{"id":20966,"date":"2017-06-13T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=20966"},"modified":"2021-06-11T09:33:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T16:33:37","slug":"exploring-the-analog-discovery-2-taking-the-first-measurement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/exploring-the-analog-discovery-2-taking-the-first-measurement\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Analog Discovery 2: Taking the First Measurement"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past<\/a>, I have admittedly spent a good deal of my time living in fear of oscilloscopes. They were just so big, clunky looking, and seemed intimidatingly complex. Historically whenever I was presented with a situation in which one would have been a possible solution, I just oscillonoped right out of there. But now I have decided to face my demons, to square up against the waves of fear, to not freak out at the mention of frequency. So I amped up my \u2018tude ,\u00a0<\/strong>cali-braced myself, and accepted the idea that no matter how many puns I made I would eventually have to get on with actually learning the content.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I began my journey.<\/p>\n

I should mention that for the duration of this learning experience I left my webcam on record so that I could later give Kaitlyn a “expressive review” of the setup process. I will be incorporating the\u00a0images\u00a0corresponding to the events of this post so you may truly enjoy the emotional experience\u00a0that is getting started with this product.<\/em><\/p>\n

After grabbing my own\u00a0Analog Discovery 2<\/a>\u00a0(you can get your own too from the Digilent Store!)<\/a> I proceeded to make my way to the product’s homepage<\/a> to learn what my next steps would be. Immediately the top right corner caught my eye.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Well I like quickness, and I do want to get started. This seems to be the place I need to be. After clicking over and proceeding with the unboxing, I moved right into step two- downloading the software.<\/p>\n

Downloading WaveForms was so easy that I felt kind of uncomfortable with feeling as self-satisfied as I did about having breezed through the process. Honestly I had more trouble and spent more time plugging the flywires into the Analog Discovery itself, and by trouble I mean I tried to plug them in upside down, and by time I mean about eight tense seconds. But in the end, I managed to pass the first level of using the Analog Discovery 2.<\/p>\n

Now on to the actual, you know, using<\/em> part.<\/p>\n

After plugging in my micro USB cable (correct side up this time, I am evolving) I opened WaveForms and was greeted with a hopeful looking loading bar pop up window…<\/p>\n

\"\"
*Holds breath*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Annnddddd then another pop up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“PLL Not Locked”<\/p>\n

Huh. A challenge has been issued. Tapping on my best IT wisdom, I unplugged the cable and plugged it back in again. Same error.<\/p>\n

This means war.<\/p>\n

Arming myself with information from the troubleshooting page, I scoured for possible solutions to the issue but I was unable to locate my specific problem.\u00a0So I turned to the Diligent Forum<\/a>. Fortunately since Kaitlyn was in today, this meant I turned around in my chair and asked for help loudly across the office.<\/p>\n

After some examination and Kaitlyn-sorcery\u00a0she diagnosed the problem as a broken device. It turns out the one I had grabbed laying around the office was the non-functioning one we kept around to take photos of.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Well then”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Huh. If this is the universe attempting to instruct me that I was not meant to ever get the hang of using desktop instrumentation, then I would like to remind said universe that according to my mother and most of my teachers listening to directions is not my strong suit. I will<\/em> figure this out.<\/p>\n

After disposing of the offending device and trying again, I found success! I was able to easily proceed through step four of the Quick Start and take my first measurement using the Oscilloscope and the Waveform Generator!<\/p>\n

I have now gotten the hang of setting up and doing my first trial run of an oscilloscope! I hold for applause, but people seem to be otherwise occupied. That’s okay. I know what really will serve showcase my newfound skill… a project!<\/p>\n

I begin brainstorming and looking around my desk for inspiration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I decide that my first project with my newfound knowledge will be a fidget spinner measurement device. The idea will be to use the Analog Discovery 2 to measure who can spin it the fastest because I think it will be a good way to explore using the oscilloscope function. Also I had been practicing this skill for about 3 days because I am the worst kind of person. I was hoping that my idea to use Analog Discovery 2 to measure the speed of a fidget spinner would demonstrate my honed fine motor skills as opposed to a complete misunderstanding of instrumentation tools and how to use them.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for next week’s installment where we see if the Master Fidget Spinner Plan succeeds!<\/p>\n

0<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div>
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<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part two of this introductory Analog Discovery 2 series, Miranda attempts to set up and take her first measurement with the Analog Discovery 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":20968,"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":[20,4312],"tags":[1736],"ppma_author":[4485],"class_list":["post-20966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-products","category-usb-scopes-analyzers-generators","tag-analog-discovery-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/opengrab.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4485,"user_id":36,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mirandamay7","display_name":"Miranda Hansen","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcab037c32924b9f9b3ca4898e179f2764cb7d9a82aa2bd475170c8aaa884e1c?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\/20966","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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20966"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=20966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}