Changes

Seriously though, you won’t learn how to properly set triggers, display signals, or troubleshoot problems if you rely heavily on the AUTOSET button. Though the oscilloscope may look complicated, it’s not hard to understand once you get to know it. For the purposes of this certification, the AUTOSET button is off-limits, so you can save yourself the seven years’ bad luck.

Seriously though, you won’t learn how to properly set triggers, display signals, or troubleshoot problems if you rely heavily on the AUTOSET button. Though the oscilloscope may look complicated, it’s not hard to understand once you get to know it. For the purposes of this certification, the AUTOSET button is off-limits, so you can save yourself the seven years’ bad luck.

One of the first things we need to understand about the oscilloscope is what it’s actually showing on the display screen. The display is set up like a standard Cartesian coordinate system (you know, a {{#evu:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlNIVXpIns|graph}}, and the units of the graph tell us a lot about what we are looking at. The y-axis is voltage, and the x-axis is time. So, an oscilloscope will show—in real time—how a voltage signal is changing over time. One key skill we need to learn when using the oscilloscope is to manipulate the scales of the x-axis and y-axis so that you can see the voltage signal clearly and meaningfully on the oscilloscope’s display.

One of the first things we need to understand about the oscilloscope is what it’s actually showing on the display screen. The display is set up like a standard Cartesian coordinate system. (you know, a graph...){{#evu:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlNIVXpIns|graph}}

The units of the graph tell us a lot about what we are looking at. The y-axis is voltage, and the x-axis is time. So, an oscilloscope will show—in real time—how a voltage signal is changing over time. One key skill we need to learn when using the oscilloscope is to manipulate the scales of the x-axis and y-axis so that you can see the voltage signal clearly and meaningfully on the oscilloscope’s display.

There are 4 BNC jacks are on the bottom row of the oscilloscope’s control panel. Each one corresponds to channels 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is where you will plug in the probes that will measure various voltage signals in your circuit. Let’s discuss the knobs and buttons under the VERTICAL section of the control panel. For CH 1, the POSITION knob will move the signal on the display screen of the oscilloscope up and down the y-axis. This is handy when there is a DC voltage offset applied to the AC signal. The VOLTS/DIVISION knob will stretch or shrink the y-axis so that you can see the waveform’s amplitude properly. If the peaks or troughs of the waveform are hitting the top and/or bottom of the display screen, use the VOLTS/DIVISION knob to shrink the y-axis so that the full waveform can be seen. The CH 1 MENU button allows you to set up the probe properties and measurement displays for channel 1. The MATH MENU button allows you to perform operations between channels such as subtracting CH 2 from CH 1.

There are 4 BNC jacks are on the bottom row of the oscilloscope’s control panel. Each one corresponds to channels 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is where you will plug in the probes that will measure various voltage signals in your circuit. Let’s discuss the knobs and buttons under the VERTICAL section of the control panel. For CH 1, the POSITION knob will move the signal on the display screen of the oscilloscope up and down the y-axis. This is handy when there is a DC voltage offset applied to the AC signal. The VOLTS/DIVISION knob will stretch or shrink the y-axis so that you can see the waveform’s amplitude properly. If the peaks or troughs of the waveform are hitting the top and/or bottom of the display screen, use the VOLTS/DIVISION knob to shrink the y-axis so that the full waveform can be seen. The CH 1 MENU button allows you to set up the probe properties and measurement displays for channel 1. The MATH MENU button allows you to perform operations between channels such as subtracting CH 2 from CH 1.