Is my Rigol DS1052E acting up or am I missing something?

[klonoa]

Hey everybody.

I was working on a project which involves some timing. So i programmed an mcu and wanted to test how accurate it was. ( it was blinking an led every second)
So I fired up my DS1052E set it up like so:

Trigger: rising edge +3v
v/div: 2v
Time/div: 1sec

To my surprise no line appeared.
Then I tried the following:
Trigger: rising edge +3v
v/div: 2v
Time/div: 200Us
Still no line.

Then I hooked the scope up to its own wave generator. (the thing next to the external trigger connector)
This is where I started to pull my hair a little. I can't get the square wave to come in properly.
What I noticed immediately is that when i set the Time/div to 200ms the sweep moves at a snails passe taking +10 seconds to reach the end of the screen meanwhile the line is going bonkers. (I can take a video of it if this isn't clear enough.)
That isn't right right? sicne there are 12 divisions it should take no longer then 200ms x 12 = 2.4 seconds for each sweep. Right?

Now, I am just a casual hobbyist so I can imagine me missing something, any advice?

[rstofer]

For the calibrator voltage on a DS1054Z (I don't have the DS1052E)

Set the time/div to 200 us and the volts/div to 2V.  I'm assuming your scope and probe agree on the X setting.  I leave mine on 10X.
You should be able to center the image by pressing the vertical position knob and then you can set the trigger wherever necessary, probably 1V.

[Brumby]

Failing to get a displayable signal to show is going to be a triggering problem.  I don't know the DS1052E, so I can't offer any direction on that.

As for your slow horizontal scan - it if was an analogue scope, I would say your variable sweep control isn't turned around to the "Cal" point.

[IanB]

For the built-in calibration signal the recommendation is to press the Auto button. That should produce a proper looking square wave on the display.

You can do the same for any regular, repeating signal. Press Auto to get the starting point, then make manual adjustments from there.

[klonoa]

Wow thanks for the quick replies all! 

For the built-in calibration signal the recommendation is to press the Auto button. That should produce a proper looking square wave on the display.

You can do the same for any regular, repeating signal. Press Auto to get the starting point, then make manual adjustments from there.

Just tried it. I do get a line but it is jumping all over the screen. 

[IanB]

Wow thanks for the quick replies all! 

For the built-in calibration signal the recommendation is to press the Auto button. That should produce a proper looking square wave on the display.

You can do the same for any regular, repeating signal. Press Auto to get the starting point, then make manual adjustments from there.

Just tried it. I do get a line but it is jumping all over the screen. 

Then maybe something is wrong with the scope. Just to be sure, you have clipped the probe to the test point and pressed Auto? You also have made sure you are looking at the correct channel?

Did the calibration feature work when the scope was new?

Have you tried with a different probe to make sure the probe isn't faulty?

[klonoa]

Wow thanks for the quick replies all! 

For the built-in calibration signal the recommendation is to press the Auto button. That should produce a proper looking square wave on the display.

You can do the same for any regular, repeating signal. Press Auto to get the starting point, then make manual adjustments from there.

Just tried it. I do get a line but it is jumping all over the screen. 

Then maybe something is wrong with the scope. Just to be sure, you have clipped the probe to the test point and pressed Auto? You also have made sure you are looking at the correct channel?

Did the calibration feature work when the scope was new?

Have you tried with a different probe to make sure the probe isn't faulty?

yup did all that.
Except for trying another probe.
Although I'm pretty sure that isn't it because I tried the other channel with another probe and I got the same result. 
Guess I'll have to dig up that warranty card.

Thanks for all the replies!

[rstofer]

Have you tried removing the probes and setting "Coupling" on Gnd (page 30)?  This should result in a straight line somewhere on the screen and it can be centered with the vertical position knob.  There shouldn't be any kind of trace other than a straight line.  Probably the fast way to center the trace is to select the channel (just briefly push the channel button to get the menu) and then press the vertical position knob (page 54).

http://home.agh.edu.pl/~aprzem/pliki/oscylcyf1.pdf

If the trace is all over the screen, something is wrong.

[klonoa]

Have you tried removing the probes and setting "Coupling" on Gnd (page 30)?  This should result in a straight line somewhere on the screen and it can be centered with the vertical position knob.  There shouldn't be any kind of trace other than a straight line.  Probably the fast way to center the trace is to select the channel (just briefly push the channel button to get the menu) and then press the vertical position knob (page 54).

http://home.agh.edu.pl/~aprzem/pliki/oscylcyf1.pdf

If the trace is all over the screen, something is wrong.

Just tried it. The line does show up and it is stable but it takes ages to show up (+30 secs).
As soon as I try the signal again it jumps all around again or the line freezes showing garbage.
I get the sense that it is trying to measure something but with some horrible lag, almost as if its processor is onderclocked.
Pressing the auto button also takes quite a long time to do its thing (+20secs).

[rstofer]

Change your time per division.  One reason it takes a long time for the trace to show up is how long it takes to fill the buffer.  100 ms/div times 12 divisions it 1.2 seconds.

Set the time/division to 500 us/div and the 1 kHz compensation output should take two divisions per complete cycle.

[klonoa]

Change your time per division.  One reason it takes a long time for the trace to show up is how long it takes to fill the buffer.  100 ms/div times 12 divisions it 1.2 seconds.

Set the time/division to 500 us/div and the 1 kHz compensation output should take two divisions per complete cycle.

Tried it.
The line jumps from 3v to 0 and no squarewave is shown.
I wasn't exaggerating when I said it took 30 secs. 1.2secs I can understand and would have found normal.

[rstofer]

What is the time/division setting?  Set it to 200 us/div for the compensation signal.  Or just use the Auto button
2 Volts/div and make sure the scope and probe agree on X setting - highly recommend X10 - Always!

ETA:  Fixed typo on time/division.

[klonoa]

What is the time/division setting?  Set it to 200 us/div for the compensation signal.  Or just use the Auto button
2 Volts/div and make sure the scope and probe agree on X setting - highly recommend X10 - Always!

ETA:  Fixed typo on time/division.

It was set at 500us/div 1volt/div.
I double checked the X setting.

[rstofer]

Here's what I get with 500 us/div, 1V/div, AC coupled, centered, trigger at about 0V...

[klonoa]

I'm getting nothing for the first minute or so, then a line that jumps all around the screen.

[alsetalokin4017]

Here's what I get with 500 us/div, 1V/div, AC coupled, centered, trigger at about 0V...

Er... your screenshot indicates DC input coupling (the dotted-solid symbol next to the channel V/div indication at bottom left corner) and a trigger level of 1.40 volts (Top right corner). And your baseline isn't centered but is one major graticule division below center. And it looks like your probe compensation is a little off.

[rstofer]

Here's what I get with 500 us/div, 1V/div, AC coupled, centered, trigger at about 0V...

Er... your screenshot indicates DC input coupling (the dotted-solid symbol next to the channel V/div indication at bottom left corner) and a trigger level of 1.40 volts (Top right corner). And your baseline isn't centered but is one major graticule division below center. And it looks like your probe compensation is a little off.

Yup!  I made a mess out of that!

Here's the thing:  We're 15 replies in (more or less) and we still don't have any photos of the OPs settings.  In the original post, he is talking about 1s/div - that takes a a few seconds to fill the buffer.  I was hoping to get an image [posted so we can actually see the settings.

It's a given that 1s/div is wrong but I still don't know about the probe X1 vs X10 and whether that matches the channel probe setting.   Then there is volts/div and coupling.  Both are still unknown...