Unknown oscilloscope functions - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: MegaWatt
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 12:35:17 pm
content: Hello, I have recently bought my first oscilloscope from ebay. I was just wondering, does anyone have any idea what the following buttons are for?-Single-Delay (Norm, search, delay)-Hold OffI tried them out but they don't seem to do anything specialso I'm guessing I don't know what to do with them. Any help is appreciated! Thx!

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 12:42:41 pm
content: sounds like something to do with the triggering, do you have the scopes manual ?

author: MegaWatt
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 12:45:00 pm
content: Well I have the manual online, but it didn't really help me.It is here:http://www.hameg.com/manuals.0.html, search for HM605

author: tyblu
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 12:53:22 pm
content: Hello,Here is the manual:http://www.opweb.de/model.php?id=356I believe the delay and hold-off features are with respect to the trigger. Delay is in time from the trigger to the trace. Hold off is important near sweep frequency, and delays the next sweep. Not sure about single, but may activate internal trigger. Actually, not sure about any of this as I don't have a Hameg, so RTFM

author: tyblu
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 12:58:04 pm
content: Skimming the manual I see both Delay and Hold functions explained - please quote parts you would like explained. I don't see references to "single" anywhere. Where is it?

author: MegaWatt
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 01:02:56 pm
content: It saisSingle: Selects single sweep operationHold Off: Fine adjustment of time interval between timebase sweepsDelay: Coarse adjustment of sweep delay time.But I don't understand what they mean with sweeps?

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 01:41:04 pm
content: Quote from: MegaWatt on January 07, 2011, 01:02:56 pmThe beam moving from left to right on the CRT. One sweep: The beam moving once from left to right.

author: DaveW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 02:49:44 pm
content: Hold off is used to prevent retriggering-the only time I've seen it used is on AM signals. Single should only sweep once, can see a single rising edge, or the first burst of data for example without it being overwritten

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 03:01:49 pm
content: The only time I've ever seen the Single sweep mode used was in conjunction with an oscilloscope camera. The camera opened it's shutter, triggered a single sweep, and then closed the shutter.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 03:08:14 pm
content: Hold off is also useful for triggering on the first train of a repetitive pulse train (eg. RS-232 with a single repeating character, you set the hold-off delay so that all bits but the first are skipped).Single is mainly useful if you have a scope camera connected on a scope without storage. On a (digital) storage scope, it allows you to register non-repeating phenomena like power-up/down behavior.Delay allows you to insert a certain delay between triggering and start of acquisition (the part you see on the screen). This is useful for 'zooming in' on a certain part of the signal, for example, to inspect individual bits in the pulse train example. Set time base so that one bit fits on screen, and use delay to see bits after the first one. It can also be used to make more accurate time measurements, the delay knob (in combination with the faster time base) is usually more accurate than using the graticule.The Tektronix appnoteThe XYZs of oscilloscopesmight be a good read, especially if you have trouble with terms like 'sweep'. It explains most basic concepts.

author: MegaWatt
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 03:22:15 pm
content: Ah ok i think i'm starting to understand. So I can't really do anything with the sweep optionWhen i press it, i see that it draws one sweep but it then dissapears immediatly, and on a high freq thats instantaneous. But thanks for all the replies!

author: DJPhil
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2011, 11:45:35 pm
content: Quote from: JohnS_AZ on January 07, 2011, 03:01:49 pmYes, this is exactly what single is for, not very useful nowadays. Where would you develop the film?I suppose if it had outputs on the back you might be able to capture and store the waveform, or otherwise play with it, one sweep at a time. I'm not sure if it's within the capability of this scope however.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2011, 12:08:28 am
content: Quote from: DJPhil on January 07, 2011, 11:45:35 pmMany digital cameras have exposure times long enough to be useable with a single-sweep mode like this if you're really keen to experiment...

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2011, 08:56:06 am
content: true, any SLY will have a remote jack that will fire the shutter so you can easily wire it to the scope

author: FreeThinker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2011, 03:59:24 pm
content: Quote from: JohnS_AZ on January 07, 2011, 03:01:49 pmOnly ever seen an oscilloscope camera but not used one.It fixed to the bezel of the scope and set with the shutter open permanently, but as the mounting was light tight this was ok.The scope was then set to trigger on a non repetitive event in single sweep mode.When the scope triggered the trace was captured on the film.Normally a polaroid type camera, the exposed image could the be developed and viewed, the test repeated if required. With digital scopes this has become mainly obsolete but is still the only way to capture a trace on most analogue scopes.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2011, 04:40:54 pm
content: hm yes you could do something similar with a DSLR using the B setting