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468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting


 

I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 - "Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual). Apart from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't get step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align the point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or is the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be nice, too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would just be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.


 

Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have the manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of the instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out of this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why it asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC triggering coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're actually feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't contain a DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make any difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to before switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering point "seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC to DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and probably the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the very beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1 division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more than shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering input buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same signal when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point is about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check / Adjust STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming from the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you to set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask you to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to be performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's done in NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to this adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this adjustment right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 -
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual). Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.


 

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in "non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering DC balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the storage side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE" to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in NON STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't contain a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check / Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's done in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 -
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual). Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.


 

Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when going to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes quite noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as expected, except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is still at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave. Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I think the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem now is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical graticule line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of triggering. This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however. When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of the A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is a bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect. However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in "non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering DC balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the storage side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE" to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in NON STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't contain a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check / Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's done in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 -
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual). Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.


 

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50 cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform at that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that we could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to the vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least - mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE, AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check / Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 -
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.




 

Hi Fabio,
The difficulty with looking at a 50-KHZ at 0.1 ms/div is that the triggering is really not that great and some aliasing is evident. I do see your point, though and I have given it a go, but the jitter doesn't help and I can't get any of the rising edges to align with the second vertical graticule line using the A trigger level. What I have just noticed, though, is that the stable triggering only takes place between the zero crossing and just after the next crest and, oddly, it seems to be the wrong slope! That is, with the slope switch in the + position, triggering is on the falling edge and vice versa. The non-storage triggering is exactly the way it should be. I think there may be something wrong, here.

With regard to the storage/non-storage buttons. They are all latched. Pushing any of the storage buttons (Norm, Envelope, Avg and Save) releases any of the other three and the Non-stope button. Pushing Non-store releases the storage buttons. I think that's what you might expect.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 19:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50 cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform at that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that we could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to the vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least - mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE, AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio





On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check / Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 -
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.




 

My bad. There is a typo here... I meant "Non-store" rather than "Non-stope" in line 6
Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Colin Herbert via Groups.Io
Sent: 05 July 2018 20:03
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Fabio,
The difficulty with looking at a 50-KHZ at 0.1 ms/div is that the triggering is really not that great and some aliasing is evident. I do see your point, though and I have given it a go, but the jitter doesn't help and I can't get any of the rising edges to align with the second vertical graticule line using the A trigger level. What I have just noticed, though, is that the stable triggering only takes place between the zero crossing and just after the next crest and, oddly, it seems to be the wrong slope! That is, with the slope switch in the + position, triggering is on the falling edge and vice versa. The non-storage triggering is exactly the way it should be. I think there may be something wrong, here.

With regard to the storage/non-storage buttons. They are all latched. Pushing any of the storage buttons (Norm, Envelope, Avg and Save) releases any of the other three and the Non-stope button. Pushing Non-store releases the storage buttons. I think that's what you might expect.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 19:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50 cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform at that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that we could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to the vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least - mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE, AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio





On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check / Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3 -
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible), or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.




 

OK Collin,
Now it makes some sense that there's no instruction to set the "NON STORE" to Off.
It's set to off at Section #2, step i, when it asks to set storage mode to "NORM".
Fine then... it means that during this step the scope is in full "digital" mode, and the waveform we're looking at is the digitized one.
regarding your triggering problem... well it does seem that it's being caused by something else, because if we think of the entire STORAGE triggering check / calibration instructions, it's rather minimalist.
It basically covers checks of the storage window mode (post trig and pre trig) and the A and B gates, and this one and only adjustment (for Storage NORM DC Bal).
I don't think the jitter is caused anywhere here, and from your description of when you try to align the rising edge of the 50KHz signal to the 2nd graticule line. that it comes out of trigger, that doesn't really make sense.
This fact alone suggests that the triggering point of the digital section is, level wise, completely unmatched to the analog section... Because, if you display this very same 50KHz in analog mode in this time base of 0.1ms, and set the trigger point of the 1st cycle at the 0 crossing... the 6th cycle will be dead on the correct spot (and so every one of the displayed cycles will be crossing the center line exactly at each of the HOR minor divisions).

And talking about your jitter / alias... Well, at 50 points per division (as the storage mode is expected to acquire/display), this 50KHz signal at 0.1ms/div would still have a healthy 10 points / cycle so, a jitter of +- 1 sample would be 1/10th of a minor division and, at this acquisition speed, much lower than the limit of the scope, I wouldn't expect nothing worse than +-1 sample.
Definitely there shouldn't be aliasing at play here either (with this healthy 10 sample / cycle). If much, a jitter of +- 0.05 div.

I will try to dig a little bit on the circuitry to see if I can come with any suggestion... but basically, from this point on, I don't think you're getting the calibration instructions wrong...or that you're missing something. It really seems that something is not working well on the digital triggering section.

KRgrds,

Fabio

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,
The difficulty with looking at a 50-KHZ at 0.1 ms/div is that the triggering
is really not that great and some aliasing is evident. I do see your point,
though and I have given it a go, but the jitter doesn't help and I can't get
any of the rising edges to align with the second vertical graticule line using
the A trigger level. What I have just noticed, though, is that the stable
triggering only takes place between the zero crossing and just after the next
crest and, oddly, it seems to be the wrong slope! That is, with the slope
switch in the + position, triggering is on the falling edge and vice versa.
The non-storage triggering is exactly the way it should be. I think there may
be something wrong, here.

With regard to the storage/non-storage buttons. They are all latched. Pushing
any of the storage buttons (Norm, Envelope, Avg and Save) releases any of the
other three and the Non-stope button. Pushing Non-store releases the storage
buttons. I think that's what you might expect.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 19:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not
actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I
didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50
cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform at
that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really
make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that we
could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is
almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to the
vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least -
mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed
cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the
least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in
storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode
works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE,
AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON
STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio





On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when
going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as
expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I
think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of
the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering
DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the
storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in
NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have
the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of
the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why
it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't
contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering
point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC
to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering
input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same
signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point
is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check /
Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming
from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you
to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to
be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's
done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to
this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3
-
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to
align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center
horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A
TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible),
or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.







 

Hi Fabio,
I have now completed the "STORAGE HORIZONTAL" section of the Calibration procedure. Absolutely everything checked out as well within tolerance, until I got to the item 4 "Check Jitter Correction". This all checked out good, too, except that while there was no jitter generally on the right-hand side of the screen, it could be seen for the first two or so cycles. This was most obvious when using 50 kHz sinewave, 20 us/DIV, 2 mV/DIV, and X10 MAG. Again the centre part of the display was within specification, but the first two or so full cycles showed noticeable jitter.
Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 23:35
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

OK Collin,
Now it makes some sense that there's no instruction to set the "NON STORE" to Off.
It's set to off at Section #2, step i, when it asks to set storage mode to "NORM".
Fine then... it means that during this step the scope is in full "digital" mode, and the waveform we're looking at is the digitized one.
regarding your triggering problem... well it does seem that it's being caused by something else, because if we think of the entire STORAGE triggering check / calibration instructions, it's rather minimalist.
It basically covers checks of the storage window mode (post trig and pre trig) and the A and B gates, and this one and only adjustment (for Storage NORM DC Bal).
I don't think the jitter is caused anywhere here, and from your description of when you try to align the rising edge of the 50KHz signal to the 2nd graticule line. that it comes out of trigger, that doesn't really make sense.
This fact alone suggests that the triggering point of the digital section is, level wise, completely unmatched to the analog section... Because, if you display this very same 50KHz in analog mode in this time base of 0.1ms, and set the trigger point of the 1st cycle at the 0 crossing... the 6th cycle will be dead on the correct spot (and so every one of the displayed cycles will be crossing the center line exactly at each of the HOR minor divisions).

And talking about your jitter / alias... Well, at 50 points per division (as the storage mode is expected to acquire/display), this 50KHz signal at 0.1ms/div would still have a healthy 10 points / cycle so, a jitter of +- 1 sample would be 1/10th of a minor division and, at this acquisition speed, much lower than the limit of the scope, I wouldn't expect nothing worse than +-1 sample.
Definitely there shouldn't be aliasing at play here either (with this healthy 10 sample / cycle). If much, a jitter of +- 0.05 div.

I will try to dig a little bit on the circuitry to see if I can come with any suggestion... but basically, from this point on, I don't think you're getting the calibration instructions wrong...or that you're missing something. It really seems that something is not working well on the digital triggering section.

KRgrds,

Fabio


On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,
The difficulty with looking at a 50-KHZ at 0.1 ms/div is that the triggering
is really not that great and some aliasing is evident. I do see your point,
though and I have given it a go, but the jitter doesn't help and I can't get
any of the rising edges to align with the second vertical graticule line using
the A trigger level. What I have just noticed, though, is that the stable
triggering only takes place between the zero crossing and just after the next
crest and, oddly, it seems to be the wrong slope! That is, with the slope
switch in the + position, triggering is on the falling edge and vice versa.
The non-storage triggering is exactly the way it should be. I think there may
be something wrong, here.

With regard to the storage/non-storage buttons. They are all latched. Pushing
any of the storage buttons (Norm, Envelope, Avg and Save) releases any of the
other three and the Non-stope button. Pushing Non-store releases the storage
buttons. I think that's what you might expect.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 19:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not
actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I
didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50
cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform at
that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really
make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that we
could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is
almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to the
vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least -
mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed
cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the
least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in
storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode
works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE,
AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON
STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio





On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when
going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as
expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I
think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of
the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering
DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the
storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption, because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in
NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have
the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of
the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why
it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't
contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering
point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from AC
to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e. 1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering
input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same
signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point
is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check /
Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming
from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you
to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is to
be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's
done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to
this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section #3
-
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to
align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center
horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A
TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite possible),
or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.







 

Hello Colin,
I think I've reached my limit here to what I can understand / suggest, regarding a scope I don't own and don't have previous experience with.
I can't understand very well how can the jitter be less at right-hand side of the screen, and worse on the left side... I could even think of it as a side-effect of the pre-trig visualization... but first of all, I think this step of the calibration is done in the "post-trig" visualization... and second, it would take an appreciable amount of variation of the sampling rate (in comparison to the "play" rate, being D-to-A converted and displayed)... Which I don't think it's the case.. .but this AD / DA is too intricate to understand it by just quick reading the manual.
For what it's worth, it did cross my mind about an hypothesis... What would happen if the sample rate is not being correctly adjusted accordingly by the sweep time/div dials?
Since this scope works with a fixed 50 samples/div concept, I suppose that it needs to adjust the sampling rate in accordance to the position of this selector... and I imagine that being operated by leaf switches, that it can be undersampling at some speeds, leading to increased jitter...
Since the same fault would be affecting the play-back of the waveform, such a fault would not turn itself in easily (with less detailed waveforms).
Hope it helps somehow.
KRgrds,
Fabio




On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 02:48 PM, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,
I have now completed the "STORAGE HORIZONTAL" section of the Calibration
procedure. Absolutely everything checked out as well within tolerance, until I
got to the item 4 "Check Jitter Correction". This all checked out good, too,
except that while there was no jitter generally on the right-hand side of the
screen, it could be seen for the first two or so cycles. This was most obvious
when using 50 kHz sinewave, 20 us/DIV, 2 mV/DIV, and X10 MAG. Again the centre
part of the display was within specification, but the first two or so full
cycles showed noticeable jitter.
Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 23:35
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

OK Collin,
Now it makes some sense that there's no instruction to set the "NON STORE" to
Off.
It's set to off at Section #2, step i, when it asks to set storage mode to
"NORM".
Fine then... it means that during this step the scope is in full "digital"
mode, and the waveform we're looking at is the digitized one.
regarding your triggering problem... well it does seem that it's being caused
by something else, because if we think of the entire STORAGE triggering check
/ calibration instructions, it's rather minimalist.
It basically covers checks of the storage window mode (post trig and pre trig)
and the A and B gates, and this one and only adjustment (for Storage NORM DC
Bal).
I don't think the jitter is caused anywhere here, and from your description of
when you try to align the rising edge of the 50KHz signal to the 2nd graticule
line. that it comes out of trigger, that doesn't really make sense.
This fact alone suggests that the triggering point of the digital section is,
level wise, completely unmatched to the analog section... Because, if you
display this very same 50KHz in analog mode in this time base of 0.1ms, and
set the trigger point of the 1st cycle at the 0 crossing... the 6th cycle will
be dead on the correct spot (and so every one of the displayed cycles will be
crossing the center line exactly at each of the HOR minor divisions).

And talking about your jitter / alias... Well, at 50 points per division (as
the storage mode is expected to acquire/display), this 50KHz signal at
0.1ms/div would still have a healthy 10 points / cycle so, a jitter of +- 1
sample would be 1/10th of a minor division and, at this acquisition speed,
much lower than the limit of the scope, I wouldn't expect nothing worse than
+-1 sample.
Definitely there shouldn't be aliasing at play here either (with this healthy
10 sample / cycle). If much, a jitter of +- 0.05 div.

I will try to dig a little bit on the circuitry to see if I can come with any
suggestion... but basically, from this point on, I don't think you're getting
the calibration instructions wrong...or that you're missing something. It
really seems that something is not working well on the digital triggering
section.

KRgrds,

Fabio


On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,
The difficulty with looking at a 50-KHZ at 0.1 ms/div is that the triggering
is really not that great and some aliasing is evident. I do see your point,
though and I have given it a go, but the jitter doesn't help and I can't get
any of the rising edges to align with the second vertical graticule line
using
the A trigger level. What I have just noticed, though, is that the stable
triggering only takes place between the zero crossing and just after the
next
crest and, oddly, it seems to be the wrong slope! That is, with the slope
switch in the + position, triggering is on the falling edge and vice versa.
The non-storage triggering is exactly the way it should be. I think there
may
be something wrong, here.

With regard to the storage/non-storage buttons. They are all latched.
Pushing
any of the storage buttons (Norm, Envelope, Avg and Save) releases any of
the
other three and the Non-stope button. Pushing Non-store releases the storage
buttons. I think that's what you might expect.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 19:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not
actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I
didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50
cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform
at
that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really
make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that
we
could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is
almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to
the
vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least -
mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed
cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the
least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in
storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode
works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE,
AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON
STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio





On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when
going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes
quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as
expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is
still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I
think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem
now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical
graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of
triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of
the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is
a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering
DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the
storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption,
because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON
STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in
NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have
the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of
the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense
out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why
it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of
the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't
contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not
make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering
point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from
AC
to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e.
1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't
actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering
input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same
signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd
vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point
is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check /
Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming
from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you
to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever
ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is
to
be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's
done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to
this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section
#3
-
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I
can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to
align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center
horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the
the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A
TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite
possible),
or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it
would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.









On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 02:48 PM, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,
I have now completed the "STORAGE HORIZONTAL" section of the Calibration
procedure. Absolutely everything checked out as well within tolerance, until I
got to the item 4 "Check Jitter Correction". This all checked out good, too,
except that while there was no jitter generally on the right-hand side of the
screen, it could be seen for the first two or so cycles. This was most obvious
when using 50 kHz sinewave, 20 us/DIV, 2 mV/DIV, and X10 MAG. Again the centre
part of the display was within specification, but the first two or so full
cycles showed noticeable jitter.
Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 23:35
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

OK Collin,
Now it makes some sense that there's no instruction to set the "NON STORE" to
Off.
It's set to off at Section #2, step i, when it asks to set storage mode to
"NORM".
Fine then... it means that during this step the scope is in full "digital"
mode, and the waveform we're looking at is the digitized one.
regarding your triggering problem... well it does seem that it's being caused
by something else, because if we think of the entire STORAGE triggering check
/ calibration instructions, it's rather minimalist.
It basically covers checks of the storage window mode (post trig and pre trig)
and the A and B gates, and this one and only adjustment (for Storage NORM DC
Bal).
I don't think the jitter is caused anywhere here, and from your description of
when you try to align the rising edge of the 50KHz signal to the 2nd graticule
line. that it comes out of trigger, that doesn't really make sense.
This fact alone suggests that the triggering point of the digital section is,
level wise, completely unmatched to the analog section... Because, if you
display this very same 50KHz in analog mode in this time base of 0.1ms, and
set the trigger point of the 1st cycle at the 0 crossing... the 6th cycle will
be dead on the correct spot (and so every one of the displayed cycles will be
crossing the center line exactly at each of the HOR minor divisions).

And talking about your jitter / alias... Well, at 50 points per division (as
the storage mode is expected to acquire/display), this 50KHz signal at
0.1ms/div would still have a healthy 10 points / cycle so, a jitter of +- 1
sample would be 1/10th of a minor division and, at this acquisition speed,
much lower than the limit of the scope, I wouldn't expect nothing worse than
+-1 sample.
Definitely there shouldn't be aliasing at play here either (with this healthy
10 sample / cycle). If much, a jitter of +- 0.05 div.

I will try to dig a little bit on the circuitry to see if I can come with any
suggestion... but basically, from this point on, I don't think you're getting
the calibration instructions wrong...or that you're missing something. It
really seems that something is not working well on the digital triggering
section.

KRgrds,

Fabio


On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,
The difficulty with looking at a 50-KHZ at 0.1 ms/div is that the triggering
is really not that great and some aliasing is evident. I do see your point,
though and I have given it a go, but the jitter doesn't help and I can't get
any of the rising edges to align with the second vertical graticule line
using
the A trigger level. What I have just noticed, though, is that the stable
triggering only takes place between the zero crossing and just after the
next
crest and, oddly, it seems to be the wrong slope! That is, with the slope
switch in the + position, triggering is on the falling edge and vice versa.
The non-storage triggering is exactly the way it should be. I think there
may
be something wrong, here.

With regard to the storage/non-storage buttons. They are all latched.
Pushing
any of the storage buttons (Norm, Envelope, Avg and Save) releases any of
the
other three and the Non-stope button. Pushing Non-store releases the storage
buttons. I think that's what you might expect.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 19:29
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hi Collin,
You're welcome... It's more challenging to solve puzzles when you're not
actually on the driver's seat.

Right out of the box I can't see a flaw in your reasoning... I confess I
didn't make the math that 50KHz at 0.1ms/div would give something like 50
cycles...
I agree it seems really silly to try to adjust the crossing of the waveform
at
that particular cross-hair, with such dense waveform. 20us/div would really
make more sense in that respect.
Or maybe... they really meant it to be densely packed with cycles, so that
we
could "disregard" the rising edge slope (at that density, the rising edge is
almost a vertical line, that we would only need to make sure is aligned to
the
vertical graticule).
If there's no mistake in the instructions, it should have - at least -
mentioned that we should be aligning the leading edge of the 6th displayed
cycle, and not just "Align the leading edge"... that's too vague to say the
least.

Now, regarding my doubt whether the procedure is meant to be carried out in
storage mode or not, I have a doubt: How does the "NON STORE" button mode
works (mechanically)?
Is that when we press some of the STORAGE MODE buttons (say, NORM, ENVELOPE,
AVG, or SAVE), does it make the "NON STORE" button to pull out?
That would explain why there's no instruction to explicitly set the "NON
STORE" button to OFF (out).

KRgrds,

Fabio





On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


Hi Fabio,

Firstly, thank you for giving this some thought. Some of my observations:

1. Check STORAGE WINDOW Operation. This all works fine, except that when
going
to "d. set STORAGE WINDOW PRE TRIG" the triggering jitter becomes
quite
noticeable; it is less so in POST TRIG.
2. Check A and B+ GATES.
Set NON-STORE On; A TIME/DIV 0.1 ms; B TIME/DIV 20 us. All works as
expected,
except for the jitter when in NORM storage mode - Non-storage there is a
rock-solid trace with no jitter at all.
3. Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance (R126)
Set CH1 VOLTS/DIV 5mV; HORIZ DISPLAY A. Remember that the A sweep is
still
at 0.1 ms/DIV and so there are some 50 full cycles of a 50-kHz sine-wave.
Trying to set anything with the A TRIGGER LEVEL is nigh on impossible. I
think
the sweep should be A at 20 us/DIV, showing ten full cycles. The problem
now
is that trying to align the leading edge with the second vertical
graticule
line at the horizontal centre graticule line results in loss of
triggering.
This alignment can be done using the horizontal position control, however.
When aligned in this way, switching between AC and DC Trigger coupling of
the
A sweep shows no movement.

Have I achieved what is required, or am I again missing something?

It is a pity that Reed Dickinson hasn't seen this thread, as I think he is
a
bit of an expert on the 468 and he certainly holds them in some respect.
However, I repeat my thanks to you, Fabio.

Regards, Colin.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fabio
Trevisan
Sent: 05 July 2018 17:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 468 DSO Calibration/troubleshooting

Hello Collin,

Regarding my last statement (the P.S.), that this check should be made in
"non-store" mode, I'm giving second thoughts at it.
I`m not sure yet, but I just found out that there are two "NORM triggering
DC
balance" adjustments... one on the analog side and another one on the
storage
side...
So, it seems weird that we could even be able to adjust the STORAGE NORM
triggering DC balance in any mode that isn't a storage mode.

On the other hand, I may still be correct on my initial assumption,
because
the flow of the instructions and the explicit instruction to set "NON
STORE"
to ON, at Section #2, step g.
I`m only not sure if that adjustment (R126) would be even doable while in
NON
STORE mode...

I`ll get back to it as soon as I can dig a little bit more on the manual.

Rgrds,

Fabio



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 08:23 am, Fabio Trevisan wrote:


Hello Colin,

I don't own a 468 and have no particular experience with it, but I have
the
manuals (in PDF form) and since your doubt is related to understaing of
the
instructions, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make sense
out
of
this part of the instruction that you're doubtful at.

At this step, the only thing that doesn't seem really clear to me is why
it
asks specifically to align the leading edge of the sine-wave to the 2nd
graticule line (why the 2nd.???)..
But, regardless of not understanding that, I think the purpose of this
calibration step is clear... Is to make a "differential" assessment of
the
triggering level shift, between using AC triggering coupling and DC
triggering
coupling...
So, basically what it is asking for, is for you to make sure that the
triggering point doesn't move between AC and DC coupling, when you're
actually
feeding a signal that already swings about 0V...
I mean, if the input signal is swinging about 0V (i.e. if it doesn't
contain
a
DC level), changing the triggering coupling from AC to DC should not
make
any
difference, and therefore, the triggering point, whatever it was set to
before
switching to DC, the wave form must remain in the same position.
If the waveform shifts horizontally, than it means that the triggering
point
"seen" by the triggering circuit have changed when switching over from
AC
to
DC, which it shouldn't.

Giving second thoughts to the instruction, it's not much different than
adjusting the Norm DC triggering balance of a 464 (which I own), and
probably
the same as the 465 (more common).
the only difference is that, for the 464, we're asked for looking at the
very
beginning of the sweep, and not at the 2nd vertical graticule line (i.e.
1
division after the sweep actually started).
This difference in procedure (from the non store scope), doesn't
actually
matter to what the DC balance adjustment is doing (which is nothing more
than
shifting the DC level of the actual signal being fed to the triggering
input
buffer, with the intent to making it match with the level of the same
signal
when AC coupled).
The only reason I think they're doing that (adjusting at the 2nd
vertical
graticule line iso at the beginning of the sweep), is because this point
is
about the actual point on the display where the triggering point of the
digital stored signal is supposed to be displayed.

P.S. Also note that, although this adjustment step is called "Check /
Adjust
STORAGE NORM Trigger DC balance", by following the instructions coming
from
the previous steps, I understand (it's my conclusion though) that this
adjustment is not meant to be performed in storage mode.
The previous section, "#2 Check A and B+ gates", at step g. it asks you
to
set the "NON STORE" button to ON position... and then it doesn't ever
ask
you
to change it to OFF, so, by the flow of the procedure, the #3 check is
to
be
performed in NON STORE mode.
Therefore, this jitter that you mentioned you're getting on storage mode
should not interfere with you performing this adjustment (because it's
done
in
NON STORE mode).

Now, talking about this jitter... I don't think it has any relation to
this
adjustment, and it's probably not going to be fixed by setting this
adjustment
right.

I hope I was able to help you somehow.

KRgrds,

Fabio




On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:08 am, Colin Herbert wrote:


I have got through the calibration/adjustment procedure up to "Storage
Triggering". My problems now are twofold. I can't understand Section
#3
-
"Check/Adjust Storage NORM Trigger DC Balance" (P4-89 in the manual).
Apart
from the fact that the storage triggering has a deal of jitter, I
can't
get
step (e) to make sense. I am supposed to "use the A TRIGGER LEVEL to
align
the
point where the sine-wave's leading edge intersects the center
horizontal
graticule line with the 2nd vertical graticule line". Because of the
the
jitter and the fact that the triggering fails when I adjust the A
TRIGGER
LEVEL, this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong (quite
possible),
or
is
the manual giving me the wrong information? Help!
If anyone has an idea of how I can eliminate the jitter, that would be
nice,
too. There is no jitter in "NON STORE" operation. I was hoping it
would
just
be something simple like a switch needing cleaning, or an IC needing
reseating, but nothing has given me any clues so far...
Colin.