Creating the scope screenshots - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: barry14
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 02:18:19 am
content: As a newcomer, I have been impressed with the high quality oscilloscope screenshots on this forum. Can someone explain how these screenshots are created with the PNG format.

author: TSL
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 02:43:00 am
content: Hi Barry,Those screen shots come directly from the scopes. Most modern scopes, SA's etc. have a USB port to plug into the PC that makes a screen capture easy. Those of us with GPIB older units can still capture screens, albeit in monochrome, provided we have GPIB cards in our PC's.regardsTim

author: Rory
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 02:49:25 am
content: I believe Teneyes' animated scope capture gifs are made with Marmad's RUU software. Impressive.

author: David_AVD
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 05:06:55 am
content: On my Rigol DS1054Z you just press the print button and it saves the current screen to the (FAT32 formatted) USB stick plugged in.

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 01:32:51 pm
content: My OWON pds6062s has this feature. But for some reason on the pc I am using it saves only a blank screen shot. Really have to troubleshoot that one day.

author: HighVoltage
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 01:43:24 pm
content: On some older Fluke and Tek scopes, I have to use a Serial interface to capture the screen and it takes a long time for each screenshot.On those older systems it is much easier and faster to grab the vector information of the trace and just update the trace instead of a completescreenshot. It is so much easier on the new scopes with a USB drive and we almost take it for granted. It was a very different game 20 years ago.

author: kolbep
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 01:51:12 pm
content: For an analogue scope, it is almost impossible to capture a trace with a cellphone or cheap camera.You will just see the point where the dot is, and a bit of the previous phospher trail..You need a camera that you can set to have a very long shutter period,then you need to stabilise it (on a tripod, or some other way),and then use the timer, so that you are not touching the camera when it takes the shot.

author: Sbampato12
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 02:15:46 pm
content: Quote from: kolbep on January 03, 2015, 01:51:12 pmVery common on old setups for experiments...Today it is very easier. Some scopes have the LAN connection too, that allow you to remote take the screenshot...

author: denelec
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 02:20:09 pm
content: In the "good old times", there were special cameras for screen capture.http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_kw=Tektronix+Oscilloscope+Camera+CI once used my digital camera (Canon Powershot S200) to capture waveforms on my old analog Hitachi V212.Worked well. This camera allowed you to manually set the shutter from 1 second to 15 seconds.

author: barry14
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2015, 03:18:35 pm
content: Thanks for all of the information in response to my query. I have an OWON SDS6062 (V) scope. While the scope is good, the supplied software is not. There is no way to get a screenshot. However, based on the responses, I formatted a USB flashdrive for FAT32 and used the SAVE function on the scope. That works fine and I get the screenshots I wanted.