This tutorial will teach you about the oscilloscope's layout, its different probes, and how to use some of its analysis tools. Along the way, you will learn the difference between two types of signals: analog signals and digital signals.

The following diagram shows some different parts of the oscilloscope. Not everything will be explained in complete detail here. You will not even need to use everything on the oscilloscope for this class.

The Soft Keys are used to select and change on-screen options.
The Intensity Control adjusts the brightness of the screen. If your waveform appears faint on the display, turn the intensity up so you can see it!

The Channel Select buttons are used to turn the signals on or off. Press the button twice to toggle on/off.

The Entry Knob is used to scroll through and select on-screen options.
The Auto Scale button is magical. More often than not, pressing this button will automatically scale and place your waveforms on the screen perfectly.

The other controls pointed out in the diagram are described simply by their names. When using the oscilloscope, play around with them for a bit to see how they work!

This is one of the oscilloscope's analog probes. It is used to analyze analog signals.

Analog signals differ from digital signals in that they vary anywhere between what is considered on (1) and off (0). Digital signals, on the other hand, are either on (1) or off (0). There are no in-between values.

When using the analog probe, always connect the black alligator clip to ground.

In this circuit we will be analyzing a clock signal. Notice that the circuit itself is thought of as a digital circuit but we see an analog signal with the probes. This is because we are measuring the voltage of the circuit, which is an analog measurement. It takes time (even if it is a very short amount of time) for a voltage to be changed. In this case, the voltage is being raised from ground to VCC.

This is the oscilloscope's logic analyzer. It is used for digital signals.

In contrast with the analog probes, when using the logic analyzer you will only see square waves. As explained earlier, a digital signal is either considered on or off and there are no values in between. The following video will show how to use the logic analyzer by analyzing the same clock signal that was probed in the analog probe video above.

When using the logic analyzer, be sure to connect the black pin to ground.

These are some of the analysis tools that the oscilloscope has that you will need to understand for this class. Understanding these well will also be a great aid for future electrical engineering classes.

The trigger tools cause the oscilloscope to freeze frame on a certain event or trigger. The buttons in the trigger control section allow you to customize the trigger. For example, it can be configured to trigger when a signal goes high, or when a particular pattern is found. When a trigger occurs, the trigger location will be in the middle of the oscilloscope display, at the line on 0s.

Before using the trigger tools, press Mode|Coupling and change the mode to Normal with the first soft key.

The following video will show how to use the trigger tools to find the exact moment an event occurs, like a button getting pressed.

The measure tools allow you to measure different characteristics of a signal or group of signals. The following video will show how to set up automatic measurements and how to make manual measurements.

The oscilloscope has a screenshot feature, but the software required on Windows for it no longer works. Thus, you must take a picture of the oscilloscope screen with your phone, then email it to yourself or otherwise get the file on the computer for inclusion in your lab report.

When taking pictures, be sure the entire oscilloscope screen is visible. Also be sure to take a picture with any measurements that you were asked to make visible on the screen (using the measure tools).

If you don't have a phone or your phone's camera isn't good enough to produce legible pictures (or your phone doesn't have a camera), ask a friend to take the picture for you, or ask a TA to help you with it.

If the output looks crazy, try switching the probe connections.