Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 10

Photography by Sam Murphy

Electronic Test Equipment

See and understand what’s happening inside a circuit.

By Tom Anderson and Wendell Anderson

Take a look at a printed circuit board. You can see components such as resistors and capacitors, but where is the voltage? Where is the signal? How do you tell if the circuit is working correctly? What if you want to change it?

Electronic test equipment lets you probe and “see” the voltages and currents running through electronic circuits. This article covers four basic devices: oscilloscopes, power supplies, function generators, and multimeters. Learning to use these tools — especially the mighty oscilloscope ...