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Questions about using my scope — Parallax Forums

Questions about using my scope

turbosupraturbosupra Posts: 1,088
edited 2010-05-24 16:25 in Accessories
I took some scope samples tonight on a signal that has 2 states. I'm not sure what all of the values under Channel 1 represent though and I couldn't find anything in the help file.

Going left column top to bottom and then right column top to bottom (these are guesses, are they correct) :

Negative voltage
Positive voltage
Peak to peak voltage
Peak to peak voltage for a signal that is positive and negative
Frequency rising edge occurrence to next rising edge occurrence in milliseconds
Frequency in cycles per second
Not sure

propscopesymbols.jpg

It looks like the signal is right around 312 cycles per second, why does the scope show a low of what appears to be below 0 volts, especially in DC mode? Am I correct on my symbol interpretations for the symbols under the channel 1 values?

For my school project, I need to calculate the proper capacitance using Xc = 1 / 2∏fC so I want to make sure I get the frequency correct as well. Thanks for reading!



DC sample in the "OFF state"
idledc51810.jpg


AC sample in the "OFF state"
idleac51810.jpg


DC sample in the "ON state"
8000rpmdc51810.jpg


AC sample in the "ON state"
8000rpmac51810.jpg

Comments

  • turbosupraturbosupra Posts: 1,088
    edited 2010-05-20 16:57
    No uses the other features of the software and knows what the symbols represent?

    Hanno?
  • John AbshierJohn Abshier Posts: 1,116
    edited 2010-05-20 19:46
    This is what I think they mean
    Peak high voltage Period
    Peak low voltage Frequency
    Voltage swing ??
    ??

    John Abshier
  • HannoHanno Posts: 1,130
    edited 2010-05-21 15:38
    Hi,
    Sorry I took so long- travelling...
    The bottom left is the "average" of the signal: avg=sum of measurements/number of measurements
    The bottom right is the "root mean square" of the signal: rms=sqrt(sum of measurements^2/number of measurements)
    See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_mean_square
    Hanno

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Co-author of the official Propeller Guide- available at Amazon
    Developer of ViewPort, the premier visual debugger for the Propeller (read the review here, thread here),
    12Blocks, the block-based programming environment (thread here)
    and PropScope, the multi-function USB oscilloscope/function generator/logic analyzer
  • turbosupraturbosupra Posts: 1,088
    edited 2010-05-22 02:56
    Hi Hanno,

    Assuming that because you didn't correct my other labels, then they were correct and the list goes

    Negative voltage____________Frequency rising edge occurrence to next rising edge occurrence in milliseconds
    Positive voltage_____________Frequency in cycles per second
    Peak to peak voltage_________Root mean square
    Average of the signal



    Or was John correct and it goes like this?

    Peak high voltage Period____________Frequency rising edge occurrence to next rising edge occurrence in milliseconds
    Peak low voltage Frequency__________Frequency in cycles per second
    Voltage swing_____________________Root mean square
    Average of the signal





    propscopesymbols.jpg

    Hanno said...
    Hi,
    Sorry I took so long- travelling...
    The bottom left is the "average" of the signal: avg=sum of measurements/number of measurements
    The bottom right is the "root mean square" of the signal: rms=sqrt(sum of measurements^2/number of measurements)
    See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_mean_square
    Hanno
  • HannoHanno Posts: 1,130
    edited 2010-05-23 00:53
    John was more correct- here's how I would define them- reading down then across:

    max: maximum measurement in V (search for highest sample)
    min: minimum measurement in V (search for lowest sample)
    peak to peak amplitude: difference between max and min in V (max-min)
    average: mean of samples (total all samples then divide by number of samples)
    period: time between repeating waveform in seconds (use a state machine to find repeating waveform then measure that time)
    frequency: frequency of repeating waveform in hz (1/period)
    rms: root mean square of signal (square root of sum of squares)

    Hanno

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Co-author of the official Propeller Guide- available at Amazon
    Developer of ViewPort, the premier visual debugger for the Propeller (read the review here, thread here),
    12Blocks, the block-based programming environment (thread here)
    and PropScope, the multi-function USB oscilloscope/function generator/logic analyzer
  • electronguyelectronguy Posts: 5
    edited 2010-05-24 16:25
    I'm a bit lost as to how some are coming up with peak negative voltage/period for the first info box.

    From the left column down:

    1. Vmax (peak)
    2. Vmin (peak)
    3. Vmax-Vmin (peak-to-peak)
    4. Vave (average/DC value)

    From the right column down:

    1. T (period of waveform = 1/f)
    2. f (frequency of waveform = 1/T)
    3. RMS


    The "line" that's visible doesn't mean the "zero" line--it simply indicates which measurement is being displayed, so the top left item isn't peak negative voltage, it's the peak maximum voltage of the waveform.

    --Scott
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