Thursday, November 27, 2014
Scope Noob: Probing Alternating Current
Hackaday: I finally did it. After years of wanting one (and pushing off projects because I didn’t have one) I finally bought an oscilloscope. Over the years I read and watched a ton of content about how to use a scope, you’d think I would know what I’m doing. Turns out that, like anything, hands-on time with an oscilloscope quickly highlighted the gaping holes in my knowledge. And so we begin this recurring column called Scope Noob. Each installment will focus on a different oscilloscope-related topic. This week it’s measuring a test signal and probing Alternating Current.
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2 comments:
Don't try this at home. No, seriously, don't do it.
The title of this article is slightly misleading. The author title's it "Probing Alternating Current." He is not talking about probing line voltage alternating current. He is talking about low voltage alternative current through a step down transformer. Which is not nearly as cool as it sounds. He does put into the article not to measure mains unless you have a good reason to. This should actually say not to measure mains unless you have the proper equipment and training to do so. I doubt that the author has the training, and he definitely doesn't have the right gear (based on what I see in this article).
Don't cross the streams!
While I only understood about 50% of the electronics, I can answer his question towards the end of the article: You can connect the transformed 12V AC to mains ground because mains ground doesn’t care. Sources of all voltages are connected to the same ground. I kind of want to get and Oscilloscope (or Scope, or sillyscope) just for fun and for that one occasion in which I could use it for a productive purpose. It would be fun to learn how to use it and by extension learn how a bunch of other stuff works.
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