Latest Oscilloscopes Technical Articles

Addressing Harmonic Distortion in Audio Amplifiers

Harmonic distortion can be introduced to audio amplifiers from many sources but reduced to levels below the threshold of human hearing.

April 19, 2017 by David Williams

Determining the Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) of Capacitors

Learn more about the importance of capacitor ESR, how to measure it, and what factors can affect your measurements.

March 31, 2017 by Amos Kingatua

How the Boost PFC Converter Circuit Improves Power Quality

A boost power factor correction (PFC) converter can significantly improve both the power factor and the harmonic distortion.

December 16, 2016 by David Williams

Capacitive Touch Sensing with an EFM8 Microcontroller

This project explores capacitive-touch-sense technology using an evaluation board for an EFM8 Sleepy Bee microcontroller.

December 12, 2016 by Robert Keim

Custom Microcontroller Design: Assembling, Measuring, Programming

This is part 2 of a step-by-step guide to bringing your custom microcontroller design to life.

December 02, 2016 by Carsten Pinkle

Build Your Own Low-Resistance Meter

This project will show you how to make a device that can measure resistances as low as 0.1 ohms.

October 26, 2016 by Robin Mitchell

Build Your Own LED Saber—Audio and Power Systems

In part 2 of the LED saber project, we'll assemble the power and audio systems.

October 19, 2016 by Jeremy Lee

Many Functions, One Tool: The Analog Discovery 2 from Digilent

An introduction to the Analog Discovery 2 by Digilent.

October 06, 2016 by Robin Mitchell

DIY Tools—Build Your Own Logic Probe

Having a logic probe handy is always a must for an electronics workshop. But instead of buying one, why not build your own for a fraction of the cost and have it working in an hour?

September 22, 2016 by Robin Mitchell

How to Read the I2C Bus on an Oscilloscope

Part 2 of Mastering the Oscilloscope will introduce decoding for I²C circuits.

September 20, 2016 by Mark Hughes

Basic Waveform Analysis with an Oscilloscope

In this first part of a multi-part series, we will use a Tek MDO Mixed Domain Oscilloscope to illustrate options to measure various circuit elements.

September 13, 2016 by Mark Hughes

Inspecting Electronic Circuits with an Audible Circuit Probe

When inspecting electronic circuits, most measurements are displayed visually. This tool provides audible feedback to augment your analyses.

August 31, 2016 by Mark Hughes

C-BISCUIT Power: Assembly and Testing of Regulator and Crowbar Circuits

Continuing the C-BISCUIT series, this article outlines how to populate and test the surface mount PCBs designed in a previous article using a hot air rework station and other various electronics tools.

May 31, 2016 by Patrick Lloyd

Build an Automatic Computer Display Rotator With an Arduino

Learn how to build a device which senses when your computer monitor is physically rotated, and automatically tells your computer to rotate the display accordingly.

April 12, 2016 by Matthew Davis

Building Raspberry Pi Controllers Part 5: Reading Analog Data with an RPi

Learn how to read electrical signals and data from an analog device using the Step Response technique in Part 5 of the Building Raspberry Pi Controllers series.

February 09, 2016 by Don Wilcher

An Intro to Labview and Graphical Programming Languages

LabVIEW is a graphical language targeted for equipment monitoring and control. Not using statements, it is programmed using graphic controls. Here's a great intro to this fantastic language.

December 26, 2015 by Marie Christiano

Hack Your Toaster Oven to Become a Thermocouple Measurement System

The intuitive, step-by-step procedure presented in this article will help you to successfully perform reflow soldering in your toaster oven.

December 18, 2015 by Robert Keim

Design a Luxmeter Using a Light Dependent Resistor

Take a few minutes to characterize a light dependent resistor (LDR) and you can build a simple and reasonably accurate light meter can be built using an LDR and an Arduino.

December 13, 2015 by David Williams

Design Your Own Controller for a Solder Reflow Oven

In the last installment, we built the hardware to control an AC waveform with a TRIAC as the first step in a DIY solder reflow oven. This tutorial continues the project by showing you how to set up the low-level hardware to measure temperature, read the zero-cross detector, drive the TRIAC, and print to the serial terminal using a USART.

November 17, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd

Build a Laser Communication System

Use a laser and a photo resistor to build a laser based point-to-point communication system. The best part? It's under $10.

October 22, 2015 by Jacob Smith