Ask Electronics

3316 readers

1 users here now

For questions about component-level electronic circuits, tools and equipment.

Rules

1: Be nice.

2: Be on-topic (eg: Electronic, not electrical).

3: No commercial stuff, buying, selling or valuations.

4: Be safe.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Siglent SDS1104XE: slanted square wave (imgur.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi!

I've asked Siglent support but after a couple of responses the thread went cold. Maybe I'm being dumb but I've noticed that there's a frequency (low, around 100Hz) where scope response changes a bit. Below and above it square input looks square. Right about it square input looks slanted.

I tried to do a very slow "sweep" and there's small but visible change in the envelope. So, e.g. with a constant 600mV p2p input lower frequencies measure exactly that while higher ones measure 612mV, so ~2% diff.

Terminated 50Ohm cables (not that it matters at such a low freq) to be sure. Latest firmware, after full self-cal. Siggen itself seems allright, I have an ancient Tek scope and the siggen output looks Ok there with same input/same cables. Scope seems happy and fully functional otherwise, few years old though, out of warranty.

Has anyone else seen anything like that? Is this a normal behavior within the expected margin of error?

Thanks!

top 6 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kinda looks like an impedance mismatch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for taking a look! SG is set to 50Ohm output, cable is 50Ohm, terminated "through" 50Ohm at scope end. Also, SG output looks normal on a different scope (same cable/terminator arrangement). Not sure what else I could do to match the impedance here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does this scope do Fourier analysis? If so, can you see which frequencies are being suppressed? Does this suppression at this frequency also occur with generated white noise?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks! I tried but I don't see the effect with noise gen, maybe my measurement is not quite right. Simply punching in a couple of frequencies (60Hz and 200Hz) that I've already seen differ in amplitude with the Measure function also has different peak amplitudes in FFT output. Since the frequencies are so low I've verified stability of siggen amplitude output with an AC voltmeter and it's stable within 50uV or so, nowhere near the diff in magnitude measured by the scope. Hmm...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yup, seen that for sure.

Did you try turning the little adjustment knob in your probe to calibrate it? Sometimes needs a small screwdriver. Here's a reference:

https://www.elecrow.com/download/HowToCalibrate10xProbe.pdf

What I'm referring to is labelled 'Cap Trimmer'. The document also has some waveform images that match your problem.

I have a Siglent and it looked like this at the dealership, then they adjusted the probe a bit, and then it was 100% fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks but unfortunately this is not a probe cal problem. Note that the issue is seen even in a 50Ohm environment, no probes.