Whether you’re working with DC or AC signals, oscilloscopes offer an unprecedented view of electrical signals. Their ability to display how signals change over time makes them invaluable tools for electronic troubleshooting, design verification and research in electronics.
An oscilloscopes for electronic troubleshooting measures the peak-to-peak amplitude of an input signal, or the difference between its highest and lowest voltage points. This allows the user to determine how much voltage is in a circuit and whether it is overloaded, which often causes damage. In addition to this basic function, most modern digital oscilloscopes (DSO) have a variety of trigger functions that respond to specific conditions, such as slew-rate, glitch, runt-pulse, logic and communication triggering.
Oscilloscopes for Electronic Troubleshooting: How to Pick the Best One
A control panel with knobs, buttons and touchscreens enables users to adjust the settings of their oscilloscope to best view and analyze a signal. For example, a vertical gain control varies the number of horizontal divisions on the screen per volt of input signal, and a time base speed control changes how fast the trace moves across the screen.
A holdoff control sets a period of time after a signal is triggered, during which the sweep circuit is not allowed to be triggered again. This feature is useful when displaying repetitive waveforms that need to appear stable on the display, and it can also help prevent the oscilloscope from generating confusing displays. Other controls allow the operator to choose between a calibrated or less-sensitive sensitivity setting for the vertical deflection, and select if the sweep should start at a positive or negative edge of the signal.