I am getting my first oscilloscope in the mail in a couple days !
I’m wondering if any of you people on here have any good projects for oscilloscope beginners (not necessarily electronics beginners lol)? Yeah, I know, “Go ask Google”, right? Well, I want to get some different ideas from pros as I already did that.
If you have any idea at all, just reply! I’ll try it out .
Thanks in advance!
For testing your oscilloscope skills, scroll to reply #64! Or click here to scroll down.
For making a TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer), scroll to reply #81! Or click here to scroll down.
For testing a TDR, scroll to reply #106! Or click here to scroll down.
I like to check the actual performance of analog filters, the result of hardware switch debounce circuits, logic voltage levels, power supply noise, phase relationships, PWM signals that I don't use a library to create, interrupt latency, etc.
learn how to make a TDR, a time domain reflectometer. you will need a handful of resistors, a few connectors, and a square wave source with a very short risetime
A very simple measurement to make would be the mains voltage. However DO NOT CONNECT YOUR SCOPE PROBE TO THE MAINS. Under any condition.
To to this you get a plug in power supply (aka wallwart) that puts out AC voltage. They are isolated from the mains and usually output 10 to 16 vac. You can measure the output of the wallwart and see the waveform that is indictive of the mains waveform.
A good thing to do would be to connect your scope to a microphone and try and see the tiny signals you get.
Look at the signal with different time base settings and see how it changes. Also look at the waveform under continuous reading and single shot. And look to see the effect the trigger voltage setting has for a single shot.
Any audio project is ideal for actually seeing the waveforms you are listening to and trying to relate what you here to what you see.
Also just touch the tip of the probe and see how much voltage you can pick up with a high impedance input, and then you will never get fooled again by floating input pins.
Get a Piezo disc sensor connect it up an tap it directly, see the hundred volts or so you can get from it, see that it goes positive and negative and look at the ringing and contact bounce you can get from it sometimes.
I was already thinking of building an audio amplifier, and I can use the o'scope to see what's going on. Also, I am going to try a resonance project with the o'scope and a mic hooked up to it.
Read a simple HIGH/LOW Signal on a digital port, e.g. with a blink sketch. Measure the voltage difference between high & low, set cursors, calculate (if possible), set up the data to be shown on your screen.
Check a PWM output ("analogWrite")
Read one channel: analyse a serial.print output of "Hello World". Learn your scope how to trigger a signal, do a measurement of a short signal and make them visible on your screen.
Read two channels: try the same with I2C communication. Set the trigger to channel 1, set the trigger to channel 2...
measure the signal of long wires, see the effect what happens to your data lines if you connect with long wires.
start experimenting with "analog signals"
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if you are still waiting for the delivery ... download the manual and read it. Repeat that as long as you don't have the scope
I took your suggestion and started reading the manual. Boy is that manual long and a little complicated! Tbh, I’m a little lost in it, but I’m hoping once I get the o’scope, it will be a little clearer and I can try and follow along with it.
I would advise against reading it first from start to finish as I have found it is only after a period of playing with something like this for a while that any thing in the manual will make much sense. I find it best to read the manual from start to finish once you have a basic idea of how the thing works.
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do you mind if I quote that and sticky it on the top of it?
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