Sample breadboard circuits to learn digital oscilloscope use?

[Escher]

Hi all,

I'm obviously new - been watching Dave's blog off and on for several years.

In a nutshell - I'm a Sr. Mechanical Engineer (yeah - I know, the dark side...)  but I have always dabbled in the EE pool.  I'm *that guy* from Engineering school that liked the EE labs more than the ME ones.

So - I've been playing around with electronics for most of my adult life (I'm 42) and can read schematics pretty well... I've done a ton of DIY mods to audio equipment and refurbed old tube and solid state amps... but there are a couple of areas i still want to learn more about.  They are directly related... i.e. circuit diagnostics (typically solid state audio amplifiers) and proper use of the digital oscilloscope.

The first of those is outside the scope of this post, but I believe you guys can help with the second...

I currently have two scopes... an old B&K analog scope that I snagged from the bin here at work.. and an HP 54502a digital scope that I picked up from a local electronics recycler - both are in great shape... but the HP is my baby... I just love old HP gear. (As a side note I also snagged an old HP pen plotter that interfaces with the scope and let me just say - that is super cool to watch - multi-color pen plotted scope traces...  I've got a youtube vid of it if anyone is interested.)

Anyways - I have used it for the typical stuff - playing with waveforms output by my computer and using it as a DMM to check voltages, etc...  But I want to understand what its REALLY used for..  I know jack about digital circuits other than what I have heard Dave talk about in the blog..

I have a bunch of breadboards, jumper wires, and the general smattering of resistors, caps, transistors, etc... so I figured some of you could point me to a source where I can prototype a few circuits and learn how to use my digital oscilloscope properly.  I'm also happy to invest in some parts to build some test circuits to learn...  I'd also be up for a good text book if that is the best route.

Teach me o wise EE guru's in your digital o-scoping ways!

Thanks in advance folks!!

- Chris

[TorqueRanger]

Where are you located at ??

[Escher]

Fenton, Michigan (USA)- Near Flint.  I work in the Auburn Hills area.

[rdl]

You can build a rudimentary function generator from some op amps. It would give you some basic signals to look at.

http://www.google.com/search?q=op+amp+function+generator

[aveekbh]

You could start with some 555 circuits, and perhaps basic opamp circuits. Although, that wouldn't actually require a digital scope, it's a good way to understand how your scope works.

[john_p_wi]

My story is exactly the same as yours, except I'm +10 years.

I'd suggest modelling simple transistor gain stages, look at inverting, non-inverting stages, buffers etc.  Move on to diode clipping, watch how the wave is clipped on the top and bottom. Inject a bias voltage to the diode, observe how it affects the clipping.

Study how caps reduce ripple in power supplies.  Use that knowledge and study how the caps charge and discharge - simple to do with a square wave function generator.  Do some math for time constants and cap charging, check your results to the scope.  Using the same r and c from the cap charge / discharge set up a simple switch debounce circuit, try to capture the event.

Move on to simple u processors or arduinos, watch the pwm change - keep moving on to faster and faster events to learn how to trigger the scope properly, etc - start slow move up in event speed - learn how to capture the events and have fun.

[miguelvp]

I suggest you watch forum member w2aew youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew/videos

[alsetalokin4017]

One place where the DSO really proves its worth is when capturing single-shot events. It beats the heck out of trying to photograph a single-shot trace on an analog scope.

One such problem came up just over the past couple of days here in the forum, involving the 555 monostable pulse circuit. Using the DSO in single-shot mode I was able to troubleshoot some aspects of this simple circuit (and also used the circuit to test a bunch of old 555 variants in my parts stash to confirm that they still worked!)

[TorqueRanger]

I might have a veilliman scope training kit if I find ,but could be yours if you cover shipping. Let me know if interested..

[Escher]

Thanks everyone! Watching a vid by w2aew right now on transistors and class of amplifier operation...  very interesting!

TorqueRanger - definitely!  I'll pm you..

[w2aew]

Thanks everyone! Watching a vid by w2aew right now on transistors and class of amplifier operation...  very interesting!

TorqueRanger - definitely!  I'll pm you..

The vast majority of the circuits shown in my videos are "breadboard-able".

[tautech]

One place where the DSO really proves its worth is when capturing single-shot events. It beats the heck out of trying to photograph a single-shot trace on an analog scope.

One such problem came up just over the past couple of days here in the forum, involving the 555 monostable pulse circuit. Using the DSO in single-shot mode I was able to troubleshoot some aspects of this simple circuit (and also used the circuit to test a bunch of old 555 variants in my parts stash to confirm that they still worked!)

The Trigger feature set of many DSO's exceed those available in many CRO's, presuming one knows how to use them.

You could start with some 555 circuits, and perhaps basic opamp circuits. Although, that wouldn't actually require a digital scope, it's a good way to understand how your scope works.

+1

[miguelvp]

Also, even if you don't want to spend money for an Analog Demo board like this:

http://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS6000-DK/Analog-Demo-Board/

You can download the demo guide:
http://assets.tequipment.net/assets/1/26/DSDemoGuide_022014.pdf

and manual:
http://assets.tequipment.net/assets/1/26/DS6000DemoBoard_UserGuide_EN.pdf

To check what features you can expect.

[Escher]

The vast majority of the circuits shown in my videos are "breadboard-able".

I already want to build your pulse generator as I have always wanted to be able to measure capacitance!  Thanks for the great vids!

[Escher]

Also, even if you don't want to spend money for an Analog Demo board like this:

http://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS6000-DK/Analog-Demo-Board/

You can download the demo guide:
http://assets.tequipment.net/assets/1/26/DSDemoGuide_022014.pdf

and manual:
http://assets.tequipment.net/assets/1/26/DS6000DemoBoard_UserGuide_EN.pdf

To check what features you can expect.

Ohhh very cool - thanks!

Lots to go through now... thank you so much everyone!  Hopefully I can spend some hours over the holidays working on some of these.