Silicon ChipThe TiePie Handyprobe HP2 - Electronics TestBench SILICON CHIP
  1. Outer Front Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Project: Dual Tracking ±18.5V Power Supply by John Clarke & Leo Simpson
  4. Project: An In-Circuit Transistor Tester by Darren Yates
  5. Project: Cable & Wiring Tester by Leon Williams
  6. Project: DIY Remote Control Tester by Leo Simpson
  7. Project: Build A Digital Capacitance Meter by Rick Walters
  8. Project: A Low Ohms Tester For Your DMM by John Clarke
  9. Project: 3-LED Logic Probe by Rick Walters
  10. Project: Low Cost Transistor Mosfet Tester by John Clarke
  11. Project: Universal Power Supply Board For Op Amps by Leo Simpson
  12. Project: Telephone Exchange Simulator For Testing by Mike Zenere
  13. Project: High-Voltage Insulation Tester by John Clarke
  14. Project: 10μH to 19.99mH Inductance Meter by Rick Walters
  15. Project: Beginner’s Variable Dual-Rail Power Supply by Darren Yates
  16. Project: Simple Go/No-Go Crystal Checker by Darren Yates
  17. Project: Build This Sound Level Meter by John Clarke
  18. Project: Pink Noise Source by John Clarke
  19. Project: A Zener Diode Tester For Your DMM by John Clarke
  20. Project: 40V 3A Variable Power Supply; Pt.1 by John Clarke
  21. Project: 40V 3A Variable Power Supply; Pt.2 by John Clarke
  22. Review: Multisim Circuit Design & Simulation Package by Peter Smith
  23. Review: The TiePie Handyprobe HP2 by Peter Smith
  24. Review: Motech MT-4080A LCD Meter by Leo Simpson
  25. Outer Back Cover

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The TiePie HANDYPROBE HP2 Troubleshooting electrical/electronic equipment in the field can be a real pain in the proverbial. Lugging large, supposedly “portable” and usually expensive pieces of test equipment around the country can really test the nerves – as well as the muscles. Could this be the answer? TiePie engineering Review by PETER SMITH TiePie Engineering, a Dutch company which specialises in computer controlled measuring equipment, has come up with a unique solution to this field service dilemma in the Handyprobe 2. The Handyprobe 2 incorporates a storage oscilloscope, spectrum analyser, voltmeter and transient recorder all in a package that fits in the palm of your hand! The probe plugs into the parallel port of any PC and in conjunction with DOS or Windows software provides a comprehensive range of data acquisition functions. It is powered directly from the parallel port connection (no external supply or batteries are required) so is ideally suited for use with laptop computers. In fact, the probe together with its integral cable could easily slide into a spare spot in most laptop bags. With an input range of 0.5V to 400V full scale and a maximum sampling speed of 20MHz (TiePie also produce 1,2,5 and 10MHz versions), the Handyprobe can handle just about anything you can throw at it. To keep the cost down, TiePie have provided only single-channel acquisition in the Handyprobe 2. As with most storage ‘scopes, the Handyprobe includes a reference channel that can 124 be used to compare a stored measurement with a second (live) measurement, so a second channel is usually not required. Instrument settings can be saved and restored from disk at will. Launching the Handyprobe 2 software displays a floating toolbar on the Windows desktop (see Fig.1). The toolbar provides access to all four of the available instruments, as well as to basic program settings (see Fig.2). The ’scope, voltmeter and spectrum analyser instruments can all be active simultaneously, whereas the transient recorder must run independently. Let’s take a look at each of the instruments and their capabilities in a little detail. Storage oscilloscope TiePie boast that their instruments are “plug and measure”. We connected the probe to our trusty Silicon Chip Sine/Square Wave Generator, activated the oscilloscope and hit the Auto SET button. In less than a second the input was scaled nicely (both horizontally and vertically) and correctly triggered (see Fig.3). Auto SET places the instrument in auto-ranging mode, so for many simple measurements you may not need to do any setup at all. All instrument settings are available Silicon Chip’s Electronics TestBench from the main toolbar via pull-down menus, with many often-used settings also controllable with single-keystroke shortcuts. Vertical axis The CH1 pull-down menu provides access to all vertical axis settings. Input sensitivity ranges from 0.5V to 400V full scale, configurable from the Sensitivity selection (see Fig.4). Alternatively, hitting the F5/F6 keys clicks over to the next lowest/highest setting - a bit like using that rotary switch on CRT-based oscilloscopes. Measured values can be enlarged or reduced using the “Software Gain” function – TiePie calls this vertical axis magnification. A closely related function called “Software Offset” applies a positive or negative bias to the vertical axis. Once again I was reminded of the conventional ‘scope and the equivalent “position” knob (got to kick that habit). Both the Software Gain and Offset can also be changed directly on the display by clicking and dragging points on the vertical axis. The Units of measure, Units of gain and Units of offset functions provide for custom vertical axis marking and scaling, making tailoring for specific measuring tasks quite simple. Fig.1: the instrument toolbar provides a convenient way of activating the instruments. All except the transient recorder can be active simultaneously. For example, suppose you have a temperature probe whose output changes by 1V for every 10 degrees of temperature change. By setting the Units of measure to “Degrees C” and Units of gain to “10”, the vertical axis displays temperature change directly in degrees. Other options on this menu allow choices of true or inverted signal, and either AC or DC signal coupling. Horizontal axis Unlike its more conventional analog cousin, the digital scope’s timebase is dependant on both the rate at which the incoming signal is sampled and how many samples are stored and subsequently displayed across the horizontal axis. The Handyprobe 2 has a maximum sampling rate of 20 million samples/ second and a memory depth (also called record length) of 32,760. Both the sample rate and record length are configurable from the Timebase pulldown menu (see Fig.5). Naturally, the Handyprobe software automatically adjusts the time/div values along the horizontal axis when the sample rate and record length are changed. Also accessible from the Timebase menu are two options that allow closer examination of any part of the acquired signal. Record View Gain provides horizontal axis magnification, whereas Record View Offset allows display of a particular section of the record. Note the scroll bar directly be- Fig.2: settings common to all instruments are accessible low the horizon- from the toolbar. Although not mentioned in the text, tal axis – this instrument calibration data can be defined on the Hardware tab. provides a much more convenient Noisy signals and glitches way of panning through the record than manually entering the Record Noisy signals can be “cleaned up” View Offset. by using Handyprobe’s signal averaging feature. A feature in digital ‘scopes that I’ve often found useful is their ability to Spotting a glitch on a real-time display a number of samples prior to display is often impossible – but Tietriggering. Pie have the bases covered here, too. On the Handyprobe, the number Envelope mode keeps a record of the of pre-trigger samples can be set an- highest and lowest samples since last ywhere from zero to the maximum reset and compares these values to record size. A second scroll bar at the each successive sample. bottom of the display allows this value When a sample that exceeds either to be changed instantly. of these limits is detected, a vertical line is drawn on the display at that Triggering point and the value is stored as the As expected, the Handyprobe in- new lowest (or highest). Envelope mode can be reset at any user-definable cludes variable level triggering on a rising or falling slope. Slope position, measurement interval – or it can run level and hysteresis can all be set from indefinitely. the Trigger pull-down menu. Easier Saving settings & waveforms still, these values can be changed by clicking and dragging the trigger symThe good news is that once you’ve bol next to the vertical axis - too easy! got the instruments set up the way you Auto level triggering is also selecta- want for a particular measuring task, you can save those settings to disk for ble; when active an “A” is visible next later reuse. And there is no limit to to the trigger symbol. Fig.3: the “oscilloscope”. Comment balloons provide an easy way of annotating waveforms before printing. Fig.4: manually setting the input range. Silicon Chip’s Electronics TestBench  125 Fig.5: selecting the sample frequency (or rate) from the Time base menu. The faster the sample rate, the less time it takes to fill an entire record. As shown here, at 10kS/sec the record is filled in just 100ms. the number of settings files you can create, either. Another indispensable feature allows waveforms (both live and reference channels) to be saved on disk for later examination. Accurate measurements A variety of useful measurements can be made quickly and easily by using mouse-moveable cursors. These are enabled from the Cursors pull-down menu and once enabled, a dialog box appears, listing all the measurements made at the current cursor positions. Hard copy A faithful copy of the displayed waveform can be made at any time by using the Print feature. Comments can be added anywhere on the display area with the aid of user-definable comment balloons. Balloons can have arrows that point wherever you like (see our “Clipping” balloon example on Fig.3). Balloon shape and colour are customisable, too. As shown in our example, a longer (up to 3 lines) comment can also be added to the top right of the printout. Voltmeter In voltmeter mode, data is presented to the user in a similar manner to a conventional digital voltmeter (DVM), and includes triple displays with bargraphs (see Fig.7). The input signal can be either AC or Fig.18: the transient recorder instrument. Here we’ve used the Units of measure and Units of gain settings to simulate a thermocouple reading in thousands of °C. 126 Silicon Chip’s Electronics TestBench DC-coupled, with a range of between 0.5 and 400V full scale. Autoranging is also supported. Measurements can be made in true RMS, peak-to-peak, mean, maximum, minimum, dBm, power, crest, frequency, duty cycle or instantaneous value. Quick “go-no go” tests can be made by configuring the Set high value and Set low value entries appropriately. This function is also useful for monitoring a signal for out-of-range conditions, depending on how the sound settings are configured. To reduce duplication of settings between instruments, TiePie have slaved many of the settings together. For example, the voltmeter actually uses the record length and post-trigger samples from the oscilloscope. If either the oscilloscope or spectrum analyser is active though, their settings override the voltmeter settings as the voltmeter has lowest priority. The frequency range setting is an exception to this rule, as changing it in the voltmeter affects all other instruments. TiePie have included a “use scope frequency” setting to avoid potential frustration! Spectrum analyser If you work with filters, amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, modulators, or detectors, you need a spectrum analyser. Whereas oscilloscopes display signals in the time domain (which is fine for determining amplitude, time and phase information) spectrum analysers display signals in the frequency domain. The frequency domain contains certain information that is just not visible in the time domain. To borrow several examples from the Handy-probe user manual: (1). A sine wave may look good in the time domain, but in the frequency domain harmonic distortion is visible. (2). A noise signal may look totally random in the time domain, but in the frequency domain one frequency may be dominantly present. (3). In the frequency domain it is easy to determine carrier frequency, modulation frequency, modulation level and modulation distortion from an AM or FM signal. Fig.8 shows what a 200kHz square wave looks like on the spectrum analyser. Square waves are (theoretically) composed of an infinite number of harmonics, some of which you can Fig.7: the voltmeter alone could make the TiePie Handyprobe an indispensable instrument for all service personnel. see on the left and right of the 200kHz peak. Without going into complicated explanations, suffice to say that the Handyprobe software uses Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) to calculate the spectral components of the sampled signal. Measuring harmonics An important feature of this instrument is its ability to measure Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). This is set up and displayed from the Measure pull-down menu. The number of harmonics used to calculate the THD is user definable and the results can be displayed in decibels or as a percentage. As with the oscilloscope, cursors are provided for easy waveform measurement. A multitude of other features match those that we have already described for the oscilloscope instrument. These inlude display zooming, signal averaging, copying live to reference memory, saving waveforms to disk, hardcopy output and saving/restoring instrument settings. Transient recorder If you need to measure slowly changing signals over a period of time, the transient recorder is the instrument of choice (see Fig.6). Unlike the other instruments in the package, the transient recorder is direct registering. This means that it displays each measurement as it is made, rather than waiting for an Fig.8: the spectrum analyser instrument really expands the usefulness of the package. entire record to be acquired. This is necessary because at the lowest sample rate, it can take up to 189.6 days to fill a record! The different measurement and display techniques used also mean that other instruments cannot be active when the transient recorder is active. Many features of this instrument are common to those found on the oscilloscope and spectrum analyser, so we’ll concentrate mainly on the unique ones here. Recording speed Sampling time can be set anywhere from 0.01 second to 500 seconds, with a complete record variable from 1 to 32,760 samples. The recording process can be interrupted at any time and the results saved to disk or printed. It is also possible to have the recorder run continuously and automatically save to disk at the end of each complete record acquisition. Note that at very high measuring speeds, TiePie state that some data samples may be lost due to the overhead of disk access. During recording, the display can be set to roll left as the trace reaches the rightmost edge of the screen – a great feature that reminds me of mechanical chart recorders with their drums and pens. Data gathered from the recorder will most often be used for documentation purposes, so the vertical axis custom­ isation features really shine in this instrument. Pre-defined choices for the units of measure include Volt, Amp, Degree C, Degree F, Watt, Percent, Meter, Kilogram, Newton, Coulomb, Bar and Hertz. If you can’t find what you want in that lot you can define your own in five characters or less. Text balloons of variable shape, size and colour can be positioned anywhere on the display, and colour printer output is supported, too! Need more speed? If the Handyprobe 2 sounds great but you need more bandwidth or another channel, TiePie also offer the TiePieSCOPE HS801. This instrument is not quite as portable as the Handyprobe, but it adds a second channel, has five times the sample rate (100M samples/ sec) and includes an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) instrument. Software for the TiePieSCOPE is practically identical to the Handyprobe, notwithstanding the additional support for the second channel and the AWG. Where to get it! Self-running demos and complete user manuals for the Handyprobe 2 and TiePieSCOPE are available for free download from Tiepie’s web site at www.tiepie.nl Our review unit came from the Australian distributors of TiePie Engineering products,Melbourne-based RTN, phone/fax (03) 9338 3306; email nollet<at>enternet.com.au. A phone call to RTN will give you the latest pricing. SC Silicon Chip’s Electronics TestBench  127