Operation of an Oscilloscope

Up to two voltage signals can be fed into the oscilloscope via BNC cables attached to the two input channel ports The display of each channel can be toggled on and o by pressing the channel buttons The oscilloscope screen has an overlaid grid, where the dimensions of each grid box are controlled by the vertical (voltage) and horizontal (time) “Scale” knobs and displayed at the bottom of the screen The “Scale” knobs allow for zooming in and out. The signal can also be moved vertically and horizontally around the screen with the corresponding “Position” knobs. When pressed, the “Autoset” button automatically sets the vertical/horizontal scales and positions for the current input signal. If the “Autoset” button is held for 1.5 s, “Autorange” is enabled, continuously changing the screen scales based on the input signal. This feature can initially get the signal onto the screen for most waveforms. The oscilloscope continuously shows the voltage signal from left to right. To make the signal look stationary on the screen, each displayed signal must start at the same position along with the signal. To accomplish this, the oscilloscope waits

For instance, the trigger is set when the voltage signal rises and passes the preset trigger voltage. The trigger can be adjusted with the trigger controls on the oscilloscope. Pressing the trigger “Menu” button pulls up the on-screen trigger menu. The first three buttons in this menu are the most important. The “Trigger type” setting should be set to “Edge”, indicating that the oscilloscope will be triggered when the signal passes some voltage level. The “Source” setting should be set to the signal channel to be triggered on. The “Slope” setting can be set to “Rising” or “Falling”, indicating how the signal changes when the trigger voltage is crossed. The “Trigger level” knob controls at what voltage the oscilloscope will be triggered and displays the level as a horizontal line when turned. Note also that the “Autoset” button discussed above also adjusts the trigger settings.