I want to learn to use an oscilloscope. What book should I buy?
May 26, 2013 2:14 PM Subscribe
I recently started working part-time as a tester at a small start up and quite enjoy it. I am about to go full-time over the summer and will, for at least a short time, be the only tester at the company. I am trying to learn as much as I can to do the job well.
I have no experience in this field at all and am actually a pre-medical student. They are looking to eventually hire someone with an engineering background that can use an oscilloscope to test. I would like to start learning to do this (and I realize I need to learn some/a lot of foundational concepts before jumping straight to using the scope).
I am hoping Metafilter can advise me on a good text to start learning from. I see books like this, but I'm not sure if I need something more basic than that to start with.
Assume I am very good at math and science, and am generally highly intelligent, but have absolutely no experience with engineering, programming, or essentially anything in a tech field. My husband used to do what I am trying to learn to do, so he will be able to help me some, but doesn't have time to teach me from the very beginning. Bonus points if the book is available in Kindle format.
I have no experience in this field at all and am actually a pre-medical student. They are looking to eventually hire someone with an engineering background that can use an oscilloscope to test. I would like to start learning to do this (and I realize I need to learn some/a lot of foundational concepts before jumping straight to using the scope).
I am hoping Metafilter can advise me on a good text to start learning from. I see books like this, but I'm not sure if I need something more basic than that to start with.
Assume I am very good at math and science, and am generally highly intelligent, but have absolutely no experience with engineering, programming, or essentially anything in a tech field. My husband used to do what I am trying to learn to do, so he will be able to help me some, but doesn't have time to teach me from the very beginning. Bonus points if the book is available in Kindle format.
Second above, 61 year old tinkerer, Mims was my hero as far as understanding.....
posted by raildr at 2:41 PM on May 26, 2013
posted by raildr at 2:41 PM on May 26, 2013
For general electronics learning, I recommend The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. It's so good it has its own Wikipedia page.
(Probably too advanced for your first electronics book, but get it anyway.)
posted by ryanrs at 2:52 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
(Probably too advanced for your first electronics book, but get it anyway.)
posted by ryanrs at 2:52 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Tektronix IMHO makes the best. They have good tutorial docs at that link. (I used to work for them and am unabashedly biased.)
If you develop modest skills with them, you'll be in normal EE territory. Most EE folks I have worked with in my career are not that good with them, frankly. There's a lot of stuff in the display that isn't obvious, some stuff is present in the real world that doesn't show up in the display, triggering is an art form, probes are critical, and as b1tr0t says, you can get hurt with electronics. Modern digital scopes have lots of capabilities and extensions, digital signal processing (FFTs, etc.), complex triggering modes, multiple time bases, yada yada. At the same time, they are indispensable to a competent engineer. I'd be lost without one. Good on you for wanting to learn.
feel free to memail specific questions, etc.
posted by FauxScot at 5:49 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
If you develop modest skills with them, you'll be in normal EE territory. Most EE folks I have worked with in my career are not that good with them, frankly. There's a lot of stuff in the display that isn't obvious, some stuff is present in the real world that doesn't show up in the display, triggering is an art form, probes are critical, and as b1tr0t says, you can get hurt with electronics. Modern digital scopes have lots of capabilities and extensions, digital signal processing (FFTs, etc.), complex triggering modes, multiple time bases, yada yada. At the same time, they are indispensable to a competent engineer. I'd be lost without one. Good on you for wanting to learn.
feel free to memail specific questions, etc.
posted by FauxScot at 5:49 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I was going to suggest Youtube tutorials.
I'll add: For all you Forrest Mims III fans, he's still going strong! http://www.forrestmims.org/
posted by at at 12:47 PM on May 27, 2013
I'll add: For all you Forrest Mims III fans, he's still going strong! http://www.forrestmims.org/
posted by at at 12:47 PM on May 27, 2013
It's definitely worth starting with some basic electronics introduction before jumping to specific books on oscilloscopes.
While I highly recommend Horowitz and Hill, mentioned above, I suspect that it would make for a pretty dry and undirected introduction, especially if it isn't accompanied by lots of time playing with hardware on the bench and talking to other people about the subject. (I'd add Robert Pease' Troubleshooting Analog Circuits to the same "good to have on the shelf if you plan to spend years doing this, but not a great introduction" category.)
Similar to H&H is the material from this course. It's likely to be fairly heavy on math and circuit theory and short on hands-on practical advice, but the free videos may be useful.
For basic introductions that don't assume any prior electronics or specific math, I've seen recommendations for the free online books allaboutcircuits.com and, less often, electronics-tutorials.ws (start with "DC theory" in this one). No idea how good they are, but it can't hurt to try them.
But, as others have said, it's definitely worth trying to find a way to get your hands dirty on the bench. Any chance the company you work for would let you do a bit of off-the-clock tinkering using their equipment? There are plenty of easy beginner electronics projects and kits that will make the process a whole lot more fun than reading books. If you're anything like me, there's no better way to understand something than to discover that building something neat requires it.
posted by eotvos at 1:22 PM on May 27, 2013
While I highly recommend Horowitz and Hill, mentioned above, I suspect that it would make for a pretty dry and undirected introduction, especially if it isn't accompanied by lots of time playing with hardware on the bench and talking to other people about the subject. (I'd add Robert Pease' Troubleshooting Analog Circuits to the same "good to have on the shelf if you plan to spend years doing this, but not a great introduction" category.)
Similar to H&H is the material from this course. It's likely to be fairly heavy on math and circuit theory and short on hands-on practical advice, but the free videos may be useful.
For basic introductions that don't assume any prior electronics or specific math, I've seen recommendations for the free online books allaboutcircuits.com and, less often, electronics-tutorials.ws (start with "DC theory" in this one). No idea how good they are, but it can't hurt to try them.
But, as others have said, it's definitely worth trying to find a way to get your hands dirty on the bench. Any chance the company you work for would let you do a bit of off-the-clock tinkering using their equipment? There are plenty of easy beginner electronics projects and kits that will make the process a whole lot more fun than reading books. If you're anything like me, there's no better way to understand something than to discover that building something neat requires it.
posted by eotvos at 1:22 PM on May 27, 2013
Just FYI there is a free ebook version of The Art of Electronics floating around the web - I won't link it as I don't know how legal it is. Still, as an alway-on-you reference it is nice to have. Of course, you should still buy the hardcover as it is way easier browse through while looking for solutions to problem circuits.
posted by ianhattwick at 4:50 PM on May 27, 2013
posted by ianhattwick at 4:50 PM on May 27, 2013
While I highly recommend Horowitz and Hill, mentioned above,
It's great, but hardcore - supplement with "Practical Electronic for Inventors" and "The Cartoon Guide to Physics".
You need to do labs as well. Pick up a kit that's got a breadboard, and 'a few resistors, capacitors and LEDs'. Buy a $20 DMM.
Once you understand Ohm's law, put a voltage across a resistor and measure the current through it. Then move onto resistors in series and parallel, and then to voltage dividers. From there, look at LRC circuits, feeding them a sine wave (from a soundcard/arduino) and looking at the voltage out. Here is where the oscilloscope is handy. Your husband should be able to help with this stuff if you're pretty self guided setting up and running this stuff and he just needs to parachute in with a bit of advice and context - that's not a lot of time commitment for him, unlike it would be for him to do the groundwork as well.
You may want to look at the lab assignment book for Horowitz and Hill.
You may want to get lessons from a Ham radio geek or local hackerspace/robotics club/physics teacher.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:10 PM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's great, but hardcore - supplement with "Practical Electronic for Inventors" and "The Cartoon Guide to Physics".
You need to do labs as well. Pick up a kit that's got a breadboard, and 'a few resistors, capacitors and LEDs'. Buy a $20 DMM.
Once you understand Ohm's law, put a voltage across a resistor and measure the current through it. Then move onto resistors in series and parallel, and then to voltage dividers. From there, look at LRC circuits, feeding them a sine wave (from a soundcard/arduino) and looking at the voltage out. Here is where the oscilloscope is handy. Your husband should be able to help with this stuff if you're pretty self guided setting up and running this stuff and he just needs to parachute in with a bit of advice and context - that's not a lot of time commitment for him, unlike it would be for him to do the groundwork as well.
You may want to look at the lab assignment book for Horowitz and Hill.
You may want to get lessons from a Ham radio geek or local hackerspace/robotics club/physics teacher.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:10 PM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you, everyone! This is really helpful.
We have a scope at home as well as a bunch of other related tools. Since my husband is an EE, he can help me get set up with some practical, hands-on learning. He loves going to Vetco to buy new parts and gadgets, so he's pretty excited that I actually want to go with him now.
I have no doubt that once I have a few basics, the company will start letting me work with their stuff-- I'm many thousands of dollars cheaper than hiring an experienced engineer at this point.
posted by wansac at 1:18 PM on May 30, 2013
We have a scope at home as well as a bunch of other related tools. Since my husband is an EE, he can help me get set up with some practical, hands-on learning. He loves going to Vetco to buy new parts and gadgets, so he's pretty excited that I actually want to go with him now.
I have no doubt that once I have a few basics, the company will start letting me work with their stuff-- I'm many thousands of dollars cheaper than hiring an experienced engineer at this point.
posted by wansac at 1:18 PM on May 30, 2013
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See if you can get some old copies of the classic Engineer's Notebook or the Getting Started In Electronics paperbacks. The larger format were better than the ones where Radio Shack split them up into smaller booklets.
With a basic understanding of analog and digital circuits, what you're measuring with the scope is going to make a lot more sense.
posted by Kakkerlak at 2:36 PM on May 26, 2013 [5 favorites]