1 EEVblog #279 - How NOT To Blow Up Your Oscilloscope!
Widely cited explanation of why oscilloscope grounds are tied to earth and how careless probing of mains or earthed circuits can destroy the scope.
Topic
oscilloscope
37 videos. Ranked by independent recommendations, not by views.
2 EEVblog #168 - How To Set Up An Electronics Lab
Dave Jones runs through the equipment a hobby electronics lab needs, often recommended to people choosing a first oscilloscope or kitting out a bench.
3 #37: Use a scope to measure the length and impedance of coax
Shows how to measure a cable's characteristic impedance with an oscilloscope using time domain reflectometry, often cited when transmission line questions come up.
4 #88: Cheap and simple TDR using an oscilloscope and 74AC14 Schmitt Trigger Inverter
Builds a simple fast-edge pulse generator from a Schmitt trigger inverter and uses it with an oscilloscope as a makeshift time domain reflectometer for cables.
5 EEVblog #453 - Mysteries of x1 Oscilloscope Probes Revealed
Dave Jones explains how passive x1 scope probes work and why their bandwidth is far lower than x10; cited when fast signals look wrong through a switchable probe.
6 EEVblog #594 - How To Measure Power Supply Ripple & Noise
Dave Jones covers measuring power supply ripple and noise with an oscilloscope; a 40 minute episode cited when probing switching converters shows misleading spikes.
7 EEVblog #954 - How To Setup An Electronics Lab For $300
Often shared with newcomers asking what to buy for a first electronics bench, with the usual caveat that not everything listed is essential.
8 #143: Transmission Line Terminations for Digital and RF signals - Intro/Tutorial
Alan Wolke demonstrates transmission line terminations and reflections on an oscilloscope, including standing waves on an unterminated line; people credit it with making reflections understandable.
9 #183: Why diodes are used around relay coils: Back to Basics on flyback or snubber diodes
Repeatedly linked to show, with real scope traces, why a diode goes across a relay or motor coil and how large the voltage spike gets.
10 EEVBlog #704 - Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope Features Review
The EEVblog review of the Rigol DS1054Z, linked whenever someone asks which first oscilloscope to buy and wants to see its features demonstrated.
11 How does a USB keyboard work?
Ben Eater captures a USB keyboard's signals on an oscilloscope and works through the protocol manually, recommended to anyone trying to understand USB at wire level.
12 #49: Simple Component Tester using Oscilloscope - Octopus Curve Tracer
Builds a simple octopus curve tracer that plots component I-V curves on an oscilloscope; recommended as a cheap way to see a diode's knee voltage.
13 #208: Visualizing RF Standing Waves on Transmission Lines
Alan Wolke makes RF standing waves on transmission lines visible on the bench; recommended for building intuition about reflections, SWR and quarter-wave transformers.
14 EEVblog #601 - Why Digital Oscilloscopes Appear Noisy
Dave Jones explains why digital oscilloscopes look noisier than analogue ones, often linked when a new scope's trace looks fuzzy or someone claims analogue has infinite resolution.
15 #111: How to make a high performance oscilloscope probe socket
w2aew shows how to build a low-inductance scope probe socket into a board; recommended for measuring fast edges and switching spikes without ground-lead ringing.
16 #137: Why your Function Generator's output voltage reading can be wrong
Explains why a function generator output can read twice the set amplitude on a scope without a 50 ohm termination, and how termination fixes it.
17 #90: Measure Capacitors and Inductors with an Oscilloscope and some basic parts
Shows how to measure capacitance and inductance using an oscilloscope and a cheap pulse generator with fast edges built from a Schmitt trigger inverter.
18 #135: Measure Capacitor ESR with an Oscilloscope and Function Generator
A w2aew tutorial on measuring a capacitor's ESR with a function generator and oscilloscope, recommended when diagnosing failing electrolytics in repair work.
19 Oscilloscope Probe Technique - Ground Spring
Short demonstration of swapping the long probe ground lead for a ground spring; often cited on electronics.stackexchange.com when a noisy scope trace is really a probing artefact.
20 #68: Oscilloscope Probe Ground lead length effects on signal quality
A practical demonstration of how the length of a scope probe's ground connection distorts fast edges, cited whenever ringing or probe grounding questions arise.
21 EEVblog #703 - Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope Review Summary
Dave Jones's review of the Rigol DS1054Z, regularly cited when someone asks which entry-level oscilloscope is worth buying.
22 #55: Back to Basics: Tutorial on LC Resonant Circuits
A bench demonstration of LC resonance from w2aew, recommended for seeing a tank circuit behave on a scope rather than only in equations.
23 Back EMF High Voltage Spikes on the Oscilloscope - Part 1
A scope demonstration of the voltage spike an inductor or relay coil produces when switched off, used to explain why flyback diodes matter.
24 EEVblog #674 - Rigol DS1054Z Teardown
An EEVblog teardown of a Rigol oscilloscope, cited for details of its internals such as the switching supply, relay count and build quality.
25 Analyzing actual Ethernet encoding | Networking tutorial (4 of 13)
Ben Eater probes a 10BASE-T link with an oscilloscope and decodes the Manchester-encoded bits by hand; part of his networking series and a common starting point for line-coding questions.
26 Basics and Tutorials on Scopes
A playlist of oscilloscope tutorials from a presenter regarded as the go-to teacher on scopes, covering the basics that apply to cheap and serious instruments alike.
27 TSP #45 - Experiments & Teardown of the Teledyne-LeCroy LabMaster 10-100zi 100GHz Oscilloscope
A detailed look inside a 100 GHz LeCroy oscilloscope, showing how the front end splits and down-converts the signal, enjoyed as exotic test gear.
28 EEVblog #86 - Buy a real Analog Oscilloscope PLEASE!
EEVblog's Dave argues that beginners should pick up a cheap second-hand analogue oscilloscope, a view often cited when people ask what scope to buy.
29 #197:Simple V-I curve tracer using an oscilloscope and function generator
Shows how a signal generator plus a scope set to XY display can plot a diode curve without expensive equipment.
30 EEVblog #1178 - Build a $10 DIY EMC Probe
Dave from EEVblog shows how to make a cheap magnetic field probe from a short coil and use it to hunt down EMI sources on a board.
31 EEVblog #70 - Turn your Rigol DS1052E Oscilloscope into a 100MHz DS1102E (Hack)
EEVblog's walkthrough of unlocking a Rigol DS1052E to 100MHz bandwidth, cited when people weigh up which budget oscilloscope to buy.
32 Tektronix type 555 oscilloscope, over 100 tubes inside!
A Mr Carlson's Lab tour of a vintage Tektronix 555 oscilloscope, recommended to anyone learning about older test equipment and how it works inside.
33 #91 How to properly power the ESP8266 modules
Andreas Spiess works through powering an ESP8266 from a battery, covering the calculations involved, oscilloscope traces and adding a capacitor across the supply pins.
34 EEVblog #441 - How To Track Down Common Mode Noise
Dave Jones demonstrates how to identify and track down common mode noise; pointed to when scope readings of small signals look swamped by interference.
35 Ultralow Noise Tester: 9V Battery vs. 7805 vs. LTZ1000
Cited for a moment showing popcorn noise from a semiconductor and for illustrating how microvolt level readings react to the slightest air movement.
36 Whats All This Scope Probe Stuff, Anyhow?
Bob Pease and colleagues discuss oscilloscope probing, including magnetic noise pickup in the ground lead; cited for its remarks on floating scopes and measuring switchers.
37 EEVblog #37 - Rigol DS1052E Oscilloscope Teardown
EEVblog tears down the Rigol DS1052E oscilloscope, cited for what it reveals about the hardware, including the overclocked ADC parts inside.
