WaveRunner Xi Series Oscilloscope

WaveRunner 204MXi, WaveRunner 104MXi, WaveRunner 64MXi, WaveRunner 44MXi, WaveRunner 204Xi, WaveRunner 104Xi, WaveRunner 64Xi, WaveRunner 62Xi, WaveRunner 44Xi

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The most difficult electrical circuit problems are rarely obvious in the time domain. Long memory with zooming, searching, and scanning is an important part of the solution. However, serious design professionals understand the importance of converting time-domain information into statistical, parameter, or frequency domains so as to get to the root of the problem quicker. WaveRunner Xi provides you with the tools necessary to understand complex circuit problems and solve them faster.

Slowly sample at 1000 seconds/div to capture hours of slow speed signal data. Using Trend Views, plot measurement values of high-speed signals with slower speed signals, such as transducer or voltage values.

Track in WaveRunner Xi (optional) uses every instance of a measurement in an acquisition to create a plot of measurement values on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis. The result is a graphical plot of a measurement change time correlated to the original channel acquisition-perfect for intuitive understanding. Some examples include:

• Measuring a signal's Frequency over a 100 ms interval, and understanding whether the correct frequency shifts are present at the right times.
• Measuring a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal'sWidth over a 1 second interval, and determining if the modulation circuit is correctly reacting to system changes.
• Measuring the cycle-cycle jitter values in a microprocessor and understanding how cycle-cycle jitter peaks correlate to spikes in power supply lines.

The PWM signal for a power tool motor speed controller is monitored during start-up. The Width parameter is used. All instances of Width during the acquisition are measured. Then, Track was applied to determine when the speed plateaued (i.e., when the tool rotation reached steady-state).

LeCroy oscilloscopes excel in capturing hundreds or thousands of times more measurements per acquisition than other oscilloscopes do. With this much data, it is essential to provide more than just a list of mean, min, max, sdev, etc. Histograms provide an intuitive way to view the distribution of statistical data and gain real insight into underlying problems. For instance:

• Measure millions of jitter values in seconds, understand whether the measurement distribution is Gaussian or non-Gaussian, and correct timing problems to stay within a timing budget.
• Improve validation of timing budgets when measuring embedded controller response times. Measure hundreds of thousands of timing events instead of just hundreds, and easily view real-world worst-case timing situations.

The jitter on this edge is clearly visible in the time domain. But debugging the problem will require deeper insight into the deviant behavior.
The histogram (lower trace) shows the results of 922 pulse width measurements. Cursors are used to investigate how many pulses occurred of each pulse width. This tool enables the user to really understand how the circuit is behaving over time.

LeCroy's long memory (up to 25 Mpts) FFTs increase your ability to understand signal behaviors in the frequency domain. The long memory allows users to obtain 5-100x the frequency resolution possible with FFTs available in other oscilloscopes, which allows more precise troubleshooting. Built-in averaging of FFTs helps to eliminate random events from the calculations. In addition, LeCroy FFTs can be applied to any channel or math function, which greatly expands the ability to gather useful information. Some examples include:

• Capture power supply, clock, and data signals with 1 kHz frequency resolution. Correlate power supply noise to signal integrity.
• Apply an FFT to a Track of Cycle- Cycle Jitter and gain insight into the frequency components and root cause of the jitter.
• Quickly capture hundreds of acquisitions and average the FFTs to increase frequency signal-noise ratio and to separate random from deterministic events.