oscilloscope video's

[cyberwasp]

I think I've watched every video on youtube to try and refgresh my memory on using one.  I guess I must be getting old or the newer low end scopes are simpler to use than  my Siglent 1202X-E. I've ben building things with an arduino to try and decipher what I see on the scope. Does anyone know of any new videos as I think I've exhuasted youtubes library. It seems no one is putting any new oscilloscope videos lately other than reviews. TIA

[BrokenYugo]

What are you trying to measure? What is your current setup/approach? What issue(s) are you having with that?

You have to keep in mind it is hard to make a comprehensive crash course on an instrument with a several hundred page operator's manual, there is a thread on this forum where someone bought a modern DSO, wanted to test EVERY feature, and followed though on it with help from the community, it was a very long thread.

[theHWcave]

As BrokenYugo said, it would be unlikely for someone to make a detailed video on a particular scope (a lot of work!) because the audience would be so limited. Scopes are quite different across manufacturers and even within the same manufacturer across models and options. I mean they all do essentially the same thing but are operated in a slightly different way, sufficiently different that you can't just follow along blindly if you don't have that exact same model and option set that was used for the making of the video.  In your case, I am guessing you got the Siglent fairly new and want to learn how to use it?
I would advise to start with the basics before considering anything fancy like math or measurement or decoding. I am assuming your Arduino is producing some sort of periodic signal to measure and your are confident that it really works and produces that output. Alternatively, your scope (any scope) has a rectangle generator built in which is accessible on the little metal hooks on the bottom far right of your scope (the lower on is ground, the higher one is the rectangle signal).  I would turn only channel 1 on, and connect the probe tip to the little hook with the rectangle output. I don't have a SIGLENT (mine is a RIGOL 1054Z) but I assume the blue AUTO SETUP does the same as on the RIGOL in that it makes sure you see a picture.  Then start exploring with the manual on your side what the different buttons and knobs do. That is basically how you get familiar with the scope.  You may also want to check the chapter on compensating the probes which is what the built-in rectangle generator is really for.

[bob91343]

I liken a discussion like this to, let's say, doing research on optics to be able to use eyeglasses.  The scope is intended to be a tool to inspect the operation of electronic circuits.  And so, one first needs to know something about the circuit being tested.  One needs to write the equations, and draw the waveforms.  Once you can do that, the scope merely verifies it.  It will show, mostly, voltage in the vertical axis and time in the horizontal one.  You need to adjust the sensitivity to get a display that fits nicely on the screen, and the sweep rate to get a display that shows a few cycles of operation.

In addition, the horizontal needs to be locked into the frequency of the circuit by means of its triggering controls.  Most of the time you need to adjust the triggering to get a reliable trace or, failing that, go into automatic to let the horizontal sweep go by itself to get started in adjusting the trigger.

While this could be an oversimplification, it is complicated by the plethora of digital oscilloscopes, which aren't oscilloscopes at all, but computers that analyze a signal and then try to plot it on a monitor.  Everything else is just bells and whistles to do a more in depth study of the wave.

So first, you need to be working with a repetitive signal, such as a sine wave from a generator.  So you plug the generator into the scope and start monkeying with the controls to see what you can do.  If the screen is blank, it's due either to the sweep not triggering or to an input signal so large it's off the screen.  After some knob twisting one should finally see something and then see what the various controls do.

[rstofer]

The Siglent User Manual is excellent.  It starts you out with the compensation procedure using the built-in signal generator.  This is a very handy signal source for learning volts/division, time/division and triggering as well as screen placement of the trigger point and trigger level.  Very educational.

You can use the tone() function on the Arduino to generate square waves of various frequencies.  Maybe read some dip switch inputs to select the frequency.  Maybe 50,100,200,500,1000,2000,5000,10000,20000,50000 Hz.  Four input switches will cover it and you'll only be using 10 of the 16 combinations.

Starting around Reply 150, this thread gets interesting:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/what-an-oscilloscope-recommended-for-a-woman-passionate-about-electronics/

[rstofer]

w2aew videos on scopes are excellent as is the rather long sticky post at the top of this forum.