Input Transducer

is a device which transforms a non-electrical physical quantity into an electrical signal.

converts an input into either a voltage or a resistance.

Examples:

LDR- converts brightness (of Light) to resistance

Thermistor- converts temperature to resistance (Thermometer)
Microphone- converts sound to voltage

Sample Diagram of how input transducer is done:

Sensor Output

Sensing Transduction
Temperature
Element Element Electrical Signal

Sensing Element
any device that receives a signal or stimulus e.i.g heat or pressure or light or motion.

Transduction Element
this element responsible for converting the non-electrical signal into its proportional electrical
signal.

Oscilloscope
previously called an oscillograph, and informally known as a scope or o-scope, CRO (for
cathode-ray oscilloscope), or DSO (for the more modern digital storage oscilloscope), is a type
of electronic test instrument that allows observation of varying signal voltages, usually as a
two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. Other signals (such as sound
or vibration) can be converted to voltages and displayed.
Oscilloscopes are used to observe the change of an electrical signal over time, such that
voltage and time describe a shape which is continuously graphed against a calibrated scale.
Oscilloscope is an very important test instrument in electrical and electronics field.
It is used to look at the 'shape‘ of electrical signals by displaying a graph of voltage against
time on its screen.
It is like a volt meter with the valuable extra function of showing how the voltage varies with
time.
Features and uses

The basic oscilloscope, as shown in the illustration, is typically divided into four sections: the
display, vertical controls, horizontal controls and trigger controls. The display is usually
a CRT (historically) or LCD panel which is laid out with both horizontal and vertical reference
lines referred to as the graticule. CRT displays are additionally equipped with three controls:
focus, intensity, and beam finder.
The vertical section controls the amplitude of the displayed signal. This section carries a Volts-
per-Division (Volts/Div) selector knob, an AC/DC/Ground selector switch and the vertical
(primary) input for the instrument. Additionally, this section is typically equipped with the
vertical beam position knob.
The horizontal section controls the time base or "sweep" of the instrument. The primary control
is the Seconds-per-Division (Sec/Div) selector switch. Also included is a horizontal input for
plotting dual X-Y axis signals. The horizontal beam position knob is generally located in this
section.
The trigger section controls the start event of the sweep. The trigger can be set to automatically
restart after each sweep or it can be configured to respond to an internal or external event. The
principal controls of this section will be the source and coupling selector switches. An external
trigger input (EXT Input) and level adjustment will also be included.
In addition to the basic instrument, most oscilloscopes are supplied with a probe as shown. The
probe will connect to any input on the instrument and typically has a resistor of ten times the
oscilloscope's input impedance. This results in a .1 (-10X) attenuation factor which helps to isolate
the capacitive load presented by the probe cable from the signal being measured. Some probes
have a switch allowing the operator to bypass the resistor when appropriate.[3]
Types and models

 Cathode-ray oscilloscope (CRO)

Example of an analog oscilloscope Lissajous figure, showing a harmonic relationship of 1
horizontal oscillation cycle to 3 vertical oscillation cycles.
For analog television, an analog oscilloscope can be used as a vectorscope to analyze
complex signal properties, such as this display of SMPTE color bars.
The earliest and simplest type of oscilloscope consisted of a cathode ray tube, a
vertical amplifier, a timebase, a horizontal amplifier and a power supply. These are now
called "analog" scopes to distinguish them from the "digital" scopes that became common
in the 1990s and 2000s.
Analog scopes do not necessarily include a calibrated reference grid for size measurement
of waves, and they may not display waves in the traditional sense of a line segment
sweeping from left to right. Instead, they could be used for signal analysis by feeding a
reference signal into one axis and the signal to measure into the other axis. For an
oscillating reference and measurement signal, this results in a complex looping pattern
referred to as a Lissajous curve. The shape of the curve can be interpreted to identify
properties of the measurement signal in relation to the reference signal, and is useful
across a wide range of oscillation frequencies.

 Dual-beam oscilloscope
The dual-beam analog oscilloscope can display two signals simultaneously. A special dual-
beam CRT generates and deflects two separate beams. Although multi-trace analog
oscilloscopes can simulate a dual-beam display with chop and alternate sweeps, those
features do not provide simultaneous displays. (Real time digital oscilloscopes offer the
same benefits of a dual-beam oscilloscope, but they do not require a dual-beam display.)
 The disadvantages of the dual trace oscilloscope are that it cannot switch quickly between
the traces and it cannot capture two fast transient events. In order to avoid this problems
a dual beam oscilloscope is used.

 Analog storage oscilloscope

Trace storage is an extra feature available on some analog scopes; they used direct-view
storage CRTs. Storage allows the trace pattern that normally decays in a fraction of a
second to remain on the screen for several minutes or longer. An electrical circuit can then
be deliberately activated to store and erase the trace on the screen.
 Digital oscilloscopes
While analog devices make use of continually varying voltages, digital devices employ binary
numbers which correspond to samples of the voltage. In the case of digital oscilloscopes,
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to change the measured voltages into digital
information.
A Siglent SDS1000 Series Oscilloscope. A modern low cost DSO.
The digital storage oscilloscope, or DSO for short, is now the preferred type for most
industrial applications, although simple analog CROs are still used by hobbyists. It replaces
the electrostatic storage method used in analog storage scopes with digital memory, which
can store data as long as required without degradation and with uniform brightness. It also
allows complex processing of the signal by high-speed digital signal processing circuits.[3]
A standard DSO is limited to capturing signals with a bandwidth of less than half the
sampling rate of the ADC (called the Nyquist limit). There is a variation of the DSO called
the digital sampling oscilloscope that can exceed this limit for certain types of signal, such
as high-speed communications signals, where the waveform consists of repeating pulses.
This type of DSO deliberately samples at a much lower frequency than the Nyquist limit
and then uses signal processing to reconstruct a composite view of a typical pulse. A
similar technique, with analog rather than digital samples, was used before the digital era
in analog sampling oscilloscopes.[17][18]
A digital phosphor oscilloscope (DPO) uses color information to convey information about a
signal. It may, for example, display infrequent signal data in blue to make it stand out. In a
conventional analog scope, such a rare trace may not be visible.

 Mixed-signal oscilloscopes
A mixed-signal oscilloscope (or MSO) has two kinds of inputs, a small number of analog
channels (typically two or four), and a larger number of digital channels(typically sixteen).
It provides the ability to accurately time-correlate analog and digital channels, thus
offering a distinct advantage over a separate oscilloscope and logic analyser. Typically,
digital channels may be grouped and displayed as a bus with each bus value displayed at the
 bottom of the display in hex or binary. On most MSOs, the trigger can be set across both
analog and digital channels.

 Mixed-domain oscilloscopes
In a mixed-domain oscilloscope (MDO) you have an additional RF input port that goes into
a spectrum analyzer part. It links those traditionally separate instruments, so that you can
e.g. time correlate events in the time domain (like a specific serial data package) with
events happening in the frequency domain (like RF transmissions).

 Handheld oscilloscopes
Handheld oscilloscopes are useful for many test and field service applications. Today, a
hand held oscilloscope is usually a digital sampling oscilloscope, using a liquid
crystal display.
Many hand-held and bench oscilloscopes have the ground reference voltage common to all
input channels. If more than one measurement channel is used at the same time, all the
input signals must have the same voltage reference, and the shared default reference is
the "earth". If there is no differential preamplifier or external signal isolator, this
traditional desktop oscilloscope is not suitable for floating measurements. (Occasionally an
oscilloscope user will break the ground pin in the power supply cord of a bench-top
oscilloscope in an attempt to isolate the signal common from the earth ground. This
practice is unreliable since the entire stray capacitance of the instrument cabinet will be
 connected into the circuit. Since it is also a hazard to break a safety ground connection,
instruction manuals strongly advise against this practice.)
Siglent Isolation Oscilloscope SHS1000 Series
Some models of oscilloscope have isolated inputs, where the signal reference level
terminals are not connected together. Each input channel can be used to make a "floating"
measurement with an independent signal reference level. Measurements can be made
without tying one side of the oscilloscope input to the circuit signal common or ground
reference.

 PC-based oscilloscopes
A new type of oscilloscope is emerging that consists of a specialized signal acquisition
board (which can be an external USB or parallel portdevice, or an internal add-
on PCI or ISA card). The user interface and signal processing software runs on the user's
computer, rather than on an embedded computer as in the case of a conventional DSO.

SWITCHES
A device that completes or breaks the path of the current or send it over a different
path.

TYPES OF SWITCHES

Single Pole Single Throw Switch (SPST)

 This is the basic ON and OFF switch consisting of one input contact and one output contact.

 It switches a single circuit and it can either make (ON) or break (OFF) the load.

Single Pole Double Throw Switch (SPDT)

 This switch has three terminals, one is input contact and remaining two are output contacts.

 This means it consist two ON positions and one OFF position.

 Double Pole Single Throw Switch (DPST)

• This switch consists of four terminals,two input contacts and two output contacts.

• It behaves like a two separate SPST configurations, operating at the same time.

• It has only one ON position, but it can actuate the two contacts simultaneously, such that each
input contact will be connected to its corresponding output contact.

• In OFF position both switches are at open state.

Double Pole Double Throw Switch (DPDT)

 This is a dual ON/OFF switch consisting of two ON positions.

 It has six terminals,two are input contacts and remaining four are the output contacts.

 It behaves like a two separate SPDT configuration, operating at the same time.
 Push Button Switch

 It is a momentary contact switch that makes or breaks connection as long as pressure is applied
(or when the button is pushed).

 It consists of stationary and movable contacts, of which stationary contacts are connected in
series with the circuit to be switched while movable contacts are attached with a push button.

Toggle Switch

• A toggle switch is manually actuated (or pushed up or down) by a mechanical handle, lever or
rocking mechanism.

• Most of these switches come with two or more lever positions which are in the versions of SPDT,
SPST, DPST and DPDT switch. These are used for switching high currents (as high as 10 A) and
can also be used for switching small currents.

Limit Switch
 Are operated by the presence of an object or by the absence of objects or by the motion of
machine instead of human hand operation.

 These switches consist of a bumper type of arm actuated by an object.

Float Switches

 This switch is operated when the float (or floating object) moves downward or upward based on
water level in a tank.

 This float movement of rod or chain assembly and counterweight causes to open or close
electrical contacts.

Flow Switches
 These are mainly used to detect the movement of liquid or air flow through a pipe or duct. The air
flow switch (or a micro switch) is constructed by a snap-action.

Pressure Switches

 Depends on the range of pressure to be measured, these pressure switches are classified into
diaphragm operated pressure switch, metal bellow type pressure switch and piston type pressure
switch.
 Temperature Switches

 The switch contacts are operated when the temperature causes the strip to bend or wrap.
Another method of operating the temperature switch is to use mercury glass tube.

Joystick Switch

• Joystick switches are manually actuated control devices used mainly in portable control
equipments.

• It consists of a lever which moves freely in more than one axis of motion.

• Depending on the movement of the lever pushed, one or more switch contacts are actuated.

• These are ideally suited for lowering, raising and triggering movements to the left and right.
Rotary Switches

 These are used for connecting one line to one of many lines.

 These switches are come with different arrangement of contacts such as single pole 12-way, 3-
pole 4-way, 2-pole 6-way and 4-pole 3-way.

Rheostat
This device, was named “Rheostat” using two Greek words “rheos” and “statis” (meaning a current
controlling device), by an English Scientist Sir Charles.

A rheostat is a variable resistor. By changing the resistance you can control the current flowing through
it. They are able to vary the resistance in a circuit without interruption. This can then be used to control
downstream devices like transistors or lamps. Dimmer switches on incandescent lights are rheostats

Rheostat symbols

Which material is used for rheostat wire?

Constantan. Constant is a copper nickel alloy. Like manganin, it also having very low temperature
coefficient of resistance (slightly higher than manganin). Therefore, its resistivity is also remains
constant over wide range of temperature

The construction of rheostat is almost similar to the potentiometer. Like the potentiometer, the
rheostat also consists of three terminals: terminal A, terminal B and terminal C. However, we use only
two terminals: either A and B or B and C. Terminal A and terminal C are the two fixed terminals
connected to both ends of the resistive element called track and terminal B is the variable terminal
connected to the sliding wiper or slider.

Difference between potentiometer and rheostat

The construction of both the potentiometer and rheostat is same. The main difference is the way we
used it for operation. In potentiometers, we use all the three terminals for performing the operation
whereas in rheostats, we use only two terminals for performing the operation.

Types of rheostats
Applications of rheostat

 Rheostat is generally used in the applications where high voltage or current is required.

 Rheostats are used in dim lights to change the intensity of light. If we increase the resistance of
the rheostat, the flow of electric current through the light bulb decreases. As a result, the light
brightness decreases. In the similar way, if we decrease the resistance of the rheostat, the flow

 of electric current through the light bulb increases. As a result, the light brightness increases.

 Rheostats are used to increase or decrease the volume of a radio and to increase or decrease the
speed of an electric motor.