Handyscope HS4 DIFF From TiePie Engineering. User Manual

Copyright ©2024 TiePie engineering.
All rights reserved.
Revision 2.49, August 2024
This information is subject to change without notice.
Despite the care taken for the compilation of this user manual,
TiePie engineering can not be held responsible for any damage resulting from errors that may appear in this manual.

1. Safety

When working with electricity, no instrument can guarantee complete safety. It is the responsibility of the person who works with the instrument to op-erate it in a safe way. Maximum security is achieved by selecting the proper instruments and following safe working procedures. Safe working tips are given below:

Always work according (local) regulations.
Work on installations with voltages higher than 25 VAC or 60 VDC should only be performed by qualified personnel.

Avoid working alone.
Observe all indications on the Handyscope HS4 DIFF before connecting any wiring

Check the probes/test leads for damages. Do not use them if they are damaged
Take care when measuring at voltages higher than 25 VAC or 60 VDC.

Do not operate the equipment in an explosive atmosphere or in the presence of flammable gases or fumes.
Do not use the equipment if it does not operate properly. Have the equipment inspected by qualified service personal. If necessary, return the equipment to TiePie engineering for service and repair to ensure that safety features are maintained.

2. Declaration of conformity

Environmental considerations

This section provides information about the environmental impact of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF.

End-of-life handling

Production of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF required the extraction and use of natural resources. The equipment may contain substances that could be harmful to the environment or human health if improperly handled at the Handyscope HS4 DIFF’s end of life.

In order to avoid release of such substances into the environment and to reduce the use of natural resources, recycle the Handyscope HS4 DIFF in an appropriate system that will ensure that most of the materials are reused or recycled appro-priately.

The shown symbol indicates that the Handyscope HS4 DIFF complies with the Eu-ropean Union’s requirements according to Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electri-cal and electronic equipment (WEEE).

3. Introduction

Before using the Handyscope HS4 DIFF ﬁrst read chapter 1 about safety.

Many technicians investigate electrical signals. Though the measurement may not be electrical, the physical variable is often converted to an electrical signal, with a special transducer. Common transducers are accelerometers, pressure probes, current clamps and temperature probes. The advantages of converting the phys-ical parameters to electrical signals are large, since many instruments for examin-ing electrical signals are available.

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF is a portable four channel measuring instrument with diﬀerential inputs. The Handyscope HS4 DIFF is available in several models with diﬀerent maximum sampling rates. The native resolution is 12 bits, but user se-lectable resolutions of 14 and 16 bits are available too, with reduced maximum sampling rate:

resolution

Model 50

Model 25

Model 10

Model 5

12 bit
14 bit
16 bit

50 MSa/s
3.125 MSa/s
195 kSa/s

25 MSa/s
3.125 MSa/s
195 kSa/s

10 MSa/s
3.125 MSa/s
195 kSa/s

5 MSa/s
3.125 MSa/s
195 kSa/s

Table 3.1: Maximum sampling rates

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF supports high speed continuous streaming measure-ments. The maximum streaming rates are:

resolution

Model 50

Model 25

Model 10

Model 5

12 bit
14 bit
16 bit

500 kSa/s
480 kSa/s
195 kSa/s

250 kSa/s
250 kSa/s
195 kSa/s

100 kSa/s
99 kSa/s
97 kSa/s

50 kSa/s
50 kSa/s
48 kSa/s

Table 3.2: Maximum streaming rates

With the accompanying software the Handyscope HS4 DIFF can be used as an oscilloscope, a spectrum analyzer, a true RMS voltmeter or a transient recorder. All instruments measure by sampling the input signals, digitizing the values, process them, save them and display them.

3.1 Diﬀerential input

Most oscilloscopes are equipped with standard, single ended inputs, which are referenced to ground. This means that one side of the input is always connected to ground and the other side to the point of interest in the circuit under test.

Therefore the voltage that is measured with an oscilloscope with standard, single ended inputs is always measured between that speciﬁc point and ground.
When the voltage is not referenced to ground, connecting a standard single ended oscilloscope input to the two points would create a short circuit between one of the points and ground, possibly damaging the circuit and the oscilloscope.

A safe way would be to measure the voltage at one of the two points, in reference to ground and at the other point, in reference to ground and then calculate the voltage diﬀerence between the two points. On most oscilloscopes this can be done by connecting one of the channels to one point and another channel to the other point and then use the math function CH1 – CH2 in the oscilloscope to display the actual voltage diﬀerence.

There are some disadvantages to this method:

a short circuit to ground can be created when an input is wrongly connected
to measure one signal, two channels are occupied
by using two channels, the measurement error is increased, the errors made on each channel will be combined, resulting in a larger total measurement error
The Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) of this method is relatively low. If both points have a relative high voltage, but the voltage difference between the two points is small, the voltage difference can only be measured in a high input range, resulting in a low resolution

A much better way is to use an oscilloscope with a differential input.

A diﬀerential input is not referenced to ground, but both sides of the input are ”ﬂoating”. It is therefore possible to connect one side of the input to one point in the circuit and the other side of the input to the other point in the circuit and measure the voltage diﬀerence directly.

Advantages of a diﬀerential input:

No risk of creating a short circuit to ground
Only one channel is required to measure the signal
More accurate measurements, since only one channel introduces a measurement
The CMRR of a differential input is high. If both points have a relative high voltage, but the voltage difference between the two points is small, the voltage difference can be measured in a low input range, resulting in a high resolution

3.1.1 Differential attenuators

To increase the input range of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF, it comes with a differential 1:10 attenuator for each channel. This differential attenuator is specially designed to be used with the Handyscope HS4 DIFF.

For a differential input, both sides of the input need to be attenuated.

Standard oscilloscope probes and attenuators only attenuate one side of the signal path. These are not suitable to be used with a differential input. Using these on a differential input will have a negative effect on the CMRR and will introduce measurement errors

The Differential Attenuator and the inputs of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF are differential, which means that the outside of the BNCs are not grounded, but carry life signals.

When using the attenuator, the following points have to be taken into consideration:

do not connect other cables to the attenuator than the ones that are supplied with the instrument

do not touch the metal parts of the BNCs when the attenuator is connected to the circuit under test, they can carry a dangerous voltage. It will also influence the measurements and create measurement errors.
do not connect the outside of the two BNCs of the attenuator to each other as this will short circuit a part of the internal circuit and will create measurement errors
do not connect the outside of the BNCs of two or more attenuators that are connected to different channels of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF to each other

do not apply excessive mechanical force to the attenuator in any direction (e.g. pulling the cable, using the attenuator as handle to carry the Handyscope HS4 DIFF, etc.)

3.1.2 Diﬀerential test lead

Because the outisde of the BNC is not connected to ground, using standard shielded coax BNC cables on the diﬀerential inputs will introduce measurement errors. The shield of the cable will act as receiving antenna for noise from the surrounding en-vironment, making it visible in the measured signal.

Therefore, the Handyscope HS4 DIFF comes with a special diﬀerential test lead, one for each channel. This test lead is specially designed to ensure a good CMRR and to be immune for noise from the surrounding environment.

The special diﬀerential test lead provided with the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is heat resistant and oil resistant.

3.2 Sampling

When sampling the input signal, samples are taken at ﬁxed intervals. At these in-tervals, the size of the input signal is converted to a number. The accuracy of this number depends on the resolution of the instrument. The higher the resolution, the smaller the voltage steps in which the input range of the instrument is divided. The acquired numbers can be used for various purposes, e.g. to create a graph.

The sine wave in ﬁgure 3.6 is sampled at the dot positions. By connecting the adjacent samples, the original signal can be reconstructed from the samples. You can see the result in ﬁgure 3.7.

3.3 Sampling rate

The rate at which the samples are taken is called the sampling rate, the number of samples per second. A higher sampling rate corresponds to a shorter interval between the samples. As is visible in ﬁgure 3.8, with a higher sampling rate, the original signal can be reconstructed much better from the measured samples.

The sampling rate must be higher than 2 times the highest frequency in the input signal. This is called the Nyquist frequency. Theoretically it is possible to recon-struct the input signal with more than 2 samples per period. In practice, 10 to 20 samples per period are recommended to be able to examine the signal thor-oughly.

3.3.1 Aliasing

When sampling an analog signal with a certain sampling rate, signals appear in the output with frequencies equal to the sum and diﬀerence of the signal frequency and multiples of the sampling rate. For example, when the sampling rate is 1000 Sa/s and the signal frequency is 1250 Hz, the following signal frequencies will be present in the output data:

As stated before, when sampling a signal, only frequencies lower than half the sampling rate can be reconstructed. In this case the sampling rate is 1000 Sa/s, so we can we only observe signals with a frequency ranging from 0 to 500 Hz. This means that from the resulting frequencies in the table, we can only see the 250 Hz signal in the sampled data. This signal is called an alias of the original signal.

If the sampling rate is lower than twice the frequency of the input signal, aliasing will occur. The following illustration shows what happens.

In ﬁgure 3.9, the green input signal (top) is a triangular signal with a frequency of 1.25 kHz. The signal is sampled with a rate of 1 kSa/s. The corresponding sam-pling interval is 1/1000Hz = 1ms. The positions at which the signal is sampled are depicted with the blue dots. The red dotted signal (bottom) is the result of the re-construction. The period time of this triangular signal appears to be 4 ms, which corresponds to an apparent frequency (alias) of 250 Hz (1.25 kHz – 1 kHz).

To avoid aliasing, always start measuring at the highest sampling rate and lower the sampling rate if required.

3.4 Digitizing

When digitizing the samples, the voltage at each sample time is converted to a number. This is done by comparing the voltage with a number of levels. The re-sulting number is the number corresponding to the level that is closest to the voltage. The number of levels is determined by the resolution, according to the following relation: LevelCount = 2Resolution.

The higher the resolution, the more levels are available and the more accurate the input signal can be reconstructed. In ﬁgure 3.10, the same signal is digitized, using two diﬀerent amounts of levels: 16 (4-bit) and 64 (6-bit).

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF measures at e.g. 12 bit resolution (212=4096 levels). The smallest detectable voltage step depends on the input range. This voltage can be calculated as:
V oltageStep = F ullInputRange/LevelCount

For example, the 200 mV range ranges from -200 mV to +200 mV, therefore the full range is 400 mV. This results in a smallest detectable voltage step of 0.400 V / 4096 = 97.65 µV.

3.5 Signal coupling

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF has two diﬀerent settings for the signal coupling: AC and DC. In the setting DC, the signal is directly coupled to the input circuit. All signal components available in the input signal will arrive at the input circuit and will be measured.

In the setting AC, a capacitor will be placed between the input connector and the input circuit. This capacitor will block all DC components of the input signal and let all AC components pass through. This can be used to remove a large DC com-ponent of the input signal, to be able to measure a small AC component at high resolution.

When measuring DC signals, make sure to set the signal coupling of the input to DC.

4. Driver installation

Before connecting the Handyscope HS4 DIFF to the computer, the drivers need to be installed.

4.1 Introduction

To operate a Handyscope HS4 DIFF, a driver is required to interface between the measurement software and the instrument. This driver takes care of the low level communication between the computer and the instrument, through USB. When the driver is not installed, or an old, no longer compatible version of the driver is installed, the software will not be able to operate the Handyscope HS4 DIFF properly or even detect it at all.

The installation of the USB driver is done in a few steps. Firstly, the driver has to be pre-installed by the driver setup program. This makes sure that all required ﬁles are located where Windows can ﬁnd them. When the instrument is plugged in, Windows will detect new hardware and install the required drivers.

4.1.1 Where to ﬁnd the driver setup

The driver setup program and measurement software can be found in the down-load section on TiePie engineering’s website. It is recommended to install the latest version of the software and USB driver from the website. This will guarantee the latest features are included.

4.1.2 Executing the installation utility

To start the driver installation, execute the downloaded driver setup program. The driver install utility can be used for a ﬁrst time installation of a driver on a system and also to update an existing driver.
The screen shots in this description may diﬀer from the ones displayed on your computer, depending on the Windows version.

When drivers were already installed, the install utility will remove them before in-stalling the new driver. To remove the old driver successfully, it is essential that the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is disconnected from the computer prior to starting the driver install utility. When the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is used with an external power supply, this must be disconnected too.
Clicking ”Install” will remove existing drivers and install the new driver. A remove entry for the new driver is added to the software applet in the Windows control panel.

5. Hardware installation

Drivers have to be installed before the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is connected to the computer for the ﬁrst time. See chapter 4 for more information.

5.1 Power the instrument

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF is powered by the USB, no external power supply is required. Only connect the Handyscope HS4 DIFF to a bus powered USB port, otherwise it may not get enough power to operate properly.

5.1.1 External power

In certain cases, the Handyscope HS4 DIFF cannot get enough power from the USB port. When a Handyscope HS4 DIFF is connected to a USB port, powering the hardware will result in an inrush current higher than the nominal current. After the inrush current, the current will stabilize at the nominal current.

USB ports have a maximum limit for both the inrush current peak and the nominal current. When either of them is exceeded, the USB port will be switched oﬀ. As a result, the connection to the Handyscope HS4 DIFF will be lost.

Most USB ports can supply enough current for the Handyscope HS4 DIFF to work without an external power supply, but this is not always the case. Some (battery operated) portable computers or (bus powered) USB hubs do not supply enough current. The exact value at which the power is switched oﬀ, varies per USB con-troller, so it is possible that the Handyscope HS4 DIFF functions properly on one computer, but does not on another.

In order to power the Handyscope HS4 DIFF externally, an external power input is provided for. It is located at the rear of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF. Refer to para-graph 7.1 for speciﬁcations of the external power intput.

5.2 Connect the instrument to the computer

After the new driver has been pre-installed (see chapter 4), the Handyscope HS4 DIFF can be connected to the computer. When the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is con-nected to a USB port of the computer, Windows will detect new hardware.

Depending on the Windows version, a notiﬁcation can be shown that new hard-ware is found and that drivers will be installed. Once ready, Windows will report that the driver is installed.
When the driver is installed, the measurement software can be installed and the Handyscope HS4 DIFF can be used.

5.3 Plug into a diﬀerent USB port

When the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is plugged into a diﬀerent USB port, some Win-dows versions will treat the Handyscope HS4 DIFF as diﬀerent hardware and will install the drivers again for that port. This is controlled by Microsoft Windows and is not caused by TiePie engineering.

6. Front panel

6.1 Channel input connectors

The CH1 – CH4 BNC connectors are the main inputs of the acquisition system. The isolated BNC connectors are not connected to the ground of the Handyscope HS4 DIFF.

6.2 Power indicator

A power indicator is situated at the top cover of the instrument. It is lit when the Handyscope HS4 DIFF is powered.

7. Rear panel

7.1 Power

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF is powered through the USB. If the USB cannot deliver enough power, it is possible to power the instrument externally. The Handyscope HS4 DIFF has two external power inputs located at the rear of the instrument: the dedicated power input and a pin of the extension connector.

The speciﬁcations of the dedicated power connector are:

Pin

Dimension

Description

Center pin
Outside bushing

Ø1.3 mm
Ø3.5 mm

ground
positive

Figure 7.2: Power connector

Besides the external power input, it is also possible to power the instrument through the extension connector, the 25 pin D-sub connector at the rear of the instrument. The power has to be applied to pin 3 of the extension connector. Pin 4 can be used as ground.

Minimum

Maximum

4.5 V_DC

14 V_DC

Table 7.1: Maximum voltages

Note that the externally applied voltage should be higher than the USB voltage to relieve the USB port.

7.1.1 USB power cable

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF is delivered with a special USB external power cable.

The following minimum and maximum voltages apply to both power inputs:

One end of this cable can be connected to a second USB port on the computer, the other end can be plugged in the external power input at the rear of the instrument. The power for the instrument will be taken from two USB ports of the computer.

The outside of the external power connector is connected to +5 V. In order to avoid shortage, ﬁrst connect the cable to the Handyscope HS4 DIFF and then to the USB port.

7.1.2 Power adapter

In case a second USB port is not available, or the computer still can’t provide enough power for the instrument, an external power adapter can be used. When using an external power adapter, make sure that:

the polarity is set correctly

the voltage is set to a valid value for the instrument and higher than the USB voltage
the adapter can supply enough current (preferably >1 A)
the plug has the correct dimensions for the external power input of the instrument

7.2 USB

The Handyscope HS4 DIFF is equipped with a USB 2.0 High speed (480 Mbit/s) interface with a fixed cable with type A plug. It will also work on a computer with a USB 1.1 interface, but will then operate at 12 Mbit/s.

7.3 Extension Connector

To connect to the Handyscope HS4 DIFF a 25 pin female D-sub connector is available, containing the following signals:

Pin	Description	Pin	Description
1	Ground	14	Ground
2	Reserved	15	Ground
3	External Power in DC	16	Reserved
4	Ground	17	Ground
5	+5V out, 10 mA max.	18	Reserved
6	Ext. sampling clock in (TTL)	19	Reserved
7	Ground	20	Reserved
8	Ext. trigger in (TTL)	21	Reserved
9	Data OK out (TTL)	22	Ground
10	Ground	23	I²C SDA
11	Trigger out (TTL)	24	I²C SCL
12	Reserved	25	Ground
13	Ext. sampling clock out (TTL)

All TTL signals are 3.3 V TTL signals which are 5 V tolerant, so they can be connected to 5 V TTL systems.
Pins 9, 11, 12, 13 are open collector outputs. Connect a pull-up resistor of 1 kOhm to pin 5 when using one of these signals.

Specifications

8.1 Deﬁnition of accuracy

The accuracy of a channel is deﬁned as a percentage of the Full Scale range. The Full Scale range runs from -range to range and is eﬀectively 2 * range. When the input range is set to 4 V, the Full Scale range is -4 V to 4 V = 8 V. Additionally a number of Least Signiﬁcant Bits is incorporated. The acuracy is determined in the highest resolution.

When the accuracy is speciﬁed as ±0.3% of the Full Scale range ± 1 LSB, and the input range is 4 V, the maximum deviation the measured value can have is ±0.3%of 8 V = ±24 mV. ±1 LSB equals 8 V / 65536 (= number of LSB at 16 bit) = ± 122 µV. Therefore the measured value will be between 24.122 mV lower and 24.122 mV higher than the actual value. When e.g. applying a 3.75 V signal and measuring it in the 4 V range, the measured value will be between 3.774122 V and 3.725878 V.

8.2 Acquisition system

If you have any suggestions and/or remarks regarding this manual, please contact:

TiePie engineering
Koperslagersstraat 37
8601 WL SNEEK
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31 515 415 416
Fax: +31 515 418 819
E-mail: support@tiepie.nl
Site: www.tiepie.com

TiePie engineering Handyscope HS4 DIFF instrument manual revision 2.49, August 2024

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Can I measure line voltage directly with the Handyscope HS4 DIFF?

A: It is not recommended to measure line voltage directly as it can be very dangerous. Always exercise caution and use appropriate equipment when working with high voltages.

Documents / Resources

TiePie engineering Handyscope HS4 DIFF From TiePie Engineering. [pdf] User Manual
Handyscope HS4 DIFF From TiePie Engineering, Handyscope HS4 DIFF, From TiePie Engineering, TiePie Engineering, Engineering

References

User Manual

Handyscope HS4 DIFF From TiePie Engineering

ATTENTION!