Are you an electronics hobbyist and you want to buy an oscilloscope, but are still having doubts about its usefulness? We got you covered. In this article, we will discuss some of the reasons why you should purchase an oscilloscope for your hobby. However, before we go to the reasons why you should get an oscilloscope as a hobbyist, let’s discuss what oscilloscopes are first. Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about pets and hobbies, be sure to visit fareasthobby.com. Without further ado, let’s start:
What are oscilloscopes?
Oscilloscopes are mainly used by engineers in measuring various electrical phenomenon that are occurring in electronic devices. Additionally, they are used for fast testing, verification, as well as debugging of electrical circuit designs. This means that they have their uses for electrical enthusiasts who want to make their hobby easier.
With that said, the main function of an oscilloscope is for measuring voltages. They will return information in form of a graph, which will show various things regarding a voltage signal. The information shown will include time, voltage information, signal distortion, the percentage of noise in a signal, and other important values on a voltage signal.
The importance of using an oscilloscope
Every electronic device, from lights, refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, etc requires energy that is transferred to the device through electrical circuits. If you are not aware of what constitutes a circuit, it refers to the current path which connects one point to another. voltage will run through a circuit. In case of voltage malfunction, you will have to check the circuit to discover which part is the faulty one. Without an oscilloscope, the search will become trial and error, which is not advisable especially if the circuit you are trying to fix is very complex. An oscilloscope will make the process faster, easier, and more effective.
Other reasons for getting an oscilloscope
- Oscilloscopes can act as a better multimeter
As stated above, measuring the waveforms of electrical circuits is the main functionality of an oscilloscope. However, their function is not limited to that, since they will also work great for tracking constant voltages, similar to a multimeter. With that said, they are better than a multimeter in that regard, since multimeters don’t have the ability to detect minor changes in a constant voltage level.
Oscilloscopes allow for the easy collection of data
As stated above, oscilloscopes provide data in graph form. However, its data presentation is not limited to that, since there are a lot of oscilloscopes that have a CSV feature, in which the data collected are saved every few seconds, after which it will be automatically transferred to a USB flash drive. The CSV file can be opened using a spreadsheet application, which allows for further data manipulation.
You will find a lot of cases where the CSV functionality will save you time and effort, like when you want to get the data of a trigonometric waveform to get its formula.
