Introduction to Oscilloscopes

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Introduction To Oscilloscopes
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What is an Oscilloscope

• The oscilloscope is basically a graph-displaying
  device that draws a graph of an electrical
  signal. the vertical (Y) axis represents voltage
  and the horizontal (X) axis represents time. The
  intensity or brightness of the display is
  sometimes called the Z axis.

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Types of Waves

• Waveform shapes reveal a great deal about a
  signal.
• Any time you see a change in the height of the
  waveform you know the voltage has changed.
• Any time there is a flat horizontal line you
  know that there is no change for that length of
  time.
• Straight diagonal lines mean a linear change

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Basics of Measurement

• Frequency and Period
• If a signal repeats it has a frequency. The
  frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) A repetitive
  signal also has a period which is the amount of
  time it takes the signal to complete one cycle.
• Voltage
• Voltage is the amount of electric potential
  between two points in a circuit. The voltage from
  the maximum peak to the minimum peak of a
  waveform is referred to as the peak-to-peak
  voltage.
• Amplitude
• Amplitude refers to the amount of voltage
  between two points in a circuit. Amplitude
  commonly refers to the maximum voltage of a
  signal measured from ground or zero volts.

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Types of Oscilloscopes

• Cathode-ray oscilloscope (CRO)
• The earliest and simplest type of oscilloscope
  consisted of a cathode ray tube a
  vertical amplifier a time base a horizontal
  amplifier and a power supply.
• Dual-beam oscilloscope
• The dual-beam analog oscilloscope can display
  two signals simultaneously. A special
  dual-beam CRT generates and deflects two separate
  beams.

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Types of Oscilloscopes

• Digital oscilloscopes
• While analog devices make use of continually
  varying voltages digital devices employ binary
  numbers which correspond to samples of the
  voltage. In the case of digital oscilloscopes an
  analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to
  change the measured voltages into digital
  information.

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Types of Oscilloscopes

• Mixed-domain oscilloscopes
• A mixed-domain oscilloscope (or MDO) has three
  kinds of inputs a small number analog channels
  a larger number of digital channels and one RF
  channel. It provides the ability to accurately
  time-correlate analog digital and RF signals
  with each other.

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Types of Oscilloscopes

• Handheld oscilloscopes
• Handheld oscilloscopes (also called scopemeters)
  are useful for many test and field service
  applications. Today.
• Mixed-signal oscilloscopes
• A mixed-signal oscilloscope (or MSO) has two
  kinds of inputs a small number (typically two or
  four) of analog channels and a larger number
  (typically sixteen) of digital channels.

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Operating The Oscilloscope

• Proper Grounding
• Ground your oscilloscope by plugging its
  three-pronged power cord into an outlet grounded
  to earth ground. Grounding the oscilloscope is
  necessary for safety. If a high voltage contacts
  the case of an ungrounded oscilloscope

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Operating The Oscilloscope

• Connecting the Probes
• Now you are ready to connect a probe to your
  oscilloscope. A probe if well-matched to the
  oscilloscope will enable you to access all of
  the power and performance in the oscilloscope and
  will ensure the integrity of the signal you are
  measuring.

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Operating The Oscilloscope

• Calibrating the Instrument
• When using an oscilloscope it is very easy to
  plug the oscilloscope probe in and start to make
  measurements. There is a built in calibrator on
  virtually every oscilloscope for this purpose.

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Thank You