Does scopes have "Z" axis ?

[GK]

My memory might be hazy but I think someone might have actually already posted a direct link to a ref. explicitly detailing the matrix transformation method. 

[Mark Hennessy]

Can't remember the last time I saw a CRO without a Z input. Reasonably rare to use it, but occasionally very useful. Using it to display a video image is something that everyone should try.

+1 for the Philips/Fluke CombiScopes. I have one here, though only a 2-channel model, and use it often. Would definitely pick up a 4 channel 200MHz version if the price was right. But then Philips were making great 'scopes long before the Fluke association.

[HighVoltage]

+1 for the Philips/Fluke CombiScopes. I have one here, though only a 2-channel model, and use it often. Would definitely pick up a 4 channel 200MHz version if the price was right. But then Philips were making great 'scopes long before the Fluke association.

The PM3390B was the top of the line 2 Channel version of this great Philips/Fluke combiscope and has almost all features at the 4 Channel version. Interestingly, they have dropped significantly in price in the US market but stay relatively stable in Germany or EU. For me, this was the ultimate scope in the 90's.

The design of these scope was done in Hamburg / Germany and they got all built in Almelo / Netherlands. I visited both places in the late 90's and was deeply impressed.

Most impressive was a Philips TV production line and hundreds of these scope installed for the TV adjustments in production. It was said in those days, that the development of these combiscopes was driven by the Philips internal demand for high end scopes. I still have the pictures of these factory visits somewhere, need to digg them out.

I probably have 5 of these 2 Channel scope as well on the shelf, all in pristine working condition.
The Z-Input was an option on all of these scopes.

[Mark Hennessy]

Yes, I'd love to see those photos . Philips were doing great things back then, especially in T&M. Sitting atop my PM3380A is a PM6680 counter which is an extremely capable bit of gear. I've got about a dozen items of Philips test gear, and it's all very good indeed. Not everyone appreciates the quality of their stuff - there is a fair bit of brand snobbery out there.

Sadly my combiscope is one of the earlier ones - but even so, I'm very pleased with it. I didn't realise that Z-mod was an option - it's the only BNC on the rear of mine, and I admit that I assumed that it was a standard provision. What I really lament is the lack of Y-out - that's a facility that my main 'scope has, and I really like it. I sometimes connect that to a frequency counter, but usually it goes to an audio amp - for doing work with audio gear, it's incredibly useful.

[fcb]

+1 for the pix High Voltage of the Philips factory.

[HighVoltage]

OK, I will look for the pictures. They moved with me to the USA and many years back to Germany.

Anyhow, I just had a new arrival last week, a 2 channel PM3370B in broken condition. (Did not turn on and had a high pitch sound)
Fixed the power supply today and now its working perfectly again.
I am just going through the detailed calibration procedure, including screen calibration.

Too bad these 2 Channel models do not have the 50 Ohm termination.
But they still show the signal from the Agilent 33520B perfectly
The generator is set to a 16 ns pulse (Channel 1) and 30 ns pulse (Channel 2)
Kind of impressive for such an old scope and only 60 MHz bandwidth.

[HighVoltage]

Ok, here is another test, this time with the Z-MOD BNC input used.

The scopes displays a 1 KHz sine wave in analog mode on the screen.
The Z-MOD is connected to the Agilent signal generator and is getting a square wave injected.
Changing the amplitude of the square wave does not influence the displayed sine wave.

Here is where it gets interesting:
Between a duty cycle of 1% to 50%, the brightness of the full sine wave is changed.
Between a duty cycle of 51% to 99%, the signal is partially clipped, essentially taking the signal partially away.
See pictures attached.

Picture 1 = 50% duty cycle
Picture 2 = 60% duty cycle
Picture 3 = 70% duty cycle
Picture 4 = 80% duty cycle
Picture 5 = 90% duty cycle