Brilliant LED Projects: 20 Electronic Designs for Artists, Hobbyists, and Experimenters

CHAPTER 17Using a Dot-Matrix Displayto Show a Waveform:Digital Oscilloscope Screen

AN OSCILLOSCOPE (OR SCOPE) IS A PIECE OF TEST and measurement equipment that is used by electronics engineers to enable them to visualize and measure voltage signals and waveforms in an electronic circuit, such as square, sine, and triangle waves. The equipment is mainly used for fault-finding and designing prototype electronic circuits. These complex pieces of equipment normally display their waveforms on a small cathode-ray screen (or, more recently, LCD screen) and are able to measure high-frequency signals into the megahertz (MHz) range.

The project presented in this chapter is an experimental circuit that demonstrates how a constantly changing voltage can ...