Acquisition and Display Options

The Display pane lets you select the acquisition and display modes for your waveform.

Acquisition Mode

Normal - This mode applies for most waveforms (with normal decimating at slower sweep speeds, no averaging).

Average - This mode can be selected to reduce noise and increase resolution (at all sweep speeds without bandwidth or rise time degradation). You can set the number of waveforms to be averaged.

Peak - This mode can be selected to display narrow pulses that occur infrequently (at slower sweep speeds).

Display Options

Display Mode - Select the desired display mode (Main, XY, or Roll).

Main: Shows the normal viewing mode for the waveform graph display.
XY: Changes the display from a volts-versus-time display to a volts-versus-volts display. Channel 1 amplitude is plotted on the X-axis and Channel 2 amplitude is plotted on the Y-axis. The XY mode is used to compare frequency and phase relationships between two signals. Selecting the XY mode disables the time base, delay, trigger, average settings, peak detection, FFT, and Math functions.
Roll: Causes the waveform to move slowly across the display from right to left. It only operates on time base settings of 500 ms/div and slower. If the current time base setting is faster than the 500 ms/div limit, it will be set to 500 ms/div when the Roll mode is selected. Selecting the Roll mode disables average settings, trigger, FFT, and Math functions.

Enable Vectors - This option connects the sample points by using digital interpolation.

Sine x/x interpolation - This option expands the horizontal signal resolution when the horizontal scale is set to 100 ns or faster.

Waveform Persistence - This option updates the display with new acquisitions, but does not erase the results of previous acquisitions. Waveform persistence is not kept beyond the display area boundary. Use waveform persistence to measure noise and jitter, to see the worst-case extremes of varying waveforms, to look for timing violations, or to capture events that occur infrequently.

Clear Trace - Click this button to clear the previous acquisitions on the graph display. The oscilloscope will then start to accumulate acquisitions again. Turn off waveform persistence and click this button to return the oscilloscope to the normal display mode.

Note: For accumulating multiple acquisitions, turning off waveform persistence does not clear the display. This allows you to accumulate multiple acquisitions, stop acquisitions, and then compare future acquisitions to the stored waveforms.

Note: In addition to clear stored infinite persistence waveforms by clicking the Clear Trace button, the previous acquisitions on the graph display are also cleared if you click the Auto Scale button.