Hi,
I am a university student just starting to learn and discover various test equipment functions and the skills required to use the equipment. My question applies not only to the oscilloscopes, bet lets settle on those for this time.
I am trying to develop a profound and fundamental understanding of trigger concept in an oscilloscope. I watched many tutorials and read some articles but still I can not make the ends meet inside my head, as all the information is really ,,dry" and sounds really difficult and confusing to understand. One strongly simplified explanation of trigger I really liked was ,,trigger tells the oscilloscope of when to make a screenshot", however, that is not the scientifical idea I could base my knowledge on.
My first question:
Is the trigger only a defined voltage level (that could always stay as a DC voltage) or is it some kind of periodical voltage signal (such as sine, square, etc.)
I hooked a 2Vpp 100 kHz sine to my entry level Siglent oscilloscope, I tried to play with various trigger options, even tried to use the external trigger feature, but no matter which trigger option would I choose, I could not notice the difference or the pattern of what was changing.
Second question:
What does it actually change when setting the different trigger mode. Would I see a different picture on the oscilloscope display when triggering the signal (lets say a simple square wave) on the rising or falling edges (or even those other more advanced modes)?
I also noticed that when there is no signal applied, the scope still depicts noise, and it does so as long as the trigger level is bellow certain point.
So my last question:
What is really happening (from the physical point of view) in the scope as the trigger level (starting at 0V) crosses the point where chaotic scope display starts to show a nice waveform?
I know that these questions might take a lot of time and effort to answer with great details, but it would really give me a strong foundation in understanding the trigger concept. I really value your time and effort. I want to thank you all in advance.
Vilius
I am a university student just starting to learn and discover various test equipment functions and the skills required to use the equipment. My question applies not only to the oscilloscopes, bet lets settle on those for this time.
I am trying to develop a profound and fundamental understanding of trigger concept in an oscilloscope. I watched many tutorials and read some articles but still I can not make the ends meet inside my head, as all the information is really ,,dry" and sounds really difficult and confusing to understand. One strongly simplified explanation of trigger I really liked was ,,trigger tells the oscilloscope of when to make a screenshot", however, that is not the scientifical idea I could base my knowledge on.
My first question:
Is the trigger only a defined voltage level (that could always stay as a DC voltage) or is it some kind of periodical voltage signal (such as sine, square, etc.)
I hooked a 2Vpp 100 kHz sine to my entry level Siglent oscilloscope, I tried to play with various trigger options, even tried to use the external trigger feature, but no matter which trigger option would I choose, I could not notice the difference or the pattern of what was changing.
Second question:
What does it actually change when setting the different trigger mode. Would I see a different picture on the oscilloscope display when triggering the signal (lets say a simple square wave) on the rising or falling edges (or even those other more advanced modes)?
I also noticed that when there is no signal applied, the scope still depicts noise, and it does so as long as the trigger level is bellow certain point.
So my last question:
What is really happening (from the physical point of view) in the scope as the trigger level (starting at 0V) crosses the point where chaotic scope display starts to show a nice waveform?
I know that these questions might take a lot of time and effort to answer with great details, but it would really give me a strong foundation in understanding the trigger concept. I really value your time and effort. I want to thank you all in advance.
Vilius