Blog - All Comments

RE: Enhancing Flying Probe Testers with 1.5 GHz TAP1500L Probes

DAB — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 18:25:49 GMT

Much more capable than the probes I used to use.

RE: Enhancing Flying Probe Testers with 1.5 GHz TAP1500L Probes

dougw — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 13:36:53 GMT

1pf - that is impressive

RE: Probe Points: Understanding Low Frequency Response

shabaz — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:54:33 GMT

Hi,

That's a bit confusing to follow. I think you're saying that actually there's no need to go into an AC mode if you have the TPR1000, since you can null out up to +-60V offset, i.e. that infers that you'll get flat response all the way down to DC. So the chart and table do not apply. Is my understanding correct?

RE: Understanding How To Analyze Jitter

battlecoder — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 07:30:50 GMT

This is a great summary of the issue of Jitter. It's a bit unfortunate that scopes with on-board Jitter analysis tools are normally the "highest"-end units, way outside the budget of most people (although arguably, this kind of analysis is mostly required by labs, that can probably afford them)

Now, I've seen some tools for LabView and similar software packages, but I've not seen a vendor-provided (let's say, Tektronix) software suite that at least allows for that kind of analysis to be performed on a PC connected to one of their scopes capturing data. It should (theoretically) be possible.

I have to admit, however, that I've not looked that much, but at least from the brands of scopes I own, I'm yet to see something like that.

I can only hope for a day with this kind of analysis becomes a de-facto feature for even entry or mid-level scopes. As electronics become primarily digital, this could eventually become a "must".

RE: What is EVSE? A Comprehensive Guide to Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment.

DAB — Sun, 05 May 2024 19:52:50 GMT

I find it outrageous that EV manufacturers completely ignored the lessons learned by the Society for Automotive Engineers about setting standards BEFORE everyone went off and developed proprietary charging systems.

What a way to handicap the adoption of EV's around the world.

RE: What Is New in the 4 Series B MSO

shabaz — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 21:07:08 GMT

I've gone through the online literature but it's not sufficient; this product really needs a RoadTest ( /products/roadtest/?ICID=menubar_products_roadTestsandreviews#pifragment-17295=6&pifragment-17297=6&pifragment-17293=6&pifragment-17294=4 ), so that real people can put it through some tests, and be willing to answer questions about it, so that potential customers can see several opinions about it and peer-responses to the things they want to know.

The 4 series 'B' MSO is substantially different from the older MDO 4-series, and it needs reviews.

RE: Spectrogram Types: The Many Faces of the Spectrogram

Jan Cumps — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 20:53:08 GMT

PDF download does't work. It's static text.

RE: Spectrogram Types: The Many Faces of the Spectrogram

shabaz — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 16:21:37 GMT

One thing worth mentioning is that (regardless of the method of how the spectrogram was constructed) a powerful benefit of the spectrogram is that it will allow the viewer to see even weak signals that are changing.

With a spectrum trace, that would be very difficult to see or recognize. With the spectrogram, you can see the blotches or lines of color even for weak signals, and your eye will see that changing footprint over time, to begin to understand what could be causing it in the circuit.

RE: Resolving ‘Mileage Anxiety’ with 800V EV Powertrain Design

Andrew J — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 07:44:17 GMT

I’m not convinced an 800v system is needed for the reasons covered in this article. Majority of EV drivers today don’t have range anxiety, it’s more likely to be charger anxiety: will there be a free, working charger available when I need it? There are already vehicles that can charge from 20% to 80% in under 20 mins, e.g. Hyundai Ionia 5 (IRC). In any case, drivers are coming to the realisation that they don’t always need to charge to 80% but instead charge to a level that gets them to the next planned stop. Car sat nav systems already plan routes based on efficient use of charging to speed overall journey times and that might actually be to charge for as little as 10mins.

There may be other reasons to shift to a 800v system. I wonder if size and weight is an issue: in plant vehicles, rather than cars and vans, it may not be an issue and may be more beneficial given the weight and power requirements of these types of vehicles.

Notwithstanding, it would seem the 5 series has a useful feature for battery testing.

RE: MIMO Radar System Testing Tools and Techniques

DAB — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 19:18:29 GMT

Looks interesting.

RE: 3 Things to Consider When Synchronizing Oscilloscopes for Higher Channel Count

shabaz — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 16:09:31 GMT

It shouldn't be this hard if the manufacturers dedicated some time to this (if there is a market for this feature).

There should be a proprietary (for now!) multi-conductor connector on the back of the instrument, for connecting up two (or more) instruments not just for synchronization purposes, but also for control+data transfer. Then, the instruments could recognize they are attached, and you could control everything from one screen, and be assured that everything is working as if it were one big single instrument.

RE: What is an Analog Oscilloscope?

DAB — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 19:35:20 GMT

I used many of the Tektronix analog oscilloscopes over the years.

It took a while to learn all of the interesting capabilities built into that technology, but we did a lot of good work using them.

RE: Magway Zero Emissions IMDA Case Study

michaelkellett — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 16:43:33 GMT

There is nothing new under the sun:

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/24/8834989/when-the-pneumatic-tube-carried-fast-food-people-and-cats

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiD3sH7h92CAxUQYEEAHYPaAi8QFnoECDoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabout.usps.com%2Fwho-we-are%2Fpostal-history%2Fpneumatic-tubes.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3S1EyWs5upd4SE7Kddwtwv&opi=89978449

The second article is interesting in that it explains why these systems went out of favour.

Magway have better videos but I think they'll hit the same snags.

RE: Podcast notification ︎!

Gough Lui — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 00:00:18 GMT

Hi [mention:5228250b8f3d4f4d959defcd3a675138:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05]

I had inadvertently flagged both your posts as spam as both of the posts look a bit suspicious to me. I was then informed that these are "official" postings, however, they can be improved in many ways:

The topic of the post is a very non-specific phrase "Podcast notification !" with no detail, who it is from, or what it is about. The stray space between the last word and the exclamation mark is also suspicious. In the future, please use a descriptive title for the topic that is more useful than a generic phrase.
The topic appears to be cross-posted in multiple areas in quick succession - consider posting them in the most relevant area only, or differentiate the postings for each area.
The topic text starts with a space (appearing to be a copy-paste), ending in a link to a not-well-known location. The text itself doesn't contain much context - "our very own" is Tektronix? is Keithley? or is Electronic Specifier Ltd? What is the relationship with Electronic Specifier Ltd and Keithley/Tektronix? Without much context, this post appears very suspicious as if a podcast was trying to increase listenership ...
The post is not signed-off by anyone or any organisation which also makes it unclear as to whether it is official and from where it originated.
It also doesn't look particularly detailed or fleshed out - usually most postings will have at least some images to accompany it which will make it clear at a glance what it is all about.

As I have been informed this is legitimate, perhaps your future postings should be made with more care to avoid these issues which are common amongst spam postings.

- Gough

RE: Oscilloscope Fundamentals - Is this poster useful for you ?

ggabe — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:31:58 GMT

Probe compensation in the first column appears to be a bit early. I would let the first time user to view a sine wave first, and postpone adjusting compensation to a later time.

I would put Autoset at the center for the first experience.

As next chapter after sine wave I would put inspecting the parameters of a square wave pulse - rise time, fall time, overshoot - and shortly tell what any of those can indicate.