Electronic
Test
Equipment
See and understand
what’s happening
inside a circuit.
By Tom Anderson and Wendell Anderson
Photography by Sam Murphy
Take a look at a printed circuit board. You
can see components such as resistors and
capacitors, but where is the voltage? Where
is the signal? How do you tell if the circuit
is working correctly? What if you want to
change it?
Electronic test equipment lets you probe
and “see” the voltages and currents running
through electronic circuits. This article covers
four basic devices: oscilloscopes, power supplies,
function generators, and multimeters. Learning
to use these tools — especially the mighty
oscilloscope — requires patience, but it’s
an absolute requirement for building, trouble»- shooting, and hacking electronic gizmos.
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