how to test a scope

[texane]

Hi,

A friend of mine gave me a PM3207 scope for free, and this
is the first one I am ever using. He told me some things may
not be working.

I am doing some basic tests, and nothing but noise appears
on the screen. I read a lot of doc about scope thus I dont
think I am missing the the point... so do you have a very
basic test for me to do? For instance, there is a ProbeAdj on
the front of the panel. When I connect my probe on it, I get
nothing (chan is the one selected, I used every time/div and
volt/div I could, results a re the same).

When I try to probe a 5v ttl gate, I get nothing too. When
I probe my ethernet RJ45 socket, I get a waveform, showing
that the probe is not dead.

Any idea?

Cheers,

t.

[texane]

self answer: I was not on the same mass. A thing very weird however: there are 2 chans A and B. When I probe on the chan A, I get the signal being displayed HORIZONTALLY, not vertically, as this should be the case... (that is for chan B). I guess some mods have been done the scope.

[Zero999]

I've found the easiest way to test a 'scope is to hold the probe in my hand and look for mains hum on the display. If the 'scope is working correctly, it should be easy to get it to trigger and display a distorted waveform.

[Simon]

what type of scope is it ? analog or digital ? any scope normally has a self calibratrng signal generator built in sotry that first, or as hero said your finger will make enough signal for any functional scope to pick up

[qno]

This is ananalog scope.

It could bein X-Y mode?

If you get a noisy signal is the line horizontal?
Can you place a picture of what happens?

[EEVblog]

Yes, show us a big photo of the front panel and display while the probe is hooked up to the "1KHz calibrator" output. That way we can see if all the controls are set correctly.

Dave.