Set trigger level. Setting proper trigger level is essential for getting accurate and stable results. So it is advised to keep Trigger Mode Auto letting the instrument select adequate trigger levels. Please see measurement functions description for details.
In Auto and Relative Trigger Modes, the instrument performs voltage measurement (using current Voltage Mode setting) – so-called auto-trigger - before each Time or Frequency measurement which delays the measurement start. In cases when it is undesirable, please use Manual Trigger Mode.
When measuring non-continuous signals or single cycles, auto-trigger might fail to measure signal voltage range correctly which won’t allow setting trigger levels properly and might result in wrong measurement results. It is advised to use Manual Trigger Mode in this case.
In Manual Trigger Mode in most cases one can get the best results if Trigger Level is set to the center of signal voltage range. It will help avoid capturing signal edge artifacts and in most cases the middle of the signal voltage range will be the point with maximum slew rate, which minimizes timing trigger error.
Setting trigger level close to signal minimum or maximum level can result in intermittent readings and/or unreliable result. For example, measured Frequency value twice greater or twice lower than actual can be a typical consequence of poor trigger level choice when measuring pulse signals with significant artifacts on edges.
Please note: Actual triggering does not occur when the input signal crosses the trigger level at 50 percent of the amplitude, but when the input signal has crossed the entire hysteresis band (Figure 11). Which causes measurement timing errors.
The hysteresis band is about 20 mV with attenuation 1x, and 200 mV with attenuation 10x. The hysteresis compensation reduces hysteresis trigger error to <2 mV
To keep the hysteresis trigger error low, the attenuator setting should be 1x when possible. Use the 10x position only when input signals have excessively large amplitudes, or when you need to set trigger levels exceeding the -5 V to +5 V window.