Synchronize oscilloscope

Go to Wiki Home.

When you select a baseline image in the component information window, CRT can push the oscilloscope settings stored with that image to your connected oscilloscope - the time base, the volts per division and the trigger level. The idea is that your own oscilloscope is then set up exactly like the one that captured the baseline, so what you see on your screen can be compared directly with the image on screen.

The setup of your oscilloscope is done automatically as you click through the images, so you do not need to dial in the settings by hand for every pin you probe.

Enabling it

• Tick Enable network connected oscilloscope tab on the "Configuration" tab.
• Go to the "Oscilloscope" tab, fill in the details for your oscilloscope and connect to it.
• Click a component that has an oscilloscope baseline, and select one of its images.
• In the component information window, make sure Synchronize oscilloscope is ticked. It is on by default, but it is only available while CRT is actually connected to the oscilloscope.

Each time you select an image, the settings for that image are sent to the oscilloscope. The values being sent are also shown on the image itself, as the T/DIV, V/DIV and T: labels.

What is synchronized

The values come from the Component images sheet in the board's own Excel data file:

Column	Meaning
T/DIV	Time base
V/DIV	Volts/div
T.LVL	Trigger level

Only the values that are actually filled in are sent - an image with just a T/DIV value will only have its time base synchronized, and the rest of your oscilloscope settings are left alone. An image with none of the three, or with no pin number, is ignored entirely.

Nothing else is touched. CRT does not change your channel, probe attenuation, trigger source or trigger slope - you have to set those up yourself.

How the values are matched

Values are written as a number followed by a unit, using a period as the decimal separator:

• Time: ns, us (or µs), ms, s - for example 500ns, 20us, 1ms
• Voltage: uV (or µV), mV, V - for example 500mV, 2V, 1.5V

Good to know

• Selecting the same image again does not resend anything. The commands are only sent when the values, the image or the oscilloscope actually change.
• Everything that is sent - and everything that could not be mapped - is written to the output on the "Oscilloscope" tab, so that is the place to look when a baseline does not seem to synchronize.
• Synchronizing works well together with controlling the oscilloscope from the keyboard: let the image set the starting point, then fine-tune the time base or trigger level from the numpad.

If your oscilloscope is not in the list, or it does not work properly, then please do investigate which SCPI commands work for your specific oscilloscope model, as this varies quite a lot - even within the same vendor. I do not know all oscilloscopes, nor do I have access to anything other than my own, so you will need to provide this data yourself. You can add and test the required data in the main Excel data file Classic-Repair-Toolbox.xlsx in the sheet Oscilloscope.

Go to Wiki Home.