Measurement & Test#
Organized by measurement situation β what you need to learn about the circuit β rather than starting from which instrument to pick up. Each subsection starts with a measurement situation β safety, probing, power rails, signals, noise β and works through the practical questions that come up at the bench.
Subsections are ordered prerequisites-first: safety and probing technique before anything else, simple checks (continuity, components) before complex ones (signals, spectrum, protocols), and cross-cutting skills (noise, calibration) at the end.
Sections#
Safety & High Energy β Mains, high voltage, CAT ratings, and the hazard assessment that comes before every measurement.
Probing & Measurement Technique β Connecting without changing the thing being measured: loading, bandwidth, and grounding.
Continuity & Connections β The simplest checks: joints, shorts, wire mapping, and intermittent faults.
Component Testing β Go/no-go checks, actual values, tolerance, and characterizing ESR, leakage, and gain.
Power Rails & Supplies β Supply verification, regulation, ripple, current draw, sequencing, and energy storage health.
Signals & Waveforms β Following signals through the circuit: presence, shape, gain, distortion, and finding where they go wrong.
Time, Frequency & Spectrum β Signal characterization in both domains: rise times, jitter, harmonics, bandwidth, and frequency content.
Digital Logic & Protocols β Logic levels, bus health, protocol decode, clock-data alignment, and speed failures.
Audio & Analog Circuits β THD, SNR, frequency response, gain structure, and sensor interfaces where the signal is the product.
Noise, Interference & Grounding β Tracking unwanted signals: EMI, ground loops, crosstalk, coupling, and empirical fixes.
Calibration & Measurement Confidence β Trusting the readings: accuracy, artifacts, calibration status, and measurement uncertainty.
Test Instruments β Reference material for the instruments mentioned throughout: key specs, what they mean, feature tiers, and which capability level different work demands.