Oscilloscope and Function Generator
Objectives:
To introduce the operation of an oscilloscope as a measuring instrument.
To introduce the operation of a function generator as a signal source.
Introduction:
Have you ever found yourself troubleshooting a circuit, needing more information than a simple
multimeter can provide? If you need to uncover information like frequency, noise, amplitude, or
any other characteristic that might change over time, you need an oscilloscope! The O-scope is
an important tool in any electrical engineer’s lab. It allows to see the electric signals as they vary
over time.
The analog oscilloscopes were cathode ray tube (CRT) generations in which the users needed
to measure most of the parameters and values by themselves while in the new generations, digital
ones, LCDs or LEDs are used as monitors which all the values are measured by these devices
automatically with less human regulation.
Some of the advantages of digital oscilloscopes over analog oscilloscopes include the scope’s
ability to store digital data for later viewing, upload to a computer, generate a hard copy or save
to a USB flash drive and its capacity to instantly make measurements on the digital data.
Equipment:
Oscilloscope
Function generator
Various resistors
330 nf capacitor
Breadboard
Coaxial cables with BNC (Bayonet Neill–Concelman) connector
, Set-up and Operation:
You may find more information about the operation of function generator and oscilloscope in the
following datasheets:
https://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-x201827-pn-DSOX2002A/oscilloscope-70-mhz-2-analog-
channels?nid=-32542.1150180&cc=CA&lc=eng
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5990-6618EN.pdf
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5991-0692EN.pdf
STEP ONE: Set the oscilloscope controls as follows (Figure 1):
Figure 1: Digital oscilloscope.
Since oscilloscope is a measuring device, the coaxial cables with BNC are employed to apply an
AC signal. A coaxial cable with BNC (Figure 2) is illustrated in Figure 2. Different steps of
setting up a digital oscilloscope is shown in Figure 1 as following:
1. Turn on the power switch
2. Apply coaxial cable to a desired channel. In figure 1, channel 1 was chosen and at the
same time the front panel knob related to this channel is pushed.