10+1 Reasons to Choose a Yokogawa Oscilloscope

What is an Oscilloscope?

Oscilloscopes, also called digital storage oscilloscopes (DSOs) or mixed signal oscilloscopes (MSOs), are common test instruments used to display, analyze, and troubleshoot electrical or physical signals. They are very important instruments in manufacturing, research, and development in all industries that use or produce electrical and electronic equipment.

Oscilloscopes capture signals continuously and display them graphically as voltage or amplitude vs. time. Oscilloscopes can analyze waveforms parametrically in terms of frequency, root mean square (rms) amplitude, peak-to-peak amplitude, rise time, and others. Mechatronic variables such as strain, temperature, and vibration or electrical variables such as current can be converted to voltage for display.

Yokogawa oscilloscopes deliver a range of bandwidths, can display up to eight channels plus sixteen logic inputs, provide unparalleled suites of triggers and signal analyses, and offer the unique ability to save multiple triggered events to “history” memory.

This application note discusses the top ten reasons, plus one, to select a Yokogawa oscilloscope.

1. Eight analog channels

Yokogawa oscilloscopes offer four and eight analog channel configurations, as well as options of up to 24 digital channels, to meet expanding test requirements. On select models, a DLMsync cable can be used to connect two units together creating up to 16 analog channels.

Figure 1. Whole-system measurement of a motor inverter requires three-phase measurements of AC voltage and current, DC power, and timing measurements between IGBT gate signals with the inverter, which can be challenging on a four-channel oscilloscope.

2. Triggering

A completely digital triggering system enables reduced timing jitter and improved vertical level accuracy for precise response. Available trigger modes include:

• Edge (rise/fall/both)
• Edge OR
• Pattern
• Pulse width
• Rise/fall time
• Runt pulse
• Timeout
• Window (upper and lower limits)
• Window OR
• Interval Serial (supporting installed serial bus options)
• TV (NTSC/PAL/SDTV/HDTV/user-defined)
• A delay B
• A to B(n)

3. History

Determining cause and effect relationships is a daily task for design and validation phases of mechatronics projects. To provide the necessary extensive data sets, Yokogawa oscilloscopes take advantage of their large internal storage to retain data from prior capture events. Since the actual waveform data is stored, these events are available for browsing, visualization, measurement, and searching using the history feature. Depending on the record size and sampling rate, up to 100,000 prior captures are available.

Figure 2. Displaying the history list shows all available captures with timestamps. Click on any entry to display the data on the screen for interaction.

4. Power measurements

Use as a power meter by providing automated measurement of power parameters for up to four pairs of voltage and current waveforms, such as active power, apparent power, and power factor.

Figure 3. Measure a single phase of power, capturing current and a PWM voltage waveform. Up to four phaes can be acquired on an eight-channel model.

5. Switching loss

The power analysis option enables automatic calculations for safe operating area (SOA), inrush current pulse energy (I2t) for fuse measurements, and switching loss. The switching loss feature automatically detects switching cycles and relevant regions of switch mode power supply (SMPS) signals to calculate several parameters.

Figure 4. Switching loss SOA analysis of power devices.

6. Automotive and embedded serial bus features

Communication between electronic control units (ECUs), sensors, and actuators is especially important to ensure proper vehicle performance. Rapidly troubleshoot and validate popular automotive serial buses with CAN, CAN FD, LIN, SENT, and CXPI options. Simultaneously plot physical layer and decoded data, search for specific data values, or use data items as a trigger condition. Yokogawa’s proprietary auto setup function analyzes the input signal. Complicated trigger/decode settings such as bit rate and threshold level are done automatically. This feature not only saves time but is also a very powerful feature that allows users to begin parsing quickly, even when bit rates and other signal conditions are unknown.

Figure 5. Zoom trace showing higher detail of acquired CAN signal.

List view displays the timestamp and the data of each packet within the capture. Clicking on any packet immediately zooms into that packet for inspection. This is especially important when combined with Yokogawa’s long time/division capabilities, when numerous frames are visible on a single screen.

SPI, UART, and I2C options are also available for general purpose and consumer device communication applications. For systems integration and complex control schemes, up to four serial buses can be configured and inspected simultaneously.

Figure 6. Simultaneous decode of CAN, CXPI, LIN, and CAN bus signals.

7. Dual zoom

An independent zoom processor allows users to drill down quickly to the maximum resolution over 500 Megapoints. Dual zoom makes it easy to select two input channels to display, compare details or timing, and auto scroll over time, forward or in reverse. Zoom Search finds edges, patterns, pulsewidths, or timeout conditions for easier location of critical information.

Figure 7. Dual Zoom displays waveform detail in different timebase settings.

8. Search box

When visualizing all captures in history memory, it is easy to see an outlier waveform. Using the search box and the touchscreen, it is also easy to draw search conditions directly on the waveform and isolate the occurrence.

Figure 8. Searching for waveforms in zones created by moving measured waveforms up/down/left/right.

9. Automatic parameters and statistics

Thirty waveform parameters from a total of 29 different types can be displayed simultaneously with a high update rate. In addition to the basic statistical analysis of repetitively measured parameters, the Yokogawa original “cycle statistic” and “history statistic” measurement functions allow the advanced analysis of periodic mechatronic signals. To observe the fluctuations of measured parameters, it is possible to display them as trends. Period-to-period changes are easily seen. The variation of parameters can also be displayed as histograms, thus providing a visual method of assessing them statistically.

Figure 9. Save time by performing up to 29 on-board measurements simultaneously to provide more insight directly inside the instrument.

10. Free software

Xviewer is a PC software application that works with Yokogawa’s digital oscilloscopes and scopecorders. It allows users to display acquired waveform data, perform file transfer, and control DL series instruments remotely. In addition to simply displaying the waveform data, Xviewer features many of the same functions that the instruments offer: zoom display, cursor measurements, calculations of waveform parameters, and complex waveform math. Xviewer allows binary waveform data to be converted easily to CSV, Excel, or floating-point decimal formats. There are several free software options for controlling the instrument, logging data, viewing data, and more. These softwares are available for download at tmi.yokogawa.com.

+1 The importance of calibration

No measurement is ever “correct.” There is always an unknown, finite, non-zero difference between a measured value and the corresponding “true” value. In other words, a user can never be 100% sure that an instrument is operating within its specified tolerance limits. Regular accredited calibration is a method for gaining quantifiable confidence in a measurement system by comparing the instrument’s performance to a standard of known accuracy. It is also advisable to calibrate not only the measuring instrument but also the extended measurement setup including sensors, cables, shunts, and other devices that are part of a test bench.

Without an ISO 17025 accredited power calibration, there is no guarantee that the measurements on an ISO 9001 certificate are correct. Depending on age and quality, a measurement instrument could drift out of specification due to temperature, humidity, oxidation, loading, or other reasons and may need to be “adjusted” to bring it back within specifications.

The guaranteed accuracy and precision of Yokogawa’s instruments in North America results from our ISO 17025 accredited calibration laboratory that is located in our Newnan, Georgia facility. Since we can process calibrations in less than ten business days, users benefit from fast turnaround and domestic shipping. Yokogawa also offers a “Gold Plan” including up to five years calibration and expedited service levels in a convenient, single purchase.