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Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: suspension on July 27, 2021, 10:03:34 am

Title: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: suspension on July 27, 2021, 10:03:34 am
I have a Rigol 4 channel analog oscilloscope. Channel 1 does not show a stable wave when connected to the test signal. Please see below for a video. What could be causing this?

Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: Grandchuck on July 27, 2021, 11:04:32 am
Could it be hum pickup?  Did you try switching probes?
Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: StillTrying on July 27, 2021, 11:05:11 am
The first thing to do is to carefully swap the probe at the BNCs to see if CH1 becomes OK, and the wobble moves to another channel. It looks like it could be the probe to me.

Terrible pic. we can't see much.
Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: suspension on July 27, 2021, 12:17:25 pm
I have done the probe swapping already and it did not change anything. Could this be due to a damage in analog input circuits related to this channel? I used this channel to test the output of a 230V inverter but not sure if this issue came after that.

Sorry about the picture, I actually used a GIF which shows the fluctuation, but apparently it has been converted to a still image I think.
Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: Grandchuck on July 27, 2021, 01:30:36 pm
I have done the probe swapping already and it did not change anything. Could this be due to a damage in analog input circuits related to this channel? I used this channel to test the output of a 230V inverter but not sure if this issue came after that.


That would point to a damaged input.
Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: StillTrying on July 27, 2021, 01:56:22 pm
Yes, not looking good, if it was a bad connection on the CH1 BNC I think you'd have found it by now.
What's CH1 plus another one for comparison like both with nothing on the BNCs.
You could try using AC LINE as the trigger source to see if the wobble is mains frequency related, but I don't know how it would be.
Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: Grandchuck on July 27, 2021, 06:03:45 pm
What is the resistance from channel 1 ground to the other grounds (from BNC shell to BNC shell)?
Title: Re: Why does my oscillascope channel fluctuate
Post by: suspension on July 28, 2021, 11:18:22 am
Thanks all for the ideas.
I dont know what happened, but the issue went away automatically. I hope it will not come back :)