Oscilloscope and Arduino are tools for modern makers. Here are some videos and articles that combine together Arduino and oscilloscopes:
Learn Oscilloscope Basics with an Arduino Uno | AddOhms #28
Using an Oscilloscope and an Arduino
Improve your Arduino programming skills – The budget oscilloscope.
For more details, read the following articles:
Learn Six Oscilloscope Measurements with an Arduino DUT article tells how you can learn to use your oscilloscope with Arduino. This tutorial is not a step-by-step guide on how to make each of these measurements on a particular scope. Instead, it is a general explanation on how to setup the Arduino and a screenshot to help identify if you set up your scope correctly.
How to Evaluate Oscilloscope Signal Integrity article is intended to help you assess the signal integrity of your oscilloscope and make trustworthy measurements. Oscilloscope signal integrity impacts signal shape and measurement values, so you want to make sure that when you see on the screen represents accurately the signal on the circuit board and you know how accurate you can expect the result to be.
25 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.hackster.io/an-oscilloscope-for-ants-782eaa141543
Tomi Engdahl says:
Break Your Scope’s Bandwidth Barrier
https://hackaday.com/2019/01/24/break-your-scopes-bandwidth-barrier/
Oscilloscope bandwidth is a tricky thing. A 100 MHz scope will have a defined attenuation (70%) of a 100 MHz sine wave. That’s not really the whole picture, though, because we aren’t always measuring sine waves. A 100 MHz square wave, for example, will have sine wave components at 100 MHz, 300 MHz, and the other odd harmonics. However, it isn’t that a 100 MHz scope won’t show you something at a higher frequency — it just doesn’t get the y-axis right. [Daniel Bogdanoff] from Keysight decided to think outside of the box and made a video about using scopes beyond their bandwidth specification. You can see that video, below.
Spec Hack! Breaking the Bandwidth Barrier with Your Oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8eSDjyRceg
Tomi Engdahl says:
There’s a lot of data on magnetic media that will soon be lost forever, as floppies weren’t really made to sit in attics and basements for decades and still work. and needed to read some disks that reportedly contained source code for several BBC Micro games, including Repton 3. They turned to Greaseweazle, an interface board that can dump just about any kind of floppy disk if it is attached to the right drive….
https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/reading-floppies-with-an-oscilloscope/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measuring exponential time constant using an oscilloscope
https://www.edn.com/measuring-exponential-time-constant-using-an-oscilloscope/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.unitest.com/pdf/How-Good-is-your-Oscilloscope.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Better Scope Measurements
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/22/better-scope-measurements/
There was a time when few hobbyists had an oscilloscope and the ones you did see were old military or industrial surplus that were past their prime. Today you can buy a fancy scope for about what those used scopes cost that would have once been the envy of every giant research lab. However, this new breed of instrument is typically digital and while they look like an old analog scope, the way they work leads to some odd gotchas that [Arthur Pini] covers in a recent post.
Some of his tips are common sense, but easy to forget about. For example, if you stack your four input channels so each uses up a quarter of the screen, it makes sense, right? But [Arthur] points out that you are dropping two bits of dynamic range, which can really jack up a sensitive measurement.
How to make better measurements with your oscilloscope or digitizer
https://www.edn.com/how-to-make-better-measurements-with-your-oscilloscope-or-digitizer/
Conclusions
These tools and techniques can help improve the measurement accuracy and reliability of your instruments. Other tricks can be gleaned from manufacturer’s webinars and application notes. The more you learn about your instrument, the more accurate and reliable your measurement results will be.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Measure Oscilloscope ADC Dynamic Range
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qjqhnQiQXQ
How to Measure Oscilloscope ADC Dynamic Range, using the 12bit Rigol HDO4000 as an example.
This is important to be able to analyse and measure the noise floor, ENOB, and power spectral density of an oscilloscope.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #502 – $19 Hameg Analog Oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghQYRv68qrU
Dave fiddles with a $19 Hameg HM205-3 combined Analog/Digital Oscilloscope
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #845 – Oscilloscope FFT Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07VkEUUd0eo
Dave compares the FFT modes on 7 different oscilloscopes:
Rohde & Schwarz HMO1202 Series
Tektronix MDO3000
Keysight 3000X Touch
Lecroy WaveJet 354 Touch
GW Instek GDS-1104B
Rigol DS1054Z
Rigol DS2000
Which is the best?
Which one sucks the most?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-845-oscilloscope-fft-comparison/
Tomi Engdahl says:
#828 Using Oscilloscope as a Spectrum Analyzer (FFT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHYmUS7R6V4
Spectrum Analyzer, Scope and FFT looking at Signals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjHT-h5d3A0
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #675 – How To Reverse Engineer A Rigol DS1054Z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVrTV_BeGg
Dave shows you how to reverse engineer a PCB to get the schematic. In this case the new Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope.
How does the discrete transistor analog front end and the software bandwidth limiting work?
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #685 – What Is Oscilloscope AC Trigger Coupling?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5aAjd9YPok
In this tutorial Dave describes what AC trigger coupling is on an oscilloscope and why it can be useful. Not only on old analog CRT oscilloscopes, but modern digital scopes as well.
How and why is it different to AC channel input coupling?
Also, use of the 50% trigger control, and how the venerable DS1052E is still more usable than the new DS1054Z.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #396 – Bode Plotting on Your Osciloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMH2hGvqhlE
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #340 – USB 3.0 Eye Diagram Measurement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8DPlqWVmzk
Using the Agilent 90000 series 13GHz oscilloscope and 12GHz differential probe to measure a USB 3.0 Super Speed signal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #626 – Ceramic Capacitor Voltage Dependency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MQyQUkwmMk
Dave explains, shows, and measures a potentially big trap with using high value ceramic capacitors.
Is your 10uF capacitor really 10uF in your circuit? You might be shocked!
Those humble X7R caps you think are a “stable” dielectric? think again…
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1249 – TUTORIAL: Timing Diagrams Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUGRBhfAabY
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Set Up an Eye Diagram on an Oscilloscope – Scopes University – (S1E3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnugUjaMN70
#141: What is an Eye Pattern on an Oscilloscope – A Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL7QsELuv_M
Tomi Engdahl says:
#138: How to Measure Output Impedance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieAhBejHe2M
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Measure Jitter with an Oscilloscope – Scopes University – (S1E5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMR1r0nDK7s
What is jitter and how should you troubleshoot it?
What is jitter? In this episode of Scopes University, we continue our conversation from the previous InfiniiVision episode where we discussed How to Set Up Eye Diagrams (episode 3):
https://youtu.be/mnugUjaMN70
Today, you’ll learn about what jitter is, what causes it, why jitter is bad, and the basics of troubleshooting it on an oscilloscope.
First, you’ll gain an understanding of what jitter is: the deviation from where an edge crossing actually ends up compared to where it ideally should be.
Next, we’ll discuss some of the causes of jitter. Jitter can be caused by components on your board (deterministic jitter) or by uncontrollable random noise (random jitter).
Then, you’ll learn why you should care about jitter and why you should measure it on an oscilloscope. If you have too much jitter in your signal, it will cause errors in the data you transmit.
Lastly, you will get a firsthand look at the jitter analysis tool on the oscilloscope. You’ll learn how to use the capabilities to identify what it is that’s causing the jitter, as well as what you can do to fix it.
By the end of the episode you will understand how to measure jitter with a scope quickly and easily.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is Jitter in Fiber Optic Telecom Systems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K44eRt852vs
Hello, everyone. This is Colin from Fiber Optics For Sale.
In this video, I will explain what is jitter in fiber optic telecom systems, why jitter is bad, what causes jitter, and three types of jitter testing. So let’s get started.
What is jitter? Let’s look at this illustration first.
The solid line signal is the ideal clock. It has a perfect period. The dashed line signal is jittered clock. We can see that the rising edges of the jittered clock have a displacement from the ideal clock. The timing difference is marked as J1, J2, J3, J4, and J5. This phenomenon of timing displacement from its ideal position is called jitter.
The amount of jitter varies periodically. The jitter period is the interval between two times of maximum effect or minimum effect. Jitter frequency is jitter period’s inverse.
According to ITU-T G.810, jitter frequencies below 10 Hz is called wander, and at and above 10 Hz is called jitter.
The bottom figure shows the plot of the relative displacement versus time, this is called the jitter’s time function.
So why is jitter bad for a fiber optic communication system?
Here is an eye diagram that shows the distortions caused by jitter.
In order to accurately determine whether a given bit is a one or a zero, the signal should be sampled at the point where the vertical eye opening is maximum. This decision point is set by the recovered clock signal from the data bits.
But a jitter causes this decision point to move away from the maximum eye opening point. So the decision of a one or zero can be wrong if the jitter is too big. This causes bit errors and degrades the performance of a transmission system.
Jitters can be roughly categorized into two types — random jitter and systematic jitter.
Random jitter comes from the noise generated by the electronic components in telecom equipment. Random jitter is independent of the transmitted data pattern.
Systematic jitter is dependent on the transmitted data pattern. They are caused by the finite Q of the clock recovery circuit and its relationship to the transmitted data spectrum.
SONET and SDH standards specify the jitter requirements at the optical interface.
The transmission equipment jitter specifications are organized into three categories — Maximum Tolerable Jitter, Jitter Transfer Function and Jitter Generation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oscilloscope Basics, Part 1: Discussion, Y-Axis (Voltage) Controls, Probe Calibration
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOup-XBexU&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rohde & Schwarz RTB2000 Scope Pulse Response
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XpyOGw6RFM
Checking the Rohde & Schwarz RTB2000 and other scopes for pulse recovery response.
00:00 – RTB2000 pulse response
02:48 – Rigol HDO4000
04:37 – Keysight 3000
05:20 – Tektronix 2 Series
08:12 – Tek 2 Series Autoset quirk
09:41 – Siglent SDS2000X
10:11 – Uni-T UPO3000E
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-killer-scope-a-true-game-changer-from-rs-rtb2002-rtb2004/msg4439797/#msg4439797
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #845 – Oscilloscope FFT Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07VkEUUd0eo&t=37s
Dave compares the FFT modes on 7 different oscilloscopes:
Rohde & Schwarz HMO1202 Series
Tektronix MDO3000
Keysight 3000X Touch
Lecroy WaveJet 354 Touch
GW Instek GDS-1104B
Rigol DS1054Z
Rigol DS2000
Which is the best?
Tomi Engdahl says:
These 4 Oscilloscopes are More than Meets the Eye
Oct. 6, 2022
The latest oscilloscopes to hit the market offer higher resolutions, greater bandwidths, faster sampling rates, and additional memory depth.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/test-measurement/media-gallery/21252249/electronic-design-these-4-oscilloscopes-are-more-than-meets-the-eye?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS221006038&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
eevBLAB 103 – Is an $800 Oscilloscope OVERKILL?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_XJDPKJlc