Getting The Most Out Of Your Oscilloscope: Documentation

Figure l: A LabNotebook entry quickly and easily saves
everything you need to later replicate your measurements

If we really want to get the most out of our oscilloscopes, we'd be remiss in overlooking the documentation capabilities that modern instruments provide. It's so important to document our working sessions so they're consistent and repeatable. Oscilloscope setups can be quite intricate for a given measurement or procedure. Why not let the instrument help us keep track of such things?

Mr. Oscilloscope, Meet Mr. Computer

Figure 1: WaveStation software enables full remote
control of an oscilloscope from a Windows PC

Some things just seem made to go together, such as peanut butter and jelly, baseball and hot dogs, and Lennon and McCartney. But in the engineering world, one great combination is the oscilloscope and the PC. Both are wonderful tools but together they go places that neither can without the other.