A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the new Tektronix 5 Series mixed signal oscilloscope reveals its next-generation design. Dave Pereles Tektronix As embedded systems used in everything from automobiles and airplanes to household appliances to IoT devices have gotten more complex, so too have the demands placed on test and measurement equipment. Oscilloscopes are […]
Test and Measurement Tips
The basics of digital oscilloscope acquisition controls
Digital oscilloscopes are characterized by an acquisition menu, permitting the user to choose among modes and to select the record length, horizontal position and waveform, and to turn on or off Fast Acq, Delay and XY Display. We’ll look at each of these in turn. The essence of digitalization is that points comprising a waveform […]
Measurements in Tektronix MDO 3000 oscilloscopes
In early analog oscilloscopes, users placed a transparent overlay, known as a graticule, over the screen and counted divisions to estimate waveform amplitudes at various points in time. In today’s digital storage oscilloscopes, the graticule is purely electronic, incorporated in the display. You can still count divisions to get a quick estimate, but the instrument’s […]
A first: Meter measures ac current and voltage without touching conductors
New technology called FieldSense allows open-fork, current-measuring meters to take simultaneous voltage and current measurements — not just detection — without test leads. Developed by Fluke, the new T6 true-rms Electrical Testers, the first tools to use FieldSense technology, are now available at local distributors and retailers. While the technology in the T5 detects an […]
Portable bridges reveal their stresses to data recording systems
Ravi Shukla, HBM Test and Measurement Eighteen channels of sensor data from strain gauges attached to girders supporting bridge decking helped U.S. Army Corps of Engineers technicians monitor and record stresses on a decking structure of a new portable bridge. The work took place at the Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, […]
Demystifying SPICE noise simulation
While I have covered the basics of noise simulation in SPICE before, I thought it was worth revisiting the subject to show some of the confusing results you can sometimes get and how to interpret them. The example I used earlier, a simple opamp based amplifier, didn’t show any unusual noise results but other circuits […]
Understanding and displaying the J operator
A plus times a plus is a plus. A plus times a minus is a plus. A minus times a plus is a plus. A minus times a minus is a plus. Because none of these operations results in a negative product, we must confront the hard reality that the square root of a negative […]
600-W bulk output module for modular power supplies
Excelsys Technologies announces the availability of a new 600-W output module for its CoolX series of convection-cooled modular configurable power supplies. The CmE bulk power module provides up to 600W of power from one module (occupying three slots). The addition of this module to Excelsys’ product offerings, greatly increases product and system flexibility for designers. It […]
Precision and accuracy in oscilloscopes
The precision and accuracy of voltage measurements made with a digital scope are affected by the speed at which samples are taken, i.e. the sampling rate, and sampling depth or bit depth. Bit depth is just the number of bits of information in each sample, and it directly corresponds to the resolution of each sample. […]
PXI chassis carries 58 W of power and cooling per slot
The PXIe-1095 chassis is the first PXI Chassis with 58 W of dedicated power and cooling per slot. This represents a 50% increase in power and cooling per slot compared to previously released NI PXI Express chassis. In addition to higher power, the new chassis also features a significant reduction in fan noise in its […]