#394

[@John_L]

I've been using oscilloscopes, admittedly mostly analogue, for upwards of 60 years and learned a thing or two. Thanks for another great tutorial. 73, John G3WGV.

[@brothertyler]

Thanks for continuing to do these videos. When I ran an avionics shop in the Navy, your videos were required training for my sailors. You would be disappointed in how 12-year 'master' avionics technicians can not use a scope.

[@kirkhamandy]

Great video, as usual, especially understanding the relationship between sample rate and _what you see_ My favorite tip is measuring current through a resistor by using two channels on each side and the now commonly avaiable math mode to measure the difference in voltage across the resistor.

[@clems6989]

Great video, good idea putting these together... Thanks OM...

[@migsvensurfing6310]

Knew all this and I can say you presented it very nicely.

[@modrobert]

Good tips. I would like to add using two probes with subtraction when ground leads can't be used.

[@PapasDino]

Great tips as usual Alan, thanks! Happy Holidays! 73 - Dino KLØS

[@bctoner]

Thank you

[@zoubirdjelouah3273]

Good

[@bobvines00]

Alan, please consider making a "Scopes for Dopes" or "Best Practices" video for those of us that only have old analog scopes. In my case, I've got a Tek 453 & two Tek 2465 scope. At the moment, I only need scopes fast enough to troubleshoot my PDP-8s & peripherals and maybe "newer" computers & peripherals up to the '80s or '90s. Unfortunately, I don't know whether or not I'll ever have enough "spare" $$$$ to get some kind of (still accurate) digital scope without a CRT.

[@stevejagger8602]

Thank you for this guide - always worth saying since there are so many more digital scopes in use with new features. If you havent covered the subject before a resume of grounding practices would be helpful particularly with respect to probing live(mains voltage) circuits such as SMPS..

[@jim9930]

7 AH sealed lead acid battery (motorcycle) with a cheap 120v invertor for the scope.

[@SeAfasia]

thanks Alan....tips quides...Dinos 73

[@projectartichoke]

Really great tips! I'll add one too, be careful not to ground probes to a hot chassis like you might find in some tube equipment. Ask me how I know!

[@jim9930]

A couple suggestions for tube or SMPS: Mains isolation transformer for the scope. Also, the cheapest differential probing solution { still must pay attention to capacitive feedthrough }. Handheld 'scope-meter' battery powered. Battery powered emergency generator/invertor; low powered (~100 watts) are inexpensive. ...NO AC line ground or neutral problems or noise with battery

[@karlgoebeler1500]

P;anning on picking u[p a Tiny SA Spectrum analyzer Next Month FINALLY!!!!! LOL

[@migsvensurfing6310]

Get the ultra version. Much better than the 1st version.

[@_droid]

I end up using those little devices more than anything else simply because they're so portable. I'm eagerly awaiting a compact device that combines SA, VNA, HackRF, signal generator, and oscilloscope all in one. Drool

[@karlgoebeler1500]

@@_droid All one would need is a belt. Have a bunch of leather pouches that can hold each component onto a belt.. ((BATMAN)) LOL

[@arnoldgrubbs2005]

@@_droid TinySA ultra and some of the others (NanoVNA) have a menu option that will allow you to generate a CW signal, at a reasonably close, adjustable output level that is useful for checking receivers and IF strips. Not all of them have the option, as some have older firmware and hardware, but a new one should likely have it. Ask the seller if you are not sure.

[@barrybogart5436]

IMSAI Guy just reviewed the new one.

[@iblesbosuok]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="290">04:50</a> Many of my friends neglect this criterion.

[@frankywatte5646]

I always use 100X probes. A lot less capacitive load for your test subject🤔

[@waynegram8907]

Why doesn't Analog Oscilloscope have an Offset control? Some signals don't need to use the offset control but other signals do need to use the offset control to get full scale deflection, any reasons why certain signals/waveform need to use the digital oscilloscope offset control to get full scale deflection?

[@Chris_Grossman]

Some do. I have plug ins for my analog scope that have input offsets.

[@waynegram8907]

@@Chris_Grossman I have never seen Plug-Ins for analog Scopes for input offset. I'm not sure why some signals/waveforms need input offset to get a full-scale deflection on the Oscope?

[@Chris_Grossman]

@waynegram8907 look at a Tek 7A13. It lets you look at low level DC coupled signal with a large DC offset.

[@Chris_Grossman]

@@waynegram8907 Look at a Tek 7A13. It allows you to look at a low level DC coupled signal on top of a large DC offset.

[@w2aew]

It is common when a signal is riding on top of a larger DC bias. Ripple on a power supply rail is a good example.

[@eugenepohjola258]

Howdy. Yes. I would like to mention a devilish hazard. The ground of the inputs and the Protective Earth (ground) of the power socket are interconnected. If not aware one may introduce ground into circuits. Older TV sets did not have a transformer. The used the grid AC directly. Boom and kaputt ! Kiss the oscilloscope and TV goodbye. Always power the oscilloscope through a separation transformer. I live in an older apartment building. The old electrical code allowed two prong receptacles in non-hazardous environments. So there is no Protective Earth in the oscilloscope. Lucky me. Regards.

[@DennisMathias]

TNX DE W0QR

[@karlgoebeler1500]

Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity Reconciliation of the two concepts

[@karlgoebeler1500]

Point source defined by the angular momentum of a point source of energy rotating in a false vacuum around a true vacuum Looks like a half doughnut on a graph

[@James-gg4ld]

Not sure who your target audience is for this video. Since you are a ham my thought was to help other hams. However, using a $10,000 scope to explain best practices puts your target audience into the high end research lab space. I would guess you are the only ham that has such a device. How about demonstrating with the $400 digital scope that most hams have or better yet an old analog scope purchased at a hamfest for $25?

[@Chris_Grossman]

My low end Siglent scope has all of the features he went over except for the input offset.

[@thomasmaughan4798]

Seems to me a cheap(ish) Rigol or Siglent scope has pretty much these same features; sometimes labeled differently. What isn't here mentioned but maybe elsewhere is why you would use different features. For instance, 10k samples in a single sweep means you can expand the sweep but there's only 10k samples so you wont expand it very much. But with a million samples in that sweep, you can expand it dramatically and still have full horizontal resolution. Why would you not *always* capture a million samples? Well, if you do, then segmenting your memory, collecting averages, and high-resolution supersampling is affected. Since radio work is almost always repeating signals, averaging modes work better than supersampling (multiple samples per horizontal "pixel"). You also benefit from variable persistence (Keysight has it, I have not seen this on Rigol or Siglent) or velocity modulated intensity; makes a two-tone test of an amplifier look on a digital scope the same as it looks on an analog scope. That was an important consideration for me, to get the nice looking two-tone test with crisp edges and lightly filled in center blobs. A cheaper digital scope just has brightly lit blobs and it isn't obvious what it is doing.

[@gordonwedman3179]

Take what you can use and wish for the rest. No point limiting at the start.

[@arnoldgrubbs2005]

Most of the things talked about will apply to the scopes most hobby people have. I don't think you will get that if you buy a hamfest $25 unit, but a Rigol, Siglent, Owan ect in the under $400 range will do quite a lot. I got a siglent 200MHz one with a lot of nice features, including decoding I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, LIN digital data with a nice display of the data for working on microcontroler to device communications. That was under $375 delivered with probes.

[@thomasmaughan4798]

@@Chris_Grossman Interesting; I just checked Keysight DSOX1202G; it does not have offset per se, but vertical position is calibrated in offset voltage.