Scope question

[tony3d]

I know this means nothing, but I'm just curious if digital scopes can change the colors of the channel traces?

[deth502]

i dont have a digital scope, but im going to guess this has a lot to do with the particular model scope in question. might help your answer if you stated which scope you are looking to get.

[kg4arn]

On the 2 that I have owned, the channel trace colors were fixed.  The front panels have the inputs color coded and this is permanent, so changing the trace colors on the screen doesn't seem like a good idea.

Also, you tend to adjust a probe for a particular channel and attach a colored tag to the probe so that the probe color, front panel color, and the trace color all match up and it is easy to know what you are looking at.

[Hydrawerk]

All the digital scopes I know have fixed colors of traces, because they are printed on the front panel.

[tony3d]

On the 2 that I have owned, the channel trace colors were fixed.  The front panels have the inputs color coded and this is permanent, so changing the trace colors on the screen doesn't seem like a good idea.

Also, you tend to adjust a probe for a particular channel and attach a colored tag to the probe so that the probe color, front panel color, and the trace color all match up and it is easy to know what you are looking at.

Ok this makes sense.
One other question ..... Could I hook up a 1/8" jack to an iPod, then connect the probe ground to the shaft of the the other jack, and probe the tip so I can use a sine wave generator program and not need to purchase a function generator? I'm bit concerned about blowing up my first scope do to inexperience with scopes. I have read things about the probe ground wire can cause damage if connected to the part of a circuit or something. I would never try reading ac off the wall. So how can I accidentally damage my scope by probing?

[Six_Shooter]

Yes, you can do that, but the BW of the MP3 player/phone based "function generators" is limited to 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is not very useful in most tests. If you only need audio frequency testing, and low amplitude, then they are ok.

I would still suggest getting a proper function generator anyway.

[kg4arn]

@tony3d

check this thread and start with the banner video

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/oscilloscope-training-class-%28long%29/

Also you will like W2AEW's youtube page

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

And Dave did this video

http://www.eevblog.com/2012/05/18/eevblog-279-how-not-to-blow-up-your-oscilloscope/

[tony3d]

@tony3d

check this thread and start with the banner video

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/oscilloscope-training-class-%28long%29/

Also you will like W2AEW's youtube page

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

And Dave did this video

http://www.eevblog.com/2012/05/18/eevblog-279-how-not-to-blow-up-your-oscilloscope/

Thanks you very much. These will be very helpful indeed.

[codeboy2k]

There was also this interesting thread back in 2011 about red-green colorblindness and the default o-scope colors...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-224-red-green-blindness-problem/