Does anyone know of a DSO with digital output to be turned on with a captured event. In other words if an event such as on the meets the capture criteria of triggered event I want to turn on an digital output such as an external light or USB date logger. I was hoping to find an DSO with a discrete output connection without using a GPIB interface and an external PC.

 

Lots of scopes can be triggered by a signal. I have never seen one on the shelf that per se is turned on by an event. Perhaps this is too obvious, but if the scope is "off" how is it going to detect an event?

Depending on the event, you might consider an MCU in sleep mode that would turn on a scope, but I suspect the "event" would be well over before the scope could boot up.

Why not tell us what you want to do, and get some more suggestions?

 

Sorry I might not have explained that well! Yes I know a DSO or any scope can be triggered. But what I am talking about is when you want to turn on external device when you scope has been set up to capture a single event. In my case I want to capture a pulse greater than 100 us using a scope but it may take hours for that to occur. When it does I wanted to use the my DSO (or another suitable DSO) to simply set an output (on the back of the scope - if one existed) to turn on something to record the event such as a tower light and a USB DAQ to record the time. Hope that helps.

 

My scope has a trig out. Bet that could be leveraged.

 

Mt scope has a trig out. Bet that could be leveraged.

Mt Scope .. did you mean My scope? What do you have. My scope (like most) has external trigger input but I don't have a trig out. Wished I did! So just wondering what you have?

 

Mt Scope .. did you mean My scope? What do you have. My scope (like most) has external trigger input but I don't have a trig out. Wished I did! So just wondering what you have?

Yes typo

I have a Siglent SDS 1202ZX.

And you gave me an idea for another project.

 

He has a Siglent SDS1202X-E ( and so do I). It has a Trigger Out BNC on the back of the oscilloscope.

Edit: spinnaker beats me to it.

 

Intere

Yes typo

I have a Siglent SDS 1202ZX.

And you gave me an idea for another project.

Nice I see it is called Pass/Fail Trigger Out. I wished my Owon SDS7102 had that!!! Glad I triggered another idea for you!!

 

Is there a reason you need to use an oscilloscope?
You can do this with just about any microcontroller or even a simple analog comparator circuit.

 

Hey wait my Owon SDS7102 has a P/F trigger out too! I did not know that? Thanks guys! I will give it a try!

 

Is there a reason you need to use an oscilloscope?
You can do this with just about any microcontroller or even a simple analog comparator circuit.

Yes but the scope is easier and faster. It's for a project at work. Thanks.

 

A scope seems like an awfully complex way to detect a pulse of a certain period and then, say, turn on lights. A simply microcontroller can do that, and in sleep mode waiting for the interrupt will draw almost no current. If that's an issue. Even if not in sleep, they draw very little current compared to DSO scopes.

Edit: The Rigol DS1054Z and related scopes also have trigger out, but it is unclear how that can by itself determine that a signal pulse is of a certain period.

 

This is a lab test and any open in a string of parts greater than 100us at 100ua is considered an failure. It is also a MIL-STD test so calibrated test equipment is required. For this test (and hopefully it works) using a DSO is certainly simple enough. We have lots of DSO's so that's why I thought of that. You are right though, there are other ways to do this. Thanks

 

A scope seems like an awfully complex way to detect a pulse of a certain period and then, say, turn on lights. A simply microcontroller can do that, and in sleep mode waiting for the interrupt will draw almost no current. If that's an issue. Even if not in sleep, they draw very little current compared to DSO scopes.

Edit: The Rigol DS1054Z and related scopes also have trigger out, but it is unclear how that can by itself determine that a signal pulse is of a certain period.

I disagree. Modern DSO can detect all kinds of complex triggers today. If you are looking for a specific trigger, I think it would be far easier to simply configure some kind of device (like a scope) to detect the trigger rather than figuring out how to program an MCU to detect the same.

 

I disagree. Modern DSO can detect all kinds of complex triggers today. If you are looking for a specific trigger, I think it would be far easier to simply configure some kind of device (like a scope) to detect the trigger rather than figuring out how to program an MCU to detect the same.

Will your scope produce a trigger when a pulse is greater the 100 us, but not less?

My scope will measure pulses automatically and display those results, but "trigger out" is not that. It is simply the trigger for the event. Some scopes can output that data in digital format (probably serial). Perhaps my focus on this requirement:

Does anyone know of a DSO with digital output to be turned on with a captured event.

is too narrow.

Sure, you can get digital output for any event from some scopes, but I suspect you cannot get output only for events >100 us or whatever with low-end scopes. That is, one would need an additional tool to determine whether the pulse width exceeded a limit -- at least for the scopes mentioned up to that point.

Maybe high-end scopes do that, but as the dialog had only mentioned low-end scopes like the Rigol and Siglent having trigger out, my intent was to clarify that trigger out was not was the same as reporting only pulses of a certain width on the trigger out channel.

 

Theoretically my scope can be setup to detect a pulse as low as >= 2ns. I have not tested it. Nor have I tested the trigger out feature.

And theoretically, I can go as high as >= 4.2 secounds

 

I believe what @jpanhalt is asking is can the oscilloscope discriminate pulses that fall within a given pulse-width window? I don't think so. The scope will trigger on an edge, rising or falling, or amplitude threshold, not on a given pulse-width, assuming it is not a logic analyzer.

 

I also have a range setting on pulse trigger. I have not looked into it because I have not needed it but looks like I can trigger when a pulse is either inside or outside a range.

And I have a Window trigger. I have Edge, Slope, Pulse, Video, Window, Interval, Dropout, Runt, Pattern and Serial. There are several options for each trigger type.

 

OWON VDS3102:
1. The Pass/Fail function monitors changes of signals and output pass or fail signals
by comparing the input signal that is within the pre-defined mask.

2. Pulse Width Trigger:
Choose Mode as "Pulse". Pulse trigger occurs according to the width of pulse.
The abnormal signals can be detected through setting up the pulse width condition.
(1) Select pulse width condition and set time.
(2) Set trigger level.
(3) Set Trig Mode and Hold Off. About the setting method, refer to Edge Trigger.

 

OWON VDS3102:
1. The Pass/Fail function monitors changes of signals and output pass or fail signals
by comparing the input signal that is within the pre-defined mask.
View attachment 167908
2. Pulse Width Trigger:
Choose Mode as "Pulse". Pulse trigger occurs according to the width of pulse.
The abnormal signals can be detected through setting up the pulse width condition.
(1) Select pulse width condition and set time.
(2) Set trigger level.
(3) Set Trig Mode and Hold Off. About the setting method, refer to Edge Trigger.

Thanks. This is actually what I found but I haven't tried it yet. So " in theory this should work. I don't think others realized that these scopes with the trigger output is actually a "Pass/Fail" trigger output.