{"id":15014,"date":"2016-09-14T11:35:27","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T18:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=15014"},"modified":"2025-08-18T02:14:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:14:30","slug":"different-types-of-oscilloscopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/different-types-of-oscilloscopes\/","title":{"rendered":"Different Types of Oscilloscopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I laid eyes upon\u00a0an oscilloscope, I had just started working as a research assistant for a physics lab on my university campus. My first thought was “what’s this clunky, beige rectangle thing?” .<\/p>\n

\"osci\"
An oscilloscope in its natural habitat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That thought quickly evolved into “why is this clunky\u00a0beige thing so\u00a0expensive?!”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But then I soon discovered\u00a0that these devices\u00a0are incredible and insanely powerful pieces of\u00a0technology.\u00a0Oscilloscopes<\/a> have helped us understand so much about the world around us. They help us analyze circuits, learn more about stars, and probe the depths of the ocean.<\/p>\n

They do this by measuring\u00a0electrical signals in voltage over time. Waveforms<\/a> are collected and can be analyzed for frequency, amplitude, period, etc. There are three main\u00a0types of scopes – analog, digital, and PC based. I have summarized and outlined the uses of each type below.<\/p>\n

Analog:\u00a0<\/strong>These oscilloscopes, which are also sometimes known as oscilloscope CRTs, are essentially what you\u2019d find in an old TV \u2013 cathode ray tubes<\/a>. These scopes only display a single event as it occurs, and can only be stored if you have a second piece of equipment called an image storage tube, which is essentially an electron gun<\/a> (or electron emitter).<\/p>\n

Digital:\u00a0<\/strong>These oscilloscopes<\/a> save data digitally. Saving data digitally is advantageous due to the fact that the data will stay saved for an indefinite amount of time and the images are more crisp. You can plug in a USB drive and transfer saved data onto a computer for analysis, adjust the brightness of the scope, and the digital memory works a lot faster than analog memory does. On the scope itself, it can instantaneously tell you information about your waveform<\/a>, such as amplitude, frequencies, and more.<\/p>\n

PC Based:<\/strong>These scopes<\/a> are way smaller and less bulky then their counterparts. They can simply be plugged in to a computer via USB; using their support software, your PC basically becomes the oscilloscope screen.<\/p>\n

\"The
The original Analog Discovery on the left in all black. On the right, we have the all new Analog Discovery 2 sporting a swanky, sheer ensemble.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

A great example of a PC based oscilloscope<\/a>\u00a0is the\u00a0Analog Discovery 2<\/a>\u00a0(pictured above)\u00a0and the accompanying\u00a0WaveForms<\/a>\u00a02015<\/a>\u00a0software. If you are\u00a0not familiar with the software, WaveForms<\/a> is free, powerful, and you can use it with (or without!)<\/a> the\u00a0Analog Discovery <\/a>itself. It also acts as a function generator<\/a> and can generate different waveforms<\/a> (sine, cos, square, etc.). PC-based scopes\u00a0are ideal for educational purposes. They\u2019re relatively cheap, small, and are great for classrooms or home offices.\u00a0In the research lab I worked at we mainly had digital scopes. Looking back, I wish I had picked up an Analog Discovery 2<\/a>\u00a0earlier!<\/p>\n

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Ella explains the difference between common oscilloscope types.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":16711,"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,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1563],"tags":[111,499],"ppma_author":[4492],"class_list":["post-15014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guide","tag-analog-discovery","tag-oscilloscope"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ad2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4492,"user_id":41,"is_guest":0,"slug":"erickerson","display_name":"Ella Rickerson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe955cc73725d3ad87e297d094c41be82c3845c2a4488842c1a74a78ca36b60?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\/15014","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\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15014"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31965,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15014\/revisions\/31965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15014"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=15014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}