Oscilloscope Guide – How to Use Oscilloscope?

Oscilloscope is one of the most essential tools for an electrician. They rely on oscilloscope for a big part of their jobs. Not just for electricians, so many other industries like medicine, automotive and engineering utilize it. It is still an outstanding device even though the first oscilloscope dates way back to the early years of 20^th century. So, what is oscilloscope? What makes Oscilloscope so vital that it evolved all these years and still relevant? In this oscilloscope guide, you can find all the answers to your questions like what oscilloscope is or how to use oscilloscope.

What is Oscilloscope?

Oscilloscope, also called scope, is the most capable electrical test equipment. Scopes display the waveforms by measuring changes in electrical voltage. Further analysis and calculations can be performed on these waveforms about their properties like frequency, distortion, rise time and so on. What makes oscilloscope special is its ability to relay so many crucial information.

Oscilloscope Types

First oscilloscopes, now known as analogue oscilloscopes, had cathode ray tubes inside them. Over the years there have been so many different types of oscilloscopes. The widespread use of the device has led to so many evolutions for oscilloscopes. USB oscilloscope, automotive oscilloscope, analogue oscilloscope, digital oscilloscope, PC based oscilloscopes and many other types of oscilloscopes help so many people with their electric related problems in a daily basis.
More about oscilloscope types: Types of Oscilloscope

Here is an oscilloscope guide to get you more acquainted to the device.

How to Use Oscilloscope?

It should be clear by now that there is a good amount of different oscilloscope types. However, a general oscilloscope guide may help you learn more about how to use this device. Although the digital oscilloscopes of new generation do much of the work, this oscilloscope guide can help you if you only have access to older models.

First thing you need to do is obviously turning the power on for the oscilloscope.

After power is on, you need to wait until oscilloscope display is ready. This process takes one or two minutes.

Now, your oscilloscope is ready to use. Finding the trace is next. You need access to the trace before you work on any waveforms. You can find the trace by setting the trigger to the center and turn hold-off fully counter clock-wise. Another thing you need to pay attention is the placements of horizontal and vertical positions. After you set those in the center you are going to see the trace. If you still cant locate the trace, you can do it automatically by pressing the “beamfinder” button in the control panel.

Next step is setting the gain control and time speed. You have to set these manually according to your calculations.

You are ready to apply the signal. After you apply, you will see the image. Now, you can adjust the trigger level the way you want. This will display the waveform. After the waveform is displayed, you can make additional adjustments for reaching the best image.

All in all, this is just a basic oscilloscope guide which can help you with the fundamentals of how to use a scope. You need to use it yourself to get a better grasp on how to use an oscilloscope.

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