Portable instruments are ideal for installation, maintenance and emergency work on electrical and electronic systems. Sources of faults can be varied, ranging from problems with the power quality to faulty behavior of electronic systems in the target system. Rohde & Schwarz developed the R&S Scope Rider for such applications. The rugged handheld oscilloscope offers the performance of a lab instrument in the compact format of a handheld device.
Sleep Mode
Automation in building and production technology is progressing rapidly. Systems are controlled by bus systems, have wireless, web, and/or LAN interfaces and consist of modern electronic components. Disturbances can arise from a variety of causes. Insufficient power quality can lead to sensitive electronic devices operating unreliably. A drive’s strong electromagnetic fields can affect control signals and lead to faulty behavior. The new handheld oscilloscope from Rohde & Schwarz is the all-in-one solution for such situations. It offers the operational safety to safely measure the AC supply voltage/mains voltage and simultaneously analyze sensitive signals in electronic circuits.
Safely measure power quality
If hazardous live voltages need to be measured, users have to pay special attention to the instrument’s IEC 61010-1-compliant measurement category. In a CAT IV environment – upstream of the main fuse of a building’s power supply – overvoltages of up to 8000 V can occur when measuring a maximum voltage of 600 V. The safety of the user is only guaranteed if the measuring instrument was developed for these overvoltages and has the corresponding certification. The R&S Scope Rider is certified for voltage measurements up to 600 V for CAT IV environments and up to 1000 V for CAT III environments. It can therefore be used for power quality monitoring at all points of the installation.
The galvanic isolation of the input channels relative to one another is also crucial. With a conventional oscilloscope, inadvertently switching the ground and signal wires leads to a short circuit with potentially devastating consequences. The isolated channels of the R&S Scope Rider prevent this problem and also allow simultaneous differential measurement. Expensive differential probes are unnecessary, for example, when measuring power electronics.
Detect sporadic network interruptions
A common problem in electrical installations are loose contacts, which leads to sporadic interruptions in the power supplies. These interruptions can be triggered by mechanical vibrations and be so brief that they are not noticeable for normal electrical loads, but nonetheless interfere with the functioning of sensitive electronic equipment.
The various trigger functions of the R&S Scope Rider allow it to specifically detect and analyze root causes. Short interruptions of the power supply, for example, can be detected easily and effectively with the pulse width trigger.
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- Fig. 1: Suitable for all applications – as a two-channel instrument with integrated multimeter for field use or with four input channels for analyzing electronic circuits. Source: Rohde & Schwarz
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- Fig. 2: To ensure the user’s safety, measuring instruments need to be certified for the respective measuring environment. The R&S Scope Rider offers maximum safety and flexibility during measurements, with a certification of up to 600 V in a CAT IV environment and up to 1000 V in a CAT III environment. Source: Rohde & Schwarz
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- Fig. 3: The isolated input channels prevent short circuits caused by inadvertent swapping of ground and signal wires at two oscilloscope inputs. Power electronics measurements can be safely performed. Source: Rohde & Schwarz
Measurements on drives and power electronics
A common application is monitoring and maintaining electrical drives and power electronics or electrical equipment in general. Thanks to the automatic measurement functions, power parameters such as apparent, active and reactive power and even the power factor can be directly and simply measured. The integrated data logger allows the user to automatically record the configured measurements for up to 23 days and analyze long term trends simply by switching to the logger mode.
Analysis of serial protocols made easy
The trigger and decode functions of the Rohde & Schwarz Scope Rider help users analyze serial protocols to check the communications between individual electronic modules. These functions can be used to analyze digital communications and to specifically trigger on specific data packets. Users can determine whether UART, CAN or LIN control commands sent are received and processed correctly by the tested module. The ability to load symbolic labels into the device and select the desired control commands via text labels makes it even easier to work with the instrument. The Rohde & Schwarz Scope Rider is the only handheld oscilloscope on the market with powerful triggering and decoding capabilities and symbolic labels.
Simple operation
In daily service and maintenance, it is crucial to identify and solve root causes of problems. Each additional hour of work costs money and system downtime can be costly. Equipment for service and maintenance tasks must therefore be especially easy to use since there is no time for long learning phases. This is why particular attention was given to the operating concept when developing the handheld oscilloscope. The touchscreen makes operation simple, similar to a smartphone. Deep menu levels were avoided and settings for the most important functions can be accessed directly via the keypad. The extra-large keypad layout makes the instrument easy to operate even when wearing gloves.
For especially unpleasant or dangerous measurement situations, the oscilloscope can be controlled directly from a web browser on a PC, tablet or notebook via the integrated WLAN module. The oscilloscope can then be conveniently and safely operated from afar.
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- Fig. 4: Powerful trigger functions make it possible to specifically detect power quality problems. Brief power supply interruptions due to poor contacts are quickly detected with the pulse width trigger. Source: Rohde & Schwarz
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- Fig. 5: Automatic measurement functions calculate apparent, active and reactive power as well as the power factor from the measured voltage (channel 1) and current (channel 2). Source: Rohde & Schwarz
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- Fig. 6: Decoding of and triggering on CAN protocol messages. Source: Rohde & Schwarz
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- Fig. 7: In potentially dangerous applications, the R&S Scope Rider can be operated via WLAN directly from a web browser. Source: Rohde & Schwarz
Five instruments integrated into a single handheld oscilloscope
Troubleshooting in the field often requires a variety of measurement functions. This is why the R&S Scope Rider integrates four essential measuring instruments in addition to the oscilloscope function:
Logic analyzer with eight additional digital channels
Protocol analyzer with trigger and decoder functionality for debugging serial protocols
Data logger for long-term monitoring
Digital voltmeter in the four-channel instrument or digital multimeter in the two-channel instrument
Using the blue mode key, the user can quickly switch between the different instrument modes. Instrument setups are automatically applied when switching between modes. For example, automatic measurement functions can be activated in oscilloscope mode – switching to data logger mode takes over the preset measurements and starts data acquisition.
Suitable for individual measurement requirements
The R&S Scope Rider is available as a two-channel or as a four-channel instrument in five bandwidths from 60 MHz to 500 MHz. All instruments can be configured as a mixed signal oscilloscope with additional digital inputs. Users can activate extra options with a keycode to obtain a measuring instrument tailored exactly to their requirements: a lab instrument with an intuitive operating concept designed for use in rugged environments. The R&S Scope Rider offers much more than other handheld instruments on the market, yet it does not cost more than a commercial handheld oscilloscope with isolated inputs.
