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THE OSCILLOSCOPE
1. INTRODUCTION
You may have been exposed to oscilloscopes in the past. This exercise gives you the
opportunity to perfect your mastery of the use of the instrument by doing a series
of exercises designed to lead you through most of its functions. There are very many
controls on an oscilloscope and it will take you many times using the instrument before
you can take advantage of all of them. On all oscilloscopes, the controls can be grouped
from the point of view of three basic systems:
- Vertical system controls: y-motion of the beam; vertical position and sensitivity
(volts-per-division), CH1CH2 beam selection, DC-AC Ground input coupling switches.
- Horizontal system controls: x-motion of the beam; acquisition horizontal sweep speed,
position and x sensitivity (time-per-division) when in the y-x mode.
- Trigger system: the trigger function synchronizes the horizontal sweep at the correct
point of the signal (stabilizes the waveform). Controls are: trigger level and slope,
modes and coupling. Recognizing these aspects makes understanding the multiplicity
of controls easier. The layout of the Tektronix TDS210 or TDS1002 involves knobs and
buttons, all grouped according to the above systematic. With the knobs you dial-up
vertical sensitivities, sweep speeds, vertical and horizontal positions, and trigger levels.
Each of the main buttons calls up a menu on the right of the screen and the buttons
beside the menu allow you to select the various functions.
TAKING MEASUREMENTS Oscilloscopes display graphs of voltage versus time
(waveforms) that can be measured by using the grid, the cursors (voltage or time), or
an automated method.
EQUIPMENT USED The voltages used in Exercises A-C are provided by a Wavetek
wave generator. In Exercise D you will use a box which supplies various variations of
60 Hz AC and DC. This BOX provides the following voltages: - VDC: about 11 V
DC [between the DC and the COMMON terminals]. - VACDC: a small AC (1 V
peak-to-peak) superimposed on about 11 V DC [between the DC and AC and the
COMMON terminals]. - VREF: about 8 V RMS (11 V amplitude) AC [between the
AC REFERENCE and the COMMON terminals]. - VPH: about 8 V RMS AC with
phase relative to the VREF voltage adjustable by means of a phase control knob
(which is totally un-calibrated). [This voltage appears between the AC PHASE and
the COMMON terminals]. - (VREF - VDC): about 8 V RMS AC superimposed on
about 11 V [between the AC REFERENCE and the DC terminals]. These five outputs
will be referred to in the following instructions by the names VDC, VACDC, VREF,
VPH, (VREF-VDC).
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2. EXERCISES

(a) Exercise A: Plotting one voltage on a Y input as a function of time.

Here you use the oscilloscope in the time-base mode, with only one beam turned
on. You also will observe the functions of the y sensitivity and input coupling
switches. Notice that when you first turn on the oscilloscope you will be starting
with the settings that the person who used it before you last used. You might
wish to push AUTOSET’ which sets the instrument to the setting it thinks would
be most appropriate for you.
Caution: what it thinks and what you want may differ.
• From the TRIGGER menu select the EDGE function. Choose MODE as AUTO
and select SOURCE as CH1. Make sure you have selected only the display of
Channel 1 (CH1) by pushing the CH2 button so that the CH2 trace disappears,
and then pushing the CH1 button till the CH1 trace appears.
Note that the zero on the vertical scale is indicated by the position of the small
arrow on the left side of the screen, accompanied by the channel number (”1”).
• Connect the CH1 signal input to the Function Generator Main Out (50 output).
Use the sine waveform with 10kHz frequency. From the CH1 menu available on the
oscilloscope screen, observe and understand the displays for each of the following
cases:
• Set the beam at vertical centre using the vertical position knob with the COU-
PLING set to GROUND.
• With the COUPLING set at DC, adjust the DC OFFSET on the Function
Generator to 2 divisions + or -. Observe the signal.
• Switch the COUPLING to AC, observe the signal
• With the COUPLING set at DC cancel the DC Offset
• With the COUPLING set at AC, and the DC Offset cancelled, observe the
signal.
Normally you should use the oscilloscope in the DC setting, as this gives a dis-
play on the screen of the actual voltage. The other two settings provide special
useful functions. Work out what the switch does.
⇒ Under what conditions would you use it on the AC position? (The answer is
not when you are observing AC signals!)
Hint: in the AC position, the oscilloscope lies to you as the frequency components
from 30 Hz down to DC are removed from the trace which appears on the screen.
Write and comment your observations
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(b) Exercise B Using the oscilloscope to plot voltages as a function of time.

Different ways of triggering.
If you wish to understand what triggering is, start by using the oscilloscope in an
un-triggered condition.
• Connect the CH1 input to the Function Generator as you did in exercise ”A”
and in the TRIGGER menu select SOURCE as EXT and MODE as AUTO. No-
tice the unusable trace you get on the screen. The sweeping of the display has
no synchronization to the timing of the arrival of the input signal. Triggering in-
structs the oscilloscope to start the sweep of the trace across the screen according
to specification you give as to when in the signal the scope should start sweeping.

STRATEGIES FOR USING THE TRIGGER CONTROLS

With the Trigger setup on EDGE, you will notice the four options on the TRIG-
GER menu:
• SLOPE (Rising, Falling)
• SOURCE (CH1, CH2, EXT, EXT/5, AC LINE)
• MODE (Auto, Normal, Single)
• COUPLING (AC, DC, Noise Reject, HF Reject, LF Reject)
• TRIGGER SOURCE decides which signal is the one which will determine the
triggering,
• TRIGGER SLOPE decides whether triggering takes place on the rise or the fall
of the signal,
• TRIGGER MODE decides whether triggering takes place strictly according to
a voltage level of the signal (Normal Mode) or whether the oscilloscope improvises
its triggering by free-running when no signal is present (Auto Mode),
• TRIGGER COUPLING decides the filtering the oscilloscope gives to the trigger
signal to make it respond only to some AC or DC voltage levels of the input signal.
• Moreover there is a TRIGGER LEVEL knob: this decides at what voltage of
the signal the triggering will take place (this control is quite ineffective in the
AUTO triggering mode).

The following two exercises will help you learn what each of these triggering
controls does.
In exercise B you use the oscilloscope in the time-base mode with Channel 1 on.
• Position the trace horizontally so that the trigger (indicated by the arrow at
the right of the screen) is near the horizontal centre of the screen.
• Set the SEC/DIV sweep speed control so that one to two cycles of the signal
appear across the screen.
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• With AUTO trigger mode, observe the trace changing as you change the trig-
ger source from CH1 to CH2 to EXT, to AC LINE. While on external trigger,
try connecting the oscilloscope external trigger input to the same output of the
Function Generator by using a TEE (T-connector).
• With NORMAL trigger mode and CH1 as the trigger source, explore what
happens when you change the trigger LEVEL and when you change the trigger
SLOPE. Also explore the effects of changing the horizontal position knob. Here
you are really only interested in the effects on the CH1 trace.
⇒ Write all your observations in your lab report.

Comment on limitations of the connections to the oscilloscope when feeding two

or more signals into it: The three input connectors to the oscilloscope, although
feeding signals into three separate places, are not completely independent. The
outer ring of the BNC connector which is connected to the black banana plug on
the cable you use, is connected to a ”common” or ”ground” in the oscilloscope.
This ground is connected to the round pin of the power plug which is connected
to a water pipe in the basement of the building. This applies to all the BNC input
connectors. Thus, if you use two input leads on your oscilloscope, the black lead
of one is connected to the black lead of the other. This implies that your circuit
connection strategies must result in all the black leads being connected together
with the voltages being measured being those of the red leads relative to the black
leads.

(c) Exercise C: Frequency measurement and the calibration signal

Using whatever TRIGGER settings you consider appropriate, measure the period
and frequency of a MHz sawtooth wave signal of your choice. Using the same
setup, find out how the scope will do measurements for you.
• Push the MEASURE button and select SOURCE as CH1. Now find out what
it tells you for TYPE set for each of FREQ, PERIOD, MEAN, PK-PK, CYC
RMS. You should figure out what each of the measurements means.
• Use the CURSOR function to check if these values agree with what you observe
from the trace on the screen. Select Type on Amplitude (horizontal cursors) or
Time (vertical cursors). To move the cursors, highlight Cursor 1 or 2 by pressing
the corresponding button and rotating the knob located at the top left of the
oscilloscope.
• The PROBE COMP terminal provides a standard 1 kHz, approximately 5V
(p-p) voltage between that terminal and the ’scope ground that has a very square
wave shape. This is useful in checking out calibrations and in particular in check-
ing out the response to a square wave. Observe the ‘height’ and frequency and
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shape of the signal from this terminal. Use the hook/alligator probe provided.
(d) Exercise D: Using the oscilloscope as a two dimensional voltmeter
Up to now you have used the oscilloscope to plot one voltage as a function of time.
This application will enable you to plot one voltage as a function of another. Here
you use the oscilloscope in the XY mode, so that the spot position is the vector
sum of displacements in two perpendicular directions proportional to the two
applied voltages.
• To get into this mode, in the DISPLAY menu select FORMAT, XY (the FOR-
MAT was previously set to YT). To do this part, make sure that the COUPLING
for both CH1 and CH2 are both set to DC.
In this exercise you will view the Lissajous figures obtained by plotting sinusoidal
displacements of the same frequency but different phases in two perpendicular
directions. You will use the BOX described in Equipment (see Figure below).

Figure 1: The BOX

You will use the reference signal VREF, taken between the AC REFERENCE
and the COMMON terminals.
• Apply VREF to the CH1 input and adjust the SEC/DIV to accommodate the
new frequency. You will also use VPH, with phase relative to the VREF voltage
adjustable by means of a phase control knob. This voltage appears between the
AC PHASE and the COMMON terminals on the BOX.
• Apply VPH to channel 2, and observe the patterns on the screen for three phase
control settings: 45o , 60o and 90o .
⇒ Do you understand the shapes of these figures?
⇒ Explain (with math expressions) what happened in each case.
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(e) Exercise E: Noise cleaning

• Use a BNC-banana cable: connect it to CH1, leaving the banana end open.
With a setting of 2mV and 10ms, you should see only electrical noise. Bring the
cable closer to an instrument or a power cord.
• With ACQUIRE (Average functionality) you could clean the noise.
Try it. Also try Average with various numbers (4, 16, 64, 128).

NOTE: Be sure you understand what your oscilloscope is doing at ev-

ery step in these exercises. If, at any time, you do not understand,
consult a reference or your demonstrator.

Common terminology:
DC, AC, GROUND. These stand for DIRECT COUPLING, ALTERNATING-
CURRENT COUPLING, and ZERO VALUE OF VOLTAGE.
Vo
RMS means root mean square. For sinusoidal voltage (AC voltage): Vrms = √
2
where Vo is the voltage peak value.
BNC connectivity (Bayonett-Neill-Concelman): RF connector for coaxial ca-
ble, made to match the characteristic impedance of 50 or 75. This connector has
a center pin connected to the center cable conductor and a metal tube connected
to the outer cable shield.

REFERENCES:
TEKTRONIX web page, XYZs of Analogue and Digital Oscilloscopes, the URL is
www.tek.com/M easurement/AppN otes/XY Zs/ (A copy of this booklet is available
in Resource Centre)
Revised by Ruxandra Serbanescu in 2018.