First scope, please help get something other than 60hz ;)

[jdurango]

Just bought a Tek 2232 from a very highly regarded local tech here in Seattle. He hooked it up to a function generator and showed me a few waveforms on each channel and ran through the basics....everything "should" be working properly with it.

Got it home and just wanted to play around with it....I figured the easiest way to measure some audio would be to plug a 1/8" TRS aux cable into my phone and play some music or waveforms and just play around with some settings. But i'm not able to get any waveform at all, other than 60hz on any conductive surface I touch (about 8-9 2ms divisions).

It's worth noting that he tested the scope with good probes, but I'm using the ones he included with the scope, which are brand new, but super super cheap chinese junk probes. But again, I'm not getting ANY measurements other that varying intensities of 60hz on anything, either channel, either probe. I'm guessing I'm just missing a setting....I plan to RTFM, but it's HUGE! In the meantime, can someone guide me how to get a basic audio measurement? I don't have a function/audio generator...I planned on using my DAW with very, very high-end audio interface for that (Black Lion Audio premium modded RME UFX).

What's strange is that the 1x/10x switch on the cheapie probes doesn't seem to effect the voltage reading at all.

As you can tell, I'm a complete newbie with this stuff. Thanks for your help!

[w2aew]

Just bought a Tek 2232 from a very highly regarded local tech here in Seattle. He hooked it up to a function generator and showed me a few waveforms on each channel and ran through the basics....everything "should" be working properly with it.

Got it home and just wanted to play around with it....I figured the easiest way to measure some audio would be to plug a 1/8" TRS aux cable into my phone and play some music or waveforms and just play around with some settings. But i'm not able to get any waveform at all, other than 60hz on any conductive surface I touch (about 8-9 2ms divisions).

It's worth noting that he tested the scope with good probes, but I'm using the ones he included with the scope, which are brand new, but super super cheap chinese junk probes. But again, I'm not getting ANY measurements other that varying intensities of 60hz on anything, either channel, either probe. I'm guessing I'm just missing a setting....I plan to RTFM, but it's HUGE! In the meantime, can someone guide me how to get a basic audio measurement? I don't have a function/audio generator...I planned on using my DAW with very, very high-end audio interface for that (Black Lion Audio premium modded RME UFX).

What's strange is that the 1x/10x switch on the cheapie probes doesn't seem to effect the voltage reading at all.

As you can tell, I'm a complete newbie with this stuff. Thanks for your help!

The 60Hz pickup indicates that you don't have a proper ground referenced measurement.

The 1x/10x switch changes the attenuation of the probe. I have a tutorial on 1X and 10X probes on my YouTube channel.

[Howardlong]

Firstly, w2aew is _the_ person to give advice on these matters!

Secondly, have you tried using the probe calibration point on your scope as a test signal? Hook up your probes' tip to the PRB ADJ point on the scope's front panel and set the timebase to 500us/div and vertical to 100mV/div. This is one of the very rare, almost unique, occasions you won't even need to connect the probe's ground lead, just the tip connected to PRB ADJ will be fine for now.

The PRB ADJ gives a 0.5V amplitude square wave for you to test on, and its prime use is to calibrate probe compensation in their 10x mode but can also be used as a quick test signal.

While you're at it, you might as well calibrate the compensation on each of your new probes too!