth. Be very careful when connecting the ground clip of a probe to a non-isolated circuit - see more detailed examples below. |
| Short Circuits | Be careful when using multiple probes: all probes share the same ground and connecting their ground pins to different voltages effectively creates a dead short between those voltages. |
| High Voltages | Never apply signals higher that the oscilloscope's and probe's ratings. Understand probe's attenuation. Know your circuit's voltage levels. Do not measure mains voltage. |
Display
The oscilloscope screen consists of a grid of divisions and displays the measured electrical signals as an X-Y plot. The horizontal X-Axis represents the time and the vertical Y-Axis represents the voltage.
Probes
- Attenuation (1x / 10x)
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Usage
1. Plugin the power cord to an outlet. 2. Press the power button. 3. Connect a probe to a channel terminal.
Suggested Reading
"How to not blow up your Oscilloscope": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaELqAo4kkQ
"How to use an Oscilloscope" by Sparkfun: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-use-an-oscilloscope/all
"Oscilloscope Fundamentals Primer" by Rohde & Schwarz:https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/chab/chab-dept/research/documents/LPC/oscilloscopefundamentals.pdf#page=1&zoom=50,-6,807
Artikelserie "Moderne Oszilloskop-Meßtechnik" des ELV Journals (Teil 10 fehlt):
Teil 1,
Teil 2,
Teil 3,
Teil 4,
Teil 5,
Teil 6,
Teil 7,
Teil 8,
Teil 9,
Teil 11,
Teil 12,
Teil 13,
Teil 14,
Teil 15
Demonstration
The tutor will show you these steps in detail:
The Auto Button
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Manual Reset to Default
* Put Oscilloscope back to default mode
Probe Compensation
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