At 01:00 AM 11/27/2011, Sean Breheny wrote: >On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 3:46 PM, Dwayne Reid wrot= e: > > set to the x10 position means that the impedance is the same as my > > DVM, so there is no advantage to using the DVM instead of the 'scope. > >Except that the DVM's A to D converter likely has a much higher >resolution and the DC accuracy of the input attenuator in the DVM is >better. Scopes rarely do better than 1% accuracy, whereas 0.1% is >commonplace in good DVMs, and many can do 0.01% on DC voltage. Of course a DVM is more accurate. I never suggested otherwise. The point I was trying to make is that I find that the (approximate)=20 voltage reading that I get from a scope is much more revealing than a=20 static DC voltage reading from a DVM. I spend much of my time designing and fixing analog electronics and=20 being able to see disturbances on what should be stable DC bias=20 points is immensely powerful. I use a DVM when its appropriate and=20 even drag my (huge) old HP 6.5 digit really, really accurate meter=20 over to my bench when I need that kind of accuracy or=20 resolution. But that's a tiny percentage of my time. Most of my time is spent making stuff work and my scopes help make=20 that fast and effective. I say 'scopes' - I have a Tek 2465 4-channel 400MHz analog scope and=20 a Welec 4-channel 200MHz digital scope sitting on my bench. I use=20 the Tek scope for analog work and the Welec when I'm debugging=20 digital stuff. The Welec would be a nice scope for analog work=20 because it has digital readouts for what I see on the screen but I=20 just can't handle the lousy latency of the display when I'm working=20 with analog electronics. I'm just too used to the instant response=20 of an analog scope. And - because I've been using scopes since I was=20 a teenager (more than 40 years now), I'm used to very quickly reading=20 the value of both amplitude and period right from the screen. Its=20 just second nature for me now. On the other hand, I mostly wouldn't even consider using the Tek=20 (analog) scope when I'm troubleshooting digital stuff. That fast=20 glitch that simply isn't visible on the screen of the Tek scope shows=20 up very nicely on the screen of the digital scope. Don't get me wrong - I use DVMs when they are appropriate. But for a=20 quick glance at a non-working circuit, nothing beats actually seeing=20 what those signals actually look like. dwayne --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .