{"id":14735,"date":"2016-07-15T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T17:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=14735"},"modified":"2021-06-16T14:02:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T21:02:41","slug":"making-sure-you-get-the-most-accurate-measurements-through-calibration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/making-sure-you-get-the-most-accurate-measurements-through-calibration\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Sure You Get the Most Accurate Measurements Through Calibration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you familiar with <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\">WaveForms 2015<\/a>, you know that you can install it on either your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/How-to-Install-Waveforms-2015-in-IOS\/\">Mac<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/How-to-Install-WaveForms-2015-in-Linux\/\">Linux<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/How-to-Install-WaveForms-2015-in-Windows\/\">Windows<\/a> machines. You probably also know that it provides the user interface for the <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\">Analog Discovery 2<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer\/\">Analog Discovery<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/electronics-explorer-all-in-one-usb-oscilloscope-multimeter-workstation\/\">Electronics Explorer Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14433\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14433\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14433 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/all-4-demo-e1464899195606-600x124.png\" alt=\"all 4 demo\" width=\"600\" height=\"124\" data-wp-pid=\"14433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/all-4-demo-e1464899195606-600x124.png 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/all-4-demo-e1464899195606-768x158.png 768w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/all-4-demo-e1464899195606-1024x211.png 1024w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/all-4-demo-e1464899195606-800x165.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oscilloscope of WaveForms 2015 in Mac, Windows, and Linux.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When you first open <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\">WaveForms 2015<\/a>, the first window you will see is the Device Manager. In the Device Manager, you can pick the way you want to run WaveForms 2015, whether that is with one of the above mentioned boards or in Demo Mode.<\/p>\n<p>If you are connected to a device, not only can you use all of the tools included in <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\">WaveForms 2015<\/a>, but you can take advantage of two of the often-overlooked tools within the Device Manager. These are the Rename tool and the Calibration tool.<\/p>\n<p>The Rename tool allows you to give your device a unique name. This way, if you are collaborating in a large group with say, multiple\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\">Analog Discovery 2<\/a>&#8216;s, they won&#8217;t all show up with the same default name (Discovery2). You can name it a combination of upper or lower case letters, and numbers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14907\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14907\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14907 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2-rename-e1466265741625-600x456.jpg\" alt=\"2 - rename\" width=\"600\" height=\"456\" data-wp-pid=\"14907\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2-rename-e1466265741625-600x456.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2-rename-e1466265741625.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14907\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rename tool can be accessed through the Device Manager.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That&#8217;s pretty neat, but in my opinion the most powerful tool in the Device Manager of <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\">WaveForms 2015<\/a> is the Calibration tool.<\/p>\n<p>To open the Calibration Window, in the top left of the Device Manager, click Calibrate.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14906 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/1-device-manager-e1466265679651-600x466.jpg\" alt=\"1- device manager\" width=\"600\" height=\"466\" data-wp-pid=\"14906\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/1-device-manager-e1466265679651-600x466.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/1-device-manager-e1466265679651.jpg 659w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the Calibration window you&#8217;ll see the Calibrate tab, with all of the tools you can calibrate, the Parameters tab, and the References tabs. The Parameters and References tabs contain values used to define the calibration of the device. I highly recommend that you don&#8217;t change these manually if you can avoid it.<\/p>\n<p>Using a reliable <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/autorange-digital-multimeter-ms8217\/\">DMM<\/a>, a breadboard, and some pin headers, you can use the Calibration Wizard to do an automatic calibration. To launch the Calibration Wizard, click on the\u00a0Wizard button at the top of the Device Calibration Window.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14905\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14905\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14905 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/4-calibration-window-e1466265598510-600x490.jpg\" alt=\"The device calibration window. You can see the wizard button on the top left.\" width=\"600\" height=\"490\" data-wp-pid=\"14905\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/4-calibration-window-e1466265598510-600x490.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/4-calibration-window-e1466265598510-168x137.jpg 168w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/4-calibration-window-e1466265598510.jpg 648w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14905\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Device Calibration Window. You can see the Wizard button on the top left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Calibration Wizard will take you through a series of measurements and automatic calibrations. To view the full instructions for getting an accurate calibration, check out this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/How-to-Calibrate-the-Analog-Discovery-2\/\">Device Calibration tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14904\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14904\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/How-to-Calibrate-the-Analog-Discovery-2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14904\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/FNIKB3NIPH0DC4S-600x535.jpg\" alt=\"The initial set up for calibration. \" width=\"600\" height=\"535\" data-wp-pid=\"14904\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/FNIKB3NIPH0DC4S-600x535.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/FNIKB3NIPH0DC4S.jpg 608w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14904\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The initial set-up for calibration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the end you can see that after calibration my <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\">Analog Discovery 2<\/a>\u00a0was much more accurate than before:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14903\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14903\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14903\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/comparison-e1466264693842-600x163.jpg\" alt=\"Both images show channel one of the oscilloscope reading a zero from waveform generator one. The left capture shows without calibration, and the right capture shows with calibration. \" width=\"600\" height=\"163\" data-wp-pid=\"14903\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/comparison-e1466264693842-600x163.jpg 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/comparison-e1466264693842-768x209.jpg 768w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/comparison-e1466264693842-800x218.jpg 800w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/comparison-e1466264693842.jpg 853w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14903\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Both images show channel one of the oscilloscope reading a zero from Waveform Generator one. The left capture shows without calibration, and the right capture shows with calibration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For more information about getting started with your <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\">Analog Discovery 2<\/a>, make sure to check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLSTiCUiN_BoLtf_bWtNzhb3VUP-KDvv91\">AD2 quick start video series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-left'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style6 like-14735 jlk' data-task='like' data-post_id='14735' data-nonce='b777872406' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post-pro\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-14735 lc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class='action-unlike'><a class='unlbg-style6 unlike-14735 jlk' data-task='unlike' data-post_id='14735' data-nonce='b777872406' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post-pro\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Unlike' \/><span class='unlc-14735 unlc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div> <div class='status-14735 status align-left'>Be the 1st to vote.<\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kaitlyn demonstrates how to calibrate properly for the best results in this comprehensive tutorial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":14904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4312,1563],"tags":[111,1736,104,144,452],"ppma_author":[4466],"class_list":["post-14735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usb-scopes-analyzers-generators","category-guide","tag-analog-discovery","tag-analog-discovery-2","tag-project-2","tag-tutorial-2","tag-waveforms"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/FNIKB3NIPH0DC4S.jpg","authors":[{"term_id":4466,"user_id":18,"is_guest":0,"slug":"kaitlyn","display_name":"Kaitlyn Franz","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9276021eaa44781ce19f364cfca46ada25e1500769cf4803a095a5bae83c912a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":"","9":"","10":""}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14735"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=14735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}