Peak amplitude, on the other hand, only measures how high or low a signal is past 0V. There are a variety of amplitude measurements including peak-to-peak amplitude, which measures the absolute difference between a high and low voltage point of a signal. Amplitude - Amplitude is a measure of the magnitude of a signal.These characteristics are important when considering how fast a circuit can respond to signals. The duration of a wave going from a low point to a high point is called the rise time, and fall time measures the opposite. Rise and fall time - Signals can't instantaneously go from 0V to 5V, they have to smoothly rise.The duty cycle is a ratio that tells you how long a signal is "on" versus how long it's "off" each period. Duty cycle - The percentage of a period that a wave is either positive or negative (there are both positive and negative duty cycles).The maximum frequency a scope can measure varies, but it's often in the 100's of MHz (1E6 Hz) range. And the period is the reciprocal of that (number of seconds each repeating waveform takes). Frequency and period - Frequency is defined as the number of times per second a waveform repeats.In general a scope can measure both time-based and voltage-based characteristics: In addition to those fundamental features, many scopes have measurement tools, which help to quickly quantify frequency, amplitude, and other waveform characteristics.
There are also controls to set the trigger on the scope, which helps focus and stabilize the display. A signal (the yellow sine wave in this case) is graphed on a horizontal time axis and a vertical voltage axis.Ĭontrols surrounding the scope's screen allow you to adjust the scale of the graph, both vertically and horizontally - allowing you to zoom in and out on a signal. Direct Current (DC)Īn example of an oscilloscope display. Voltage, Current, Resistance and Ohm's Law.Check out the tutorial if you want to learn more! Suggested Readingīefore continuing with this tutorial, you should be familiar with the concepts below. Other o-scopes may look different, but they should all share a similar set of control and interface mechanisms. We'll be using the Gratten GA1102CAL - a handy, mid-level, digital oscilloscope - as the basis for our scope discussion. Using an Oscilloscope - Tips and tricks for someone using an oscilloscope for the first time.Anatomy of an O-Scope - An overview of the most critical systems on an oscilloscope - the screen, horizontal and vertical controls, triggers, and probes.Oscilloscope Lexicon - A glossary covering some of the more common oscilloscope characteristics.Basics of O-Scopes - An introduction to what, exactly, oscilloscopes are, what they measure, and why we use them.It's broken down into the following sections: This tutorial aims to introduce the concepts, terminology, and control systems of oscilloscopes.