Learning Edition

Workbook

Getting started with your OpenScope MZ

through an introduction to analog circuits.

Kaitlyn Franz, Larissa Swanland,

and Norman MacDonald
 Learning Edition
Workbook

Getting started with your OpenScope MZ

through an introduction to analog circuits.

Kaitlyn Franz, Larissa Swanland,

and Norman MacDonald
 Introduction

Thank you for backing the Learning Edition of the OpenScope MZ!

This workbook is designed to help you get started with electronics instrumentation. It assumes you
have some rudimentary knowledge of electronic prototyping, but no prior experience with instru-
mentation. The workbook is designed to briefly dip into various example circuits and highlight key
instrumentation tools, all while providing the terminology and resources to learn more.

If you were expecting more of a “basics of electronics” experience, we highly recommend Charles
Platt’s Make: Electronics book in order to learn the basics of breadboarding, prototyping, schematic
reading, and component identification. If you know the basics of electronics but are trying to learn

Introduction 3
more, then we recommend as a companion to this workbook, Electrical Engineering 101: Everything
You Should Have Learned in School...But Probably Didn’t by Darren Ashby. If you are already familiar
with using tools such as oscilloscopes, waveform generators, logic analyzers, network analyzers, and
power supplies, then consider this a refresher workbook. You will be particularly interested in the
beginning sections explaining the OpenScope MZ and our design approach to the tool.

This workbook is laid out into three sections:

Part 1: What is instrumentation, and why do we need it?

This is a general overview of the tools on the OpenScope MZ and will help you orient your-
self around some key terms.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool.

This section will cover setup and taking your first measurement.

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

A selection of exercises to get you practicing with the OpenScope MZ and introducing you
to some Analog Electronic concepts. These exercises were selected in order to give you the
widest range of problems you may experience in your electronics journey. Solving these ex-
ercises will help you get familiar with all of the OpenScope MZ tools, enabling the use in
future projects. Some of them are based deep in theory, but rather than make the entire work-
book theory-based, we’ve decided to provide an example and give you the terms and resources
to learn more. Every exercise has additional information in a course that we previously made
called Real Analog.

In order to follow along with the exercises, you will need to learn the following topics:

• How to use a breadboard

• How to read resistor values
• How to read capacitor values

We’ve included some handy guides in the appendix on each of these topics. There are also several
YouTube tutorials that you can follow that will help you navigate these guides. You’ll find these
tutorials listed in the appendix.

We hope you enjoy this workbook, and happy measuring!

Larissa, Kaitlyn and Norman

4 Introduction
 Part 1:
What is instrumentation,
and why do we need it?

When asked what the OpenScope MZ is, we usually reply “instrumentation”. But what exactly is
instrumentation? Consider some objects that most of you will be familiar with:

• A ruler is a measuring instrument: measures distance in inches or centimeters.

• A scale is a measuring instrument: measures weight in Kg or Lbs.

• A voltmeter is a measuring instrument: measures a single voltage level.

(You use this every time you check a battery’s charge.)

• An oscilloscope is also a measuring instrument: measures voltage and plots it over time.

Any type of instrumentation is a tool that helps you quantify and see important values that dictate
the function of your project.

For us, we are concerned with electronics instrumentation, or tools that help us see signals and
values in electronics. A huge challenge in getting started with electronics is that the world of
electronics is largely unseen. It’s often said that electronics instrumentation makes the invisible,
visible. After all, electrons are both too small and too fast for us to observe with the naked eye.
With modern electronics, there are additional complexities given how integrated (multiple types
of electronics combined into a single space) and dense products are.

Part I: What is instrumentation and why do we need it? 5

The following are the major tools that we use in electronics:

Prototyping tools: Soldering irons and simulators.

Sources: Power supplies and signal generators.

Meters: Voltmeters and DMMs (digital multimeters).

Scopes: Oscilloscope and analyzers.

We often use the following analogy with new users to help them better understand electronics:
Working on electronics projects is a lot like being a surgeon. When a surgeon sees the patient,
they see the symptoms from the outside; they see a knee that doesn’t bend quite right or is causing
pain. In your project, you may see a motor that doesn’t turn at quite the right speed or even turn at
all. A surgeon will likely be able to guess what the problem is, and if they have a lot of experience
they might even be correct on the first guess - just like you may be able to make an appropriate
guess as to why the motor is malfunctioning. But just as a malfunctioning knee might be caused by
the bone, the cartilage, or the muscle, your malfunctioning motor might be caused by the signals
coming from your microcontroller, a fried pin on the microcontroller, a fried motor controller, or a
broken motor itself. A surgeon will likely use X-rays or an MRI to see the unseen in their patient
and determine the exact cause of the injury. The MRI and X-ray are the surgeon’s instruments. You
can use an oscilloscope and logic analyzer to see the unseen in your project. First, you can look at
the signals coming out of the microcontroller pins: do they seem correct, and are they even there?
Then if those are right, look at those coming out of the motor controller: do they look right, and
are they even there? You can even use a pattern generator to output the correct motor signals to test
the functionality of your motor.

Sure, the surgeon could use exploratory surgery as the first diagnostic tool, but it’s more efficient
to use instruments that were created to see the unseen and pinpoint the exact cause of the issue
without having to waste time and money. In electronics, instruments can help you pinpoint the
exact cause of a strange behavior, and teach you more about the functionality of your project. We
have taken apart projects, replaced components, gone through the code, and ramped up our levels
of stress and frustration only to take out a scope and discover that one of the pins was fried. What
we learned was that taking out the scope should have been the first step.

Much like an X-ray or MRI, instruments help you see the signals that are causing the “symptoms”
you see and will decrease the frustration and potential mistakes made during the process of diag-
nosing and fixing the issue.

6 Part I: What is instrumentation, when do we need it?

We’ve put together the following chart of tools and when to use them. Not all tools you will use are
included on the chart, but we highlighted some important ones.

Name Type Explanation When to Use Notes

Soldering Prototyping To make permanent When you don’t want Hakko, generic ones
Iron electrical connections your components to from eBay, and Metcal
using melted metal. move. are popular brands.
Simulator Prototyping A place to test out When you need to LT Spice and Multisim
components or circuits know the output of Live are some free
virtually, like a test a circuit before you simulators that are
drive. build. For example, great for teaching.
you are worried about
the cost or time spent
building a prototype.

Power Sources Supplies a constant When you are told you Batteries, USB battery
Supply level of voltage or need a certain voltage packs, wall supplies,
current. If it’s program- or current to operate a or a large benchtop
mable, it’s called a circuit, component, or power supply. These
programmable power project. can range from a
supply. DIY computer power
supply to expensive lab
equipment.

Waveform Sources This is essentially a When you need Arbitrary Waveform

Generator power supply that has signals to stimulate a Generators, Function
been programmed circuit, or want to ob- Generators, or Signal
to output power in a serve what happens in Generators provide
specific pattern (e.g., an alternating current/ similar functionality.
sine wave, triangle voltage situation.
wave, etc.). Waveform generators
can range from $40-
$1800+

Multimeter / Meters This measures When you need to You can get a cheap
Voltmeter and displays the check that your circuit multimeter for under
voltage, current, and is connected or getting $10 at discount stores.
sometimes resistance the correct values Nicer ones will “auto
wherever the probes needed for operation. range” and calculate
are placed as a single Best used with fixed your units for you.
number. power supplies
(because the source
If it only measures isn’t changing).
voltage, it’s a voltmeter. If you’ve ever used a
battery tester, you’ve
used a voltmeter!

Part I: What is instrumentation, when do we need it? 7

 ...table cont’d

Name Type Explanation When to Use Notes

Oscilloscope Scope This measures voltage When you need to You can get a cheap
and current over time understand how your oscilloscope for about
(multiple points). It circuit is responding or $60 or a large profes-
allows you to “draw” changing. sional one for $1500+.
out what is happening Things to notice are the
with the circuit on a number of channels,
screen. This is best for bandwidth, and
analog circuits (where sampling rate.
the signal isn’t just a
high or low). If you
took voltmeter mea-
surements and plotted
them in a graph over
time, you would be an
oscilloscope.

Spectrum Scope This plots the amount When you need to Standalone spectrum
Analyzer of each frequency in a know what frequen- analyzers can cost
signal in a bar graph. cies make up your upwards of $20,000
signal (e.g., what is and provide incredible
the message fre- accuracy. Many USB
quency (data) in your instrumentation
AM radio signal?). devices contain simple
spectrum analyzers
that can help analyze
most signals.
Logic Scope Reads data as 1 or a 0 When you need to see These can range from
Analyzer (digital), and plots it as a the function of a digital a cheap $20-$30
square wave. Depend- signal such as SPI, I2C, microcontroller-based
ing on the pattern of or something going solution to one that
the pulses, a protocol high or low, or when is $300-$1000. It just
can be determined and you need to see if data depends on how fast
data can be displayed. is being transferred and complicated your
Think of this tool as a correctly, i.e., is your signals are.
“decoder”. light sensor sending
the correct values?
Logger Scope(ish) Stores information When you need to ac- Data loggers are
from your scope or cess the data remotely, often tied to a specific
meters to a specific at a later time, or log sensor, or are bulky
location over a long data for long periods and expensive. A
period of time. of time. Also useful if desktop datalogger
you need to read really can go for several
slow signals and graph thousand dollars, and
the points out later. many multi-function
USB instrumentation
devices contain basic
data loggers that get
the job done.

8 Part I: What is instrumentation, when do we need it?

 Part 2:
The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms
Live - your instrumentation tool.

If you backed the Kickstarter campaign, you probably watched our video about the OpenScope
MZ and have a general idea of what it does. Let’s go into a little more detail.

The OpenScope MZ is a microcontroller-based tool that was designed to turn your computer into
an oscilloscope, waveform generator, power supply, simple logic analyzer, basic spectrum analyzer,
and a data logger.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool. 9

So, here’s the setup:

A computer running WaveForms Live (the controlling and visualizing software) is connected to
the OpenScope MZ, which does all of the signal generating and signal reading. The wires connect-
ed to the OpenScope MZ are used to connect to a circuit. For a more detailed view, let’s take a look
at the anatomy of an OpenScope MZ.

OpenScope MZ Specs

The OpenScope’s PIC32MZ microcontroller is the brains of the operation, while its MRF24
Wi-Fi Radio and Serial USB handle the communication between it and your computer. There
are various analog circuits that convert the raw information from the flywires into something the
microcontroller can digest.

Hardware features:

• 2 oscilloscope channels with 12 bits at 2MHz bandwidth and 6.25 MS/s max sampling rate.

• 1 function generator output with 1MHz bandwidth at 10 MS/s update rate.

• 10 user-programmable pins configurable as either GPIO or as a 10-channel logic analyzer.

• User-programmable power supplies supplying up to 50mA and ± 4V power.

• USB bus-powered or externally powered.

• On-board Wi-Fi.

• Browser-based WaveForms Live multi-instrument software.

• Re-programmable through Arduino IDE or Microchip MPLAB X IDE.

10 Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool.

Firmware
The firmware interacts with the hardware to create the instrument operation, maintain and run
calibration, manage communication with USB and Wi-Fi, and storage.

WaveForms Live
WaveForms Live is the browser-based user interface that allows you to interact with the Open-
Scope locally or via Wi-Fi. It also takes the form of iOS and Android applications.

Digilent Agent
The Digilent Agent manages communication between your computer and the OpenScope MZ;
making the connections, setting up the device, and communicating over USB or Wi-Fi.

Setting Up Your OpenScope MZ

Now that you know what your OpenScope is made of, let’s get set up and take a measurement!

Step 1: Make sure you have all the components in place

Before you begin, you’ll need:

• The OpenScope MZ

• A micro USB cable

• Your computer

• Some breadboard wires or staples (2)

Step 2: Download, install, and open the Digilent Agent

The Digilent Agent is a service that runs in the sys-

tem tray on Windows, Mac and Linux and enables
browser based applications to communicate with
Digilent hardware.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool. 11

 ...Step 2 cont’d
• Go to: http://digilent.com/digilentagent

• Download the correct version for your computer

• Install the agent

Step 3: Start up WaveForms Live

• Go to: www.waveformslive.com

• When you first go to WaveFormsLive.com, you’ll be taken directly to the device manager.

12 Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool.

Step 4: Add your OpenScope MZ
• Click “Add Device”

• Select “Agent” then hit the ‘+’ button.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool. 13

 ...Step 4 cont’d
• Select serial port. If multiple serial ports are showing, you may have to try a few before
you succeed.

Windows

Mac OS Linux

14 Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool.

Step 5: Update the firmware
• If this is the first time you are using your OpenScope MZ, WaveForms Live will prompt
you to update the firmware:

• Click “OK”. This will take just a few moments:

• It is always advised that you choose the latest firmware in the event that new tools were
added or optimized.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool. 15

 Step 6: Calibrate your OpenScope MZ
You may see a warning that your device is uncalibrated, at which point you’ll be taken to
the calibration wizard.
• Get two breadboard wires out of your Analog Parts Kit
• Connect DCOUT1 (solid red wire) to OSC1 (solid orange wire)
• Connect DCOUT2 (solid white wire) to OSC2 (solid blue wire)

• Click “Begin”. When prompted, save your new calibration information to the “flash” storage
location and click “Done”:

• NOTE: While you are still in the configuration menu, take note of your device’s IP address:
(You may need this later if you set up Wi-Fi.)

16 Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool.

...Step 6 cont’d
• Click the menu button in the top-left corner of the main window, then select “Device
Manager”.

Step 7: Take your first measurement

• In the Device Manager, click on the device tile for your OpenScope MZ.

• This will bring up the Instrument Panel.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool. 17

 ...Step 7 cont’d
• Note the “PIN” button in the instrument panel.

• This will bring up a useful pin-out diagram, showing you the flywire colors and signal
names for your OpenScope MZ.

• Using the pin-out diagram for reference, use a breadboard wire to connect OSC1 to AWG1
(Oscilloscope channel 1 to Arbitrary Waveform Generator channel 1)

• Turn on the Waveform Generator.

Click on the power button to

turn on the AWG. The button
will turn from grey to blue.
Note that Osc Ch1 is turned
on by default.

18 Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool.

...Step 7 cont’d
• Click “RUN”.

• You can now see the output from the AWG in the oscilloscope window. Try playing with
some of the controls to see the resulting changes.

Click to change
how much time
is shown.

Click to change
the voltage
range shown.

Click to move
the waveform
up and down.

Part 2: The OpenScope MZ and WaveForms Live - your instrumentation tool. 19

 Part 3:
Let’s get hands-on!

In this section, we’ll go through several exercises designed to introduce you to the world of ana-
log circuits, teach some basic terminology, and help you familiarize yourself with the tools on the
OpenScope MZ. But first, let’s dive into some details on the Analog Parts Kit. This kit will be
your companion in this workbook. When we call out a component for an exercise, it will always
come from the parts kit unless we explicitly state otherwise. This parts kit has over 160 individual
components that includes ICs, amplifiers, sensors, resistors, potentiometers, capacitors, transistors,
LEDs, diodes, inductors, and other miscellaneous components. This means this kit can easily work
for beginners and experienced users. We’ll use two of the components of this kit in the following
exercises.

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 21

 Analog Parts Kit contents:

Part of getting into a new field or getting to use a new tool is learning the terminology and the
basic concepts. One of the most basic concepts is Ohm’s Law.

Exercise 1: Ohm’s law

If you’ve been around electronics or heard any electrical engineer talk about circuits, you’ve prob-
ably heard about something called Ohm’s Law. Ohm’s law is essentially the one equation that
governs almost all electronics behavior, similar to how the laws of gravity govern much of what
happens in the universe. Ohm’s law is:

V = IR

Inspired yet? Let me explain. V stands for voltage (measured in Volts), I stands for current (measured
in Amps), and R stands for resistance (measured in Ohms). So, Voltage equals Current multiplied by
Resistance. One of the most basic circuits is a voltage applied to a resistor, as seen in Figure 3-1.

Well, we generally know what voltage the power supply is providing, and we know what the resistor
value should be based on the color code. But what if we wanted to know the current? We can find
out with some manipulation of Ohm’s Law:

I = V/R
Not only can we define the voltage and resistance of our circuit, but we can also find out the current.

22 Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

 Figure 3-1 Simple circuit and schematic showing voltage applied to a resistor.

This becomes incredibly useful as you run into components that may have current limitations, or
where their behavior changes with the current applied. In its original form, we can find the voltage
if the current and resistance is known. And we can find the equivalent resistance of an unknown
circuit if we know the current and voltage:

R = V/I
Ohm’s law is pretty simple, but it leads to some helpful circuit analysis when combined with Kirch-
hoff ’s Voltage Law (KVL) and Kirchhoff ’s Current Law (KCL). These three laws are applied in
Nodal and Mesh Analysis, which can be used to find the current and voltages at any point in a
circuit. To learn more about any of the laws or circuit analysis techniques mentioned, check out
Real Analog.

Now that you know Ohm’s Law, what about power?

Exercise 2: Let’s talk about power

Many circuit components or parts of a project have power limitations instead of current limitations.
Sometimes those power limitations will prevent you from damaging a component, and sometimes
they just define how much you can get from that particular source or component. Many people go

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 23

about their projects hoping that they don’t exceed these limitations, or struggle with a project un-
aware that the unknown limitation is a power limitation.

There’s another important equation to define circuit behavior, this time it’s for power!

P = IV
Another simple but all-powerful equation (pun intended). This equation means that the voltage
multiplied by the current equals the power. Let’s look at this in practice by checking out our simple
resistor circuit.

Figure 3-2 Our simple resistor circuit.

We know the amount of voltage applied to the circuit from our power supply because we set that.
We know the resistance based on the resistor color code, so we can determine the current from
Ohm’s Law. Since we know the current and the voltage, we can determine the power dissipated
across the resistor.

P = I 2R
For more information about power, check out Real Analog.

Now let’s get into some circuits that require the use of an oscilloscope.

24 Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

Exercise 3: RC circuit response

So far all we’ve seen are voltages that could be measured with a DMM. Our circuits haven’t had
any time-varying signals or time-varying components. Most circuits in electronics are not this
simple. Either the signal will vary with time, or you might have some components with non-linear
behavior, like capacitors. In the most basic sense, capacitors slowly collect charge and then slowly
discharge over time. But what does that mean in terms of signals? Let’s find out!

We’ll need to build a basic RC circuit, comprised of a resistor and capacitor. You can see the values
on the schematic below.

Figure 3-3 A basic RC circuit.

We’ll connect the waveform generator to one side of the resistor and oscilloscope channel 1 to the
other side. Connect one side of the capacitor to the oscilloscope, and the other side to a ground.

Figure 3-4 Setting up our RC circuit.

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 25

Make sure your settings match the settings seen here.

Figure 3-5 Setting up WaveForms Live for our RC circuit exercise.

Click “RUN” and you should see the signal pictured in Figure 3-6.

In electrical engineering terms, the first half of the signal with the trigger on it (the green line) is
the Forced response and the second half is the Natural response. In other words, the first section
shows the response of the circuit when you suddenly apply a voltage, e.g., the charging of the ca-
pacitor. The second section shows the response of the circuit when you remove that voltage, e.g.,
the discharging of the capacitor.

There are of course a lot of equations and theory that govern the charging and discharging of ca-
pacitors, but we won’t get into that here. If you are interested in learning more, Real Analog provides
more information on the subject.

26 Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

 Figure 3-6 The output from our RC circuit measurement.

Exercise 4: Take a moment to explore triggers

With the circuit from the previous exercise plugged in and running, let’s take a moment to under-
stand triggers. A trigger defines a condition that must be met before the acquisition is started. But
what does that mean in practice?

You may have noticed that when we got the OpenScope MZ up and running, the section labeled
“Trigger” had a symbol with an arrow pointing up automatically selected. Click the “OFF” button
in the trigger setting to turn the trigger off. You’ll see the signal bounce all around the oscilloscope
window. Now, re-select the trigger and you’ll see the signal stabilize. This is why triggers are im-
portant; they stabilize the signal in the oscilloscope window so that you can see and analyze only
the part of the waveform that you care about.

Now let’s explore how the trigger settings change the viewpoint on the signal. The previous settings
had the symbol with the arrow pointing up selected, and a trigger level of 500mV. The symbol that
you select specifies whether the trigger is on the rising edge or on the falling edge. What does this
mean? For periodic signals, there will be multiple points where the signal crosses a certain value,
so we need to specify whether the trigger is on the rising edge (when the signal is increasing in
value) or the falling edge (when the signal is decreasing in value). The trigger level that you enter
is the voltage at which the trigger is activated. And where is the trigger visually? In WaveForms
Live, the trigger is visualized by a green vertical line. You can drag this back and forth to move the
signal around.

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 27

 Figure 3-7 Our trigger, configured for falling edge.

Now, try changing the value to 5.2V. You’ll see the signal move so the trigger is in the part of the
waveform that begins to flatten out. You may also notice that the signal starts to move around a
bit. This demonstrates the importance of selecting the correct trigger value. Most importantly, the
value must be within the vertical range of the signal, or it will never trigger. Next, it should be on a
stable (no wiggles) part of the signal, otherwise the small voltage changes caused by noise will move
the trigger point around, resulting in a less than stable view of the signal.

Figure 3-8 A trigger set in a noisy section of our signal.

28 Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

Now, change the value to 500 mV and select the symbol with the arrow pointing down, or the fall-
ing edge trigger. This will move the trigger to the falling edge, which also happens to be the most
stable part of the signal. You should see the signal stabilize enough to take measurements and drop
cursors to gain valuable data!

Exercise 5: What if we change the frequency?

In our first example of an RC circuit, we looked at how the circuit responded to a square wave input
at a fixed frequency. This is helpful for determining what will happen when we turn the power on
and off. But what if we want to know what happens when we apply signals at varying frequencies
through our circuit? For signal processing, it’s often helpful to build a circuit that can filter out
certain frequencies or noise. With something called a Bode plot, we can determine what frequency
signals will go through our circuit and at what amplitude. By plotting all the responses on the same
graph, we can quickly build, test, and adjust our circuit.

Let’s return to the simple RC circuit we used before, as seen in Figure 3-4. Make sure the Oscil-
loscope in WaveForms Live is stopped, and click on the button with the squiggly line on the right
edge of the plot window. This will open the Bode plot, also referred to as the amplitude response.
Make sure the settings match the plot below, and hit Run.

Figure 3-9 The output of our Bode plot.

Each of the dots represent a frequency that ran through the circuit and was compared to the out-
put. Each dot’s X value is the frequency, and the Y value is the ratio of output amplitude to input
amplitude in decibels (dB). This circuit shows low-pass behavior since the lower frequencies have

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 29

a value closer to 0 dB, or a ratio of 1. To learn more about Bode Plots and their cutoff frequencies,
check out the Real Analog course on that topic.

Exercise 6: Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

As we’ve discussed previously, most signals in the real world are not made up of a single frequency
like a basic sine wave. Instead, they are a combination of other signals at other frequencies. Because
of this, sometimes it can be important to see a signal in the frequency domain. The frequency do-
main is visualized as a plot with amplitude on the Y-axis, and frequency on the X-axis. This way you
can see how much of each frequency is in your signal. FFT plots are commonly found on spectrum
analyzers, and are frequently used in audio applications. To demonstrate an FFT plot, we’ll use a
well-known type of signal: The square wave. We’ll attach the waveform generator and oscilloscope
together and output a 1kHz square wave.

Figure 3-10 The setup for our FFT exercise

Press the fast Fourier transform (FFT) button to open the FFT window. Adjust the settings so
they match the settings seen in Figure 3-11.

30 Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

 Figure 3-11 The results of our FFT plot.

You can see a large spike at 1kHz along with a bunch of smaller spikes. This makes sense! Square
waves are a bunch of sine waves added together. The first spike is the frequency of the square wave
and the rest of the spikes are harmonics. To learn more about this topic, check out Real Analog.

Earlier we discussed power, but what if our circuit isn’t getting enough? Is there a way to inject
some power into a circuit?

Exercise 7: Operational amplifiers

Sometimes the circuit you build needs more current or voltage than the power supply you have,
or you need to up the current or voltage from one stage of the circuit to the next. A common way
to inject some more power into a circuit, is with op-amps (Operational Amplifiers). There are a
bunch of different ways you can use op-amps to manipulate signals. There are summing amplifiers
that add two signals together, difference amplifiers that subtract one signal from another, inverting
amplifiers that invert the signal, and the classic non-inverting amplifier. A non-inverting amplifier
amplifies the voltage of the signal. How much it amplifies depends on the resistors used. Let’s set
one up.

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 31

 Figure 3-12 Our op-amp circuit and schematic.

The IC you see is the OP27 you can find in your parts kit. (You can look at the OP27 datasheet to
find a pinout diagram for future use.) This circuit also uses a 2.2kΩ resistor and 1kΩ resistor. As
you can see, channel 1 of the power supply is connected to the positive input of the op-amp and
channel 2 of the power supply is connected to the negative input. Oscilloscope channel 2 is con-
nected to the input of the circuit. Oscilloscope channel 1 connected to the output of the circuit, and
the waveform generator supplies the input of the circuit. One of the analog grounds is connected
to the ground of the circuit.

As mentioned before, non-inverting amplifiers multiply the input voltage by some value based on
the resistors. The exact equation is:

Vout/Vin = (1+R1/R2)
In our circuit R1 is 2.2k and R2 is 1k, so we have a factor of about 3. Input 500mV and you’ll get
1.5V. Let’s see it in action!

32 Part 3: Let’s get hands-on!

Enter 4V into channel 1 of the power supply, and -4V into channel 2 of the power supply. Set up
the waveform generator to generate a sine wave, with a frequency of 800 Hz, 1V peak to peak, and
0V offset. You should see the output as shown below:

Figure 3-13 The results of our op-amp circuit.

The input signal has an amplitude of 500mV, while the output signal is amplified by a factor of 3
and has an amplitude of 1.5V.

To learn more about the inverting aamplifier and more op-amp circuits, check out Real Analog.

Part 3: Let’s get hands-on! 33

 Appendix A:
Optional Exercise: Exploring Breadboards

One of the most basic and necessary elements of electronics is the solderless breadboard. If you
know how solderless breadboards work, go ahead and skip this section. If not, we’re going to take
a moment to explore a solderless breadboard with the OpenScope MZ.

First, we’ll explore what is called a node. A single node is just any number of holes that are electri-
cally connected. This means that if you apply a voltage to one spot, another spot in the same node
will also show that voltage. On a breadboard, a row is one node. Apply a voltage to one side of the
row and you’ll see it on the other side.

While all the holes in each row of 5 are connected, you can see that the rows are not connected to-
gether - they are electrically isolated. If we apply a voltage to one row, we will not see it in another row.

34 Appendix A
While the main breadboard surface has its nodes connected by rows, the power rails are connected
by columns. Apply power to either the blue column or red column and you’ll see holes in that same
column have that voltage.

You may have already figured this out since they are not physically connected, but the two power rails
on either side of the main breadboard are also electrically isolated.

Appendix A 35
 Appendix B:
Resistor Color Code Chart

Examples:

You can also use our app! https://reference.digilentinc.com/tools

36 Appendix B
 Appendix C:
How to Read Capacitors

Ceramic Capacitor Electrolytic Capacitor

Another handy resource: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/capacitor/cap_3.html

Appendix C 37
 Appendix D:
Troubleshooting

The LEDs on the OpenScope MZ are used to indicate the current status of the OpenScope’s
hardware as follows:

• Blue Off: Device is booting and not ready to use.

• Blue Flashing: Device is booted and ready to use but Wi-Fi is not connected.
• Blue Solid: Device is booted and ready to use and Wi-Fi is connected.
• Red Solid - Calibration or acquisition in progress.
• All user LEDs Solid - An error has occurred. Reboot the OpenScope MZ.

When connected to a Wi-Fi network, the 3 user LEDs display the last octet of the OpenScope
MZ’s IP address by blinking the number of times corresponding to that digit of the last octet in
decimal. For example, an OpenScope MZ with an IP address ending in ‘123’ would blink LD1
once, LD2 twice, and LD3 three times.

192.168.1.123

Note: Firmware versions prior to 1.2.0 will not exhibit this LED behavior.

38 Appendix D
 Appendix E:
A Note on Grounding

You may have noticed (and thought it odd) that throughout this workbook we didn’t just tell you to
use the black ground wires. That is because the OpenScope MZ was designed to maximize signal
integrity.

In this workbook, we only used the analog inputs of the OpenScope MZ; however, the OpenScope
MZ also has digital input channels. If you were to use both the digital channels and the analog
channels and used a single black ground wire, you would see noise from the digital channels show
up on the analog channels. This is because they share a ground plane within the PCB.

That could be pretty misleading as you take your measurements, so we added two analog grounds.
These are the blue wire with the white stripe and the orange wire with the white stripe that we
used in the exercises.

As a rule of thumb: if you are using the analog channels, use the analog grounds. If you are using
the digital channels, use the black digital ground.

Appendix E 39
 F:
Appendix
nks
Helpful Li

Real Analog Course Material:

https://reference.digilentinc.com/learn/courses/real-analog/start

Capacitor Tutorial:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/capacitor/cap_3.html

Resistor Calculator Application:

https://reference.digilentinc.com/tools/

Digilent Documentation Wiki:

reference.digilentinc.com

Digilent Github:
https://github.com/digilent

OpenScope Resource Center:

https://reference.digilentinc.com/reference/instrumentation/openscope-mz/start

For any additional questions post on our forum:

forum.digilentinc.com

40 Appendix F
Learning Edition Workbook
The OpenScope MZ is an all-in-one WiFi enabled benchtop
instrumentation tool. When combined with the software
Waveforms Live, the OpenScope MZ turns your computer into
an oscilloscope, waveform generator, power supply, simple
logic analyzer, basic spectrum analyzer, and a data logger.
With this tool, you can make the invisible visible, and you’ll be
able to view signals right on your computer’s screen, giving you
a clear picture of what is going on in your circuits!

This workbook was created to introduce you to the

OpenScope MZ, to measuring circuits, and provide you with
helpful resources for learning more. We hope this is a jumping
off point for your journey with instrumentation!

With this workbook, you should be able to:

• Successfully set up your OpenScope MZ
• Take your first measurement
• Get familiar with your Analog Parts Kit
• Get an introduction to Ohm’s Law
• Learn a little bit about power
• View an RC circuit response
• Explore triggering
• View a frequency response
• Learn about fast Fourier transforms
• Get an intro to operational amplifiers
• Learn how and where to get additional resources