An oscilloscope is a device that allows you to see how voltage changes over time by displaying the waveform of an electronic signal.
Why is this important?
Electronics such as lights, televisions, and air conditioners require electrical circuits to provide electrical power.
A circuit is the path between two or more points through which current flows.
The voltage is the electricity that drives the current between the two points.
Sometimes the voltage does not behave properly and you must find out where to correct it.
Trying to find that problem without an oscilloscope is like driving a car with a blindfold on.
Now, for an in-depth guide, we'll cover the following topics.
What is an oscilloscope?
A brief history of oscilloscopes
What is an analog oscilloscope?
What is a digital oscilloscope?
What does the system on an oscilloscope do?
What is an oscilloscope?
When your circuit has a constant voltage, a multimeter is a tool that can be used to measure a single number of voltages. When you start building more complex circuits, this becomes redundant. This is where an oscilloscope comes in handy.
An oscilloscope allows you to see how voltages change over time. These voltages are called signals and are used to convey information, such as the audio signal of music playing on a speaker.
Some of what appears on the oscilloscope display is a voltage signal measured using a graph. The vertical axis indicates the voltage and the horizontal axis indicates the time.
This display will allow you to determine if the circuit is behaving properly. It will also allow you to locate any problems in the circuit, such as unwanted signals called noise.
There are two types of oscilloscopes; analog and digital. More on this later, as for now we will briefly cover the history of oscilloscopes.
A brief history of the oscilloscope
The oscilloscope was invented in 1893 by French physicist André Blondel. His device was capable of recording electrical values such as AC strength. An ink pendulum attached to the coil recorded the information on a moving paper tape. The bandwidth of the first oscilloscopes was very small, between 10 and 19 kHz.
We'll talk more about what bandwidth is later, but let's finish our history lesson first.
A major advance was made in 1897 when German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the cathode ray tube (CRT). The development of oscilloscopes began to accelerate after World War II.
In 1946, Howard Vollum and Melvin Jack Murdock founded Tektronix, which is now one of the world leaders in oscilloscope production. That same year, they invented the first oscilloscope, the Model 511, with a trigger scan and a 10 MHz bandwidth. Trigger scan allowed for a fixed display of repetitive waveforms.
Now let's talk about the difference between analog and digital oscilloscopes.
What is an analog oscilloscope?
Analog oscilloscopes use high-gain amplifiers to display waveforms on a green cathode ray tube (CRT) screen. In short, the analog oscilloscope is an older version of the oscilloscope first developed in the 1940s.
The analog oscilloscope was equipped with one of several vertical channels, a horizontal channel, a trigger system, a time base, and a CRT module.
The vertical channel included an attenuator, a preamplifier, an analog delay line and a vertical amplifier that amplified the signal to the level required by the CRT model.
The horizontal channel has two operating modes, internal and external. The trigger system has a level adjustment that toggles between increasing and decreasing levels.
What is a digital oscilloscope?
Digital oscilloscopes use modern LCD screens. Almost all new oscilloscopes made today are digital.
In a digital oscilloscope, an additional step is used before the signal is displayed on the screen. The extra step uses an analog-to-digital converter to convert the signal to a digital stream, eliminating the need for a CRT-type screen.
This reduces the complexity of the design and leaves room for more functionality.
One example is the addition of signal processing and complex math operations, which are now standard features on most digital oscilloscopes.
Now let's talk about the system on the oscilloscope.
What does the system on the oscilloscope do?
The basic oscilloscope has four different systems, namely the vertical system, the horizontal system, the trigger system and the display system. Each of these systems allows you to measure specific things
The vertical system control can be used to position and scale the waveform vertically. It can also be used to set input coupling, bandwidth limiting, and bandwidth enhancement.
The horizontal system can be used to determine the sample rate and record length, as well as to position and scale the waveform horizontally.
The trigger system allows you to steadily repeat the waveform and essentially take a picture of the waveform. There are different types of trigger systems, such as edge triggering, threshold triggering in response to specific conditions in the input signal.
To collect the data read by the oscilloscope, you need a probe.
The probe has two main parts, the ground clamp and the probe tip. You connect the ground clamp to the ground reference point of the circuit and then use the probe tip to probe around and measure the voltage at various points throughout the circuit.
An oscilloscope is a device that allows you to see how voltage changes over time by displaying the waveform of an electronic signal.
Why is this important?
Electronics such as lights, televisions, and air conditioners require electrical circuits to provide electrical power.
A circuit is the path between two or more points through which current flows.
The voltage is the electricity that drives the current between the two points.
Sometimes the voltage does not behave properly and you must find out where to correct it.
Trying to find that problem without an oscilloscope is like driving a car with a blindfold on.
Now, for an in-depth guide, we'll cover the following topics.
What is an oscilloscope?
A brief history of oscilloscopes
What is an analog oscilloscope?
What is a digital oscilloscope?
What does the system on an oscilloscope do?
What is an oscilloscope?
When your circuit has a constant voltage, a multimeter is a tool that can be used to measure a single number of voltages. When you start building more complex circuits, this becomes redundant. This is where an oscilloscope comes in handy.
An oscilloscope allows you to see how voltages change over time. These voltages are called signals and are used to convey information, such as the audio signal of music playing on a speaker.
Some of what appears on the oscilloscope display is a voltage signal measured using a graph. The vertical axis indicates the voltage and the horizontal axis indicates the time.
This display will allow you to determine if the circuit is behaving properly. It will also allow you to locate any problems in the circuit, such as unwanted signals called noise.
There are two types of oscilloscopes; analog and digital. More on this later, as for now we will briefly cover the history of oscilloscopes.
A brief history of the oscilloscope
The oscilloscope was invented in 1893 by French physicist André Blondel. His device was capable of recording electrical values such as AC strength. An ink pendulum attached to the coil recorded the information on a moving paper tape. The bandwidth of the first oscilloscopes was very small, between 10 and 19 kHz.
We'll talk more about what bandwidth is later, but let's finish our history lesson first.
A major advance was made in 1897 when German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the cathode ray tube (CRT). The development of oscilloscopes began to accelerate after World War II.
In 1946, Howard Vollum and Melvin Jack Murdock founded Tektronix, which is now one of the world leaders in oscilloscope production. That same year, they invented the first oscilloscope, the Model 511, with a trigger scan and a 10 MHz bandwidth. Trigger scan allowed for a fixed display of repetitive waveforms.
Now let's talk about the difference between analog and digital oscilloscopes.
What is an analog oscilloscope?
Analog oscilloscopes use high-gain amplifiers to display waveforms on a green cathode ray tube (CRT) screen. In short, the analog oscilloscope is an older version of the oscilloscope first developed in the 1940s.
The analog oscilloscope was equipped with one of several vertical channels, a horizontal channel, a trigger system, a time base, and a CRT module.
The vertical channel included an attenuator, a preamplifier, an analog delay line and a vertical amplifier that amplified the signal to the level required by the CRT model.
The horizontal channel has two operating modes, internal and external. The trigger system has a level adjustment that toggles between increasing and decreasing levels.
What is a digital oscilloscope?
Digital oscilloscopes use modern LCD screens. Almost all new oscilloscopes made today are digital.
In a digital oscilloscope, an additional step is used before the signal is displayed on the screen. The extra step uses an analog-to-digital converter to convert the signal to a digital stream, eliminating the need for a CRT-type screen.
This reduces the complexity of the design and leaves room for more functionality.
One example is the addition of signal processing and complex math operations, which are now standard features on most digital oscilloscopes.
Now let's talk about the system on the oscilloscope.
What does the system on the oscilloscope do?
The basic oscilloscope has four different systems, namely the vertical system, the horizontal system, the trigger system and the display system. Each of these systems allows you to measure specific things
The vertical system control can be used to position and scale the waveform vertically. It can also be used to set input coupling, bandwidth limiting, and bandwidth enhancement.
The horizontal system can be used to determine the sample rate and record length, as well as to position and scale the waveform horizontally.
The trigger system allows you to steadily repeat the waveform and essentially take a picture of the waveform. There are different types of trigger systems, such as edge triggering, threshold triggering in response to specific conditions in the input signal.
To collect the data read by the oscilloscope, you need a probe.
The probe has two main parts, the ground clamp and the probe tip. You connect the ground clamp to the ground reference point of the circuit and then use the probe tip to probe around and measure the voltage at various points throughout the circuit.