I am newly interested in electronics and am planning to buy a low-cost oscilloscope, like the Rigol 1054Z. One thing that I'd like to do is to measure "non-periodic" events, e.g. the signal after I press, switch or release a button in my circuit. And I should note that the signal in the circuit itself might be periodic before the event that I want to measure, say AC or DC with PWM.
Is this a standard feature on all oscilloscopes (including the 1054Z)?
When googling for "oscilloscope non-periodic" I came across this article ( [url=http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/t_and_m/oscilloscope/oscilloscope-trigger.php]http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/t_and_m/oscilloscope/oscilloscope-trigger.php[/url] ), which suggested that it was no problem, but I'd like to verify this, before I go out and buy something that does not meet my needs.
I suggest you watch the video in this thread. It will help with many questions regarding oscilloscopes.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/oscilloscope-training-class-%28long%29/
It depends on what you mean with "measure". Any scope (even some old analog banger, but I guess that's not what you want anyways) should be able to trigger to external events (i.e. a button press). That's pretty much standard on scopes. However, if you want to trigger on specific signal properties (i.e. runts, specific signal properties, digital sequence) then you'd need a scope with advanced trigger capabilities which usually aren't available in the low end class.
I suggest you think about what exactly you need (not just now, but also in the near future), as you might well find that a low end scope doesn't fit your needs. In which case I'd also consider buying a more advanced second hand scope.
As a beginner it's quite hard to know exactly what I'll need in the future, but one thing that I DO know that I would need is to trigger on specific signal properties. Example: If I run a DC PWM signal through my circuit and then press a button to cut the signal off, I'd like to trigger a measurement/capture based on the fact that the signal is no longer there (e.g. 0V level for more than x Microseconds).
And ideally it would be able to capture measurements on an ongoing basis, so when the trigger is "fired", it would still have some values right before the trigger event (Not sure, if this is possible though).
So if this is only possible with an advanced scope, what is the technical term to look for in the feature list (other than "advanced trigger capabilities", which probably is a bit too generic)?
Thanks & best regards,
Bernhard
By "measure" I'm referring to displaying the signal on the screen.
As a beginner it's quite hard to know exactly what I'll need in the future, but one thing that I DO know that I would need is to trigger on specific signal properties. Example: If I run a DC PWM signal through my circuit and then press a button to cut the signal off, I'd like to trigger a measurement/capture based on the fact that the signal is no longer there (e.g. 0V level for more than x Microseconds).
And ideally it would be able to capture measurements on an ongoing basis, so when the trigger is "fired", it would still have some values right before the trigger event (Not sure, if this is possible though).