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Oscilloscope Essay

explanatory Essay
1446 words
1446 words
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The word oscilloscope is a word that combines from Latin and Greek language. The first part “oscillare” derives from the Latin words meaning to swing backwards and forwards. The second part comes from Classical Greek “skopein” means to observe, aim at, examine, from which developed the Latin ending “scopium”, which has been used to form names for instruments that enable the eye or ear to make observation.
An oscilloscope is a laboratory instrument that commonly used to display and analyze the waveform of electronic signals. This device draws a graph of signal voltage as a function of time. Oscilloscope usually have two-dimensional graph which electrical potential differences represent by Y-axis (vertical) and time represent by X-axis (horizontal). With positive values going upward and negative values going downward (Ask.com, 2014). In any oscilloscope, the horizontal sweep is measured in seconds per division (s/div), milliseconds per division (ms/div), microseconds per division (s/div), or nanoseconds per division (ns/div). The vertical deflection is measured in volts per division (V/div), millivolts per division (mV/div), or microvolts per division (µV/div).
The oldest form of oscilloscope, still used in some labs today, is known as the cathode-ray oscilloscope. It produces an image by the focused electron beam to travel in patterns across the face of cathode ray tube (CRT). More modern oscilloscopes electronically replicate the action of the CRT using a liquid crystal display (liquid crystal display) like the one that can be found on notebook computers screen.

Oscilloscope is acquainted as one of the most helpful instrument for testing circuits. It is able to show the signals at different points in the circuit. One way to inves...

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...show a decreasing value of 5V.

Last but not least, for Ritika,Preeti and Prem (2013), they are using Freeduino board and solder the component on that board. They are using compiler Arduino 1.0 for uploading the codes to the board, MAX 232 Line Driver, ATmega328 and other components. The reason for they are using Freeduino is that Freeduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software and Freeduino projects can be standalone or they can communicate with software running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Matlab, Processing, MaxMS ). The wave plot also can be in form of sine and square wave form.
However, same with Ruisantos, Ritika, Preeti and Prem oscilloscope project could not read negative voltage. Besides, they didn’t include the calculation of frequency, rise time and time period to be displayed on the PC.

In this essay, the author

  • Explains that the word oscilloscope combines latin and greek language to form names for instruments that enable the eye or ear to make observation.
  • Explains that an oscilloscope is a laboratory instrument that commonly used to display and analyze the waveform of electronic signals.
  • Explains the cathode-ray oscilloscope, which produces an image by the focused electron beam to travel in patterns across the face of crt.
  • Explains that oscilloscope is a useful instrument for testing circuits. it can show the signals at different points in the circuit.
  • Explains that the oscilloscope is widely used in the education field, especially at the university, and also a lifeline for electrical engineering students.
  • Explains that the conventional oscilloscope used in universities has limitations in terms of mobility, such as its bulky and heavy display screen and expensive repair costs.
  • Explains that pc-based oscilloscopes should be designed and commercialized in order to solve these problems.
  • Explains that many engineers and students have invent pc-based oscilloscopes to facilitate the process of gathering information and data.
  • Describes anubhav and manish's pc-based oscilloscope using pic atmega16. the device features dual channel plot and x-y plot, although at higher sampling rate the adc loses its 8bit precision.
  • Explains that chandan bhunia et.al (2004) introduced a low-cost pc-based virtual oscilloscope. the device function as the data acquisition and it’s fabricated with national semiconductor 808 adc analog interface.
  • Explains that arduino is a pc-based oscilloscope that uses pic microcontroller, which is complicated and requires many additional components to complete the project.
  • Explains that arduino is an easy-to-use programmable board with a simple hardware platform and free source code editor. it's designed to be really easy to use without being an expert programmer.
  • Explains that ruisantos (2013) discovers a simple and cheap implementation of oscilloscope by just connecting the arduino pin 0 to the signal that he want to read.
  • Explains that arduino's built-in adcs can read negative voltage, but would require an op-amp. the atmega328 can only read 0v (gnd).
  • Explains that haris (2010) makes an oscilloscope by using arduino. the arduino board will run and continuously send analog voltage reading to the pc using usb.
  • Explains that ritika, preeti, and prem are using freeduino board and solder the component on that board. the free-source electronics prototyping platform is flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.
  • Explains that ruisantos, ritika, preeti, and prem oscilloscope project could not read negative voltage. they didn't include calculation of frequency, rise time and time period to be displayed on the pc.
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