Hi all I am building a high amp H Bridge project to move my trailer around and am encountering some hurdles (so far I cant find an H Bridge to handle the amps).
Would an Oscilloscope like the Rigol DS1052E help me out? I'd like to be able to see how much current my motors draw on start as well as the pwm signal
I am not a student of nor an engineer but have experience with vector scopes and wave form monitors from when I worked in TV, do you think I might be able to get a scope like the rigol to give me some useful info or maybe better off with a cheaper USB/PC or even the sound card option?
If you know the signal you are measuring is a clean PWM signal, you can get the PWM value using a simple DC multimeter. Just set it to DC voltage mode. This will smooth out the voltage and give you an average.
Do you have the reference to the motor you are trying to use ?
You can build a H-bridge yourself with MOSFETs if you have a bit of experience with soldering
Whether an Oscilloscope can help solve your problem is beyond the scope of this Forum. A scope allows you to see wave forms and measure time and voltage. It cannot measure current directly, but it could show the voltage developed over a suitable shunt resistor.
I suspect the Rigol scope would do a good job.
I bought one of the DS0203 / DSOQuad devices that are mentioned in this Thread. I did not want to spend all the money on a "proper" scope as I use it very infrequently. As you can see from the Thread there are strong views on the subject. I am perfectly happy with my device.
If you know the signal you are measuring is a clean PWM signal, you can get the PWM value using a simple DC multimeter. Just set it to DC voltage mode.
If you don't have the H-Bridge yet and you want to measure the constant DC current, a multimeter can measure current.
But, check the maximum rating on the meter. If you exceed the maximum, you'll blow the fuse in the meter. I've got two meters on my bench. One is rated 2A, the other 10A.
This will smooth out the voltage and give you an average.
Digital multimeters DO NOT reliably "smooth" PWM. Results can be unpredictable unless you have a "true RMS" meter, and as far as I know the true-RMS readings apply to voltage, but maybe not current. If you can find an analog multimeter, these will smooth-out PWM and give you a good average.