Oscilloscopes and Graphing Multimeters
An oscilloscope is a visual voltmeter that shows a timer on voltage change. There can be different types of Oscilloscopes like analog, digital. Analog uses a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) screen to display the electrical signals. A digital Oscilloscope uses liquid crystal display and works through storing the incoming signals over a period, therefore, it is also known as a Digital Storage Oscilloscopes (DSO). The data in DSO is presented in a waveform by mapping all the data stored by the DSO. DSO can also be connected to an output device and help in the diagnosis of problems. DSO sometimes has faults that are known as glitches that occur between the captured samples. It is for this reason that DSOs with high sampling rates are preferred. Some digital storage oscilloscopes have samples capture rate as high as 25 million samples per second. The scope of an oscilloscopes device can be set to determine the time division that determines the number of samples per second. The other setting required in the device is the volts per division that determine the waveform that is created on the screen (Halderman).
Another most used position in the scope of the oscilloscope is the DC coupling that allows displaying both AC and DC voltage signals present inside the circuit. The option allows to select either a DC Coupling or AC coupling and when AC coupling is selected all the DC voltage signals are blocked. A common terminology for DC signals that varies and turns on and off is called pulse train. A pulse train consists of frequency, duty cycle, and pulse width. Frequency is a number of cycles per second measured in Hertz; the duty cycle is the measurement of signal comparisons measured in degrees instead of percentage in one complete cycle, while the pulse width is the actual measurement of actual on-time pulse signals measured in milliseconds.
The other terminology associated with oscilloscopes is channels and triggers. Channels which are input to scope can be of single, two or four-channel types. Triggers define the source of signal for example external source. The minimum voltage required for patterns to be displayed known as trigger levels while trigger slope is the direction of the created voltage waveform. The measurement of battery voltage can be done using an oscilloscope (Halderman).
Works Cited
Halderman, James D. Advanced Engine Performance Diagnosis. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
