another small breakthrough on our NERD technology.

[TinselKoala]

Yep, PW, and thank you for answering clearly and concisely. Below I attach a basic "rap sheet" from LeCroy re their 300-series scope displays, confirming that the  number I asked about is the frequency of whatever triggered the display, and that the trigger markers on the scope are the little triangle at the top (indicating the horizontal trigger time instant) and the vertical marker on the right, color coded as to channel sourcing the trigger.

You've noted that at least one of the RA scopeshots is from a "stopped" scope, and the others are stored memory traces. I'm not sure if the scope displays the trigger signal frequency when the scope is showing a live but stopped signal; presumably the stored memory traces preserve all information at the time of storage, but I can't recall exactly.

The oscillation frequency as determined from the visual reads is, I agree, somewhere in the 1.2-1.6 MHz area. And as I believe I have shown, added inductance in the battery lead wires and intercell jumpers affects the oscillation frequency. TarBaby's relatively short leads (and fewer batteries) are producing an oscillation frequency in the 2.4-3.0 MHz range.

No wonder my batteries are running down.   

[picowatt]

All,

Lecroy user start-up manual for WaveJet 300 series for anyone interested.

http://cdn.lecroy.com/files/manuals/wj-gs_revb.pdf

PW

[picowatt]

TK,

You beat me posting the startup guide link.  You win...

PW

[picowatt]

TK,

How did I miss that big STOP sign?

You are most likely correct regarding the trigger frequency indication for FIG4.  I had not seen we were "standing still". 

PW

[MileHigh]

PW, TK:

Thanks for all of the good info.  I was "sneaking in" a posting at lunch.  I agree about the frequency of the triggering.  You can't be sure how the 'software guts' are handling irregular signals with 'high freq - dead - high freq - dead' triggering.  Sometimes 'smart' is good, sometimes 'too smart' is bad.  In theory an algorithm could reject three out of 10 'oddball' frequency samplings, bla bla bla.

In 1991 the first generation of analog scopes came out that had the "digital vector graphic overlay"  (it may have been raster, not sure) that gave you moveable cursors, and digital info on the scope display itself.  They also auto-triggered... It was like a candy store compared to just a few years before that.

I really loved those 'hybrid' "smart analog scopes."  I thought that they were a dream.

Well.... time has moved on since then!   Those scopes are 'antiques.' lol

Now can we all just get along?  The beatings resume at 8:00.   

MileHigh