How Oscilloscope Acquisition Modes Work

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 13:38:00 +0000

Every digital oscilloscope I have ever used has a menu or dialog for “acquisition modes.” And depending on the current settings, changing that acquisition mode does not seem to have an effect on the signal. Or sometimes, changing to something like Average mode can completely destroy your measurements.

It turns out, that the analog-to-digital converters in digital oscilloscopes can do more than just “sample” the data. Well, the ADCs just samples. The controller behind the ADC offers modes like Peak Detect and Average and High-Resolution.

Acquisition Mode on Bald Engineer

How Oscilloscope Acquisition Modes Work