EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: noah_fakelastnamelike_bob on February 09, 2014, 12:15:07 am
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hello i am a noob and was wondering what is an oscilloscope is it to find out if data is transferring or something? thanks eevblog community
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A normal oscilloscope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope) display is a graph of voltage over time, so you can see what a signal in a circuit is doing. It might be useful for seeing a data transfer, or a voltage ramp, or power supply ripple, or many other things.
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Put very simply, it makes a plot. Time on the horizontal axis, voltage on the vertical axis. You can use it for anything you can think of involving plotting things with respect to time. (Most can also do a second voltage on the horizontal axis instead of time.)
So, sure, you can use it to find out whether data is being transferred, but that's a very simplistic use. It is very much a general-purpose circuit debugging tool, any time you want to see what the voltage somewhere is doing.
An analog oscilloscope is truly an "oscillo-scope" - "wave viewer", in that it shows repeating waves by synchronizing the plot to retrace the same one over and over. Digital scopes (and a select few analog ones) have the capability to store one plot in memory, so they don't need to retrace to keep it visible. Therefore you can view any plot.
Next time you register on a forum with that nick, can you do it in a smaller font? ;)
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thanks both who commeted on this i think i get i better than i did.
i'll look and see if i can change my name thanks
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thanks both who commeted on this i think i get i better than i did.
i'll look and see if i can change my name thanks
If you *really* want to know more about what an oscilloscope it, what it does, and how to use it, you might want to check out the "Scopes for Dopes" video that you'll find in the "sticky" thread in this forum called "Oscilloscope Class (long)". This is a recording of a two hour class I taught to the NJ Antique Radio Club a few years ago.
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I agree, watching w2aew's video is an excellent introduction and time well spent. Highly recommended.
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:-+ on W2AEW's video. I enjoyed it very much.
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+ 1 here, I wish that many guys with knowledge to make such a good class, about other things, lije SA and so one, and troubleshooting ham radios, etc...
So thanks W2AEW :-+ :clap:, keep the good work.
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thanks both who commeted on this i think i get i better than i did.
i'll look and see if i can change my name thanks
Don't think you can change the nick, but since you only have 8 post counts, suggesting to delete this account and make a new one.
And please, no more weird nick like that, you only will get a negative attention instead of expecting people praising it. :palm: