Oscilloscope is a device that can come handy in a number of diverse tasks. At the core, any oscilloscope has to do with measure some sort of frequencies or signals. Therefore, they can be used in laboratories, work-stations or service stations, technicians, or even hobbyists for different reasons. They are critical part of an engineer’s lab. 

The use of oscilloscope and the way of using it can vary quite a bit, depending on the type of oscilloscope that you’ve bought and the purpose for which you are using it. However, most scopes would have certain common controls. In this article, we’ll be trying to brief in the best way possible, how to use an oscilloscope. Note that this is meant for beginner users.

Oscilloscopes basically gets you the complex measurements that good old multimeters cannot handle. For example, frequency, noise, amplitude, or such time and voltage related variables. They would graph the time and voltage of the electric signals, offering you valuable data. YOu can check this review of $1000 oscilloscope.

Here are the basic steps involved in using an oscilloscope.

Basically, there are two types of scopes- digital oscilloscopes and analog oscilloscopes. Analog oscilloscopes are relatively simpler. So, for the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll be discussing the digital oscilloscopes.

Read the user-guide and find the starting button for your scope. It shouldn’t be hard to find. Start it up. Once you start it up, you’ll most probably see a straight line running horizontally across the screen, indicating no signal receipts until you have something connected to it. 

You might have to go through the user manual from the manufacturer of you scope to make the following set up:

If it is a dual channel oscilloscope, set it to channel 1.

Try to get a flat line centered on the screen- you may have to adjust the controls to get that. 

Ensure that you don’t have the display in XY mode.

If you have a waveform generator, set it to a pulse/aquare wave with 2.5V amplitude at 500Hz. Otherwise, try using the co-axial cable to do the same. When you do that, the straight line that you set earlier will start turning in to waveforms.

After you start getting the signal, adjust the time/div and volt/div in order to see difference between the oscillations and so they are set within the limits of the screen. Trigger setting can be a little complex and you can even use some sort of external trigger sources for help too. Ideally, set it to center, initially.

Depending on the model that you’ve got, check each of the controls and features you’ve got on your oscilloscope. Turn and change trigger levels to get comfortable with those. 

Grounding the oscilloscope would be a good idea to improve safety. 

Go through the user-manual and the guide for the scope before you go ahead and use it, that would be very insightful for a beginner.