Test Equipment: Oscillocopes

[TinselKoala]

No, I'd suggest you leave the +55 volt adjustment alone, until you go into the complete calibration procedure, which you probably don't need to do anyway.

The Astig control is easy to re-set if you change it for the worse and it's right there on the front panel. But again, I'd only mess with this if you actually see the "teardrop" dot in xy-mode when both channels are set to "ground" input coupling and the scope is fully warmed up, the dot is focused well, and the intensity is set to a reasonable, not overly bright level.

It is true that the mains-powered instruments are grounded back through the mains plug but it is not a good idea to depend on this for your signal ground path. (Even though it worked for the signal I was displaying on the LINE trigger video above... both the F43 and the scope are plugged into the same power strip and when I selected the non-isolated position on the FG it made the ground path connection through the ground prongs of the three-prong plugs and the power strip.) You should properly use short, direct paths for the signal ground just as you do for the signal itself.

The LINE trigger source setting is to see if you are experiencing some 60Hz hum, which might be due to improper grounding or high-resistance in the grounding. I suggested it because of the way the display was jumping up and down and seemed unstable otherwise in that video you posted.

The laptop's power supply will generally isolate the output to the laptop from the mains line plug, at least both of mine do. You can use your DMM to check continuity between the laptop-plug end and the mains cord prongs (unplugged of course!); I'll bet you do not have a proper path to the mains ground from the laptop's chassis through the power supply.

Yes, I think you will have to provide the proper ground connection to the laptop either way, whether the power supply is used or not, by clipping to the ground conductor of the headphone output jack which should be the outer collar, or to the USB jack's outer shield or similar chassis ground point. I just checked my laptops again and they are definitely _not_ grounded back to the mains through the power supplies. (an old IBM 600e and a newer Samsung netbook).

[TinselKoala]

TK:

I am glad you noticed that the lettering was correct on Dave's digital scope.  I thought I saw that as well.  My new pc, if using the headphone jack on the front, disables the speakers of which I am running a total of 11 including a sub.  (All of my speakers except one pair have their own amps including a 100 watt/channel driving my 12" Cerwin Vegas in the living room.)  I can take or tap into one of the line outs on the back and still hear the music.

What the hell is a flac file?  I mean, I know what it is...I looked it up...but have not downloaded any program to open such a file.  I have used some of the choices given in the past and, my problem is, they take over every audio file and you have to use their program to play anything.  Should I just convert the youscope file to mp3?

I thought you would enjoy Dave's video on this.  He really had to manipulate that digital scope to get it to look right, and it still did not look as good, in my opinion, as the older model, ha ha.

Bill

Well, you can use VLC to play the FLAC file, and when you install it you can choose not to make it the default player for all media files.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/#download
But once you get used to VLC you probably will use it for everything.

[Pirate88179]

Well, you can use VLC to play the FLAC file, and when you install it you can choose not to make it the default player for all media files.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/#download
But once you get used to VLC you probably will use it for everything.

VLC was one of the ones that took over my music collection.  It added little cone icons to every file.  I did not realize that I could stop it from doing so.  I will give it another try...thank you.

Bill

[TinselKoala]

VLC was one of the ones that took over my music collection.  It added little cone icons to every file.  I did not realize that I could stop it from doing so.  I will give it another try...thank you.

Bill

hmmm... the last time I installed it, as I recall it gave a list of media file types and asked if you wanted to make it the default player for them, and showed checkboxes that you could uncheck for each file type extension. Now you've got me worried. I can't find where to change the file assignments now either. So maybe you can just find the right decoder for your favorite player to play the FLAC files instead of screwing up your system by installing VLC. Sorry.... I forget that my favorite solutions may not work for everyone sometimes.

[Brian516]

WELP....


Thanks TK for telling me to slow down, and PW for telling me to start back at square 1.  When I combined both pieces of advice, I solved the issue...

It appears that my PC wasn't actually disabling the enhancements when I was telling it to, for some reason or another. So it was the "Loudness Equalization" enhancement that was causing all the trouble.  I guess when I split up the HP jack and the main internal speakers, it disabled my ability to change those settings, even though it let me check/uncheck boxes and hit OK....  stupid computers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKLZJ8hCClY
At 0:28 I say "microphone" when I meant Headphones.

Simple problem, simple fix.  Now to figure out WHY my laptop didn't change the HP settings with dual outputs enabled!! (or maybe it even had something to do with me shutting off the PC for a few min, and then powering it back on... who knows.... maybe I didn't restart after installing Soundcard Scope, and it froze my audio settings?
my bet is that it had something to do with the restart, and I won't be able to get it to freeze my settings again.)

Sooooooo..... NOW to see if I actually see the proper visuals for Youscope & Oscillofun!!! ANNDD  I can probably listen in, too!

Thanks for the always-good-advice, everyone!

Brian

I should have remembered this little trick from my PC repair/programming days..... if there's an issue and it involves a computer - RESTART THAT SUCKER FIRST!!!!  hahha