2-5
Using the 86100C
A Quick Tour
You must provide a trigger input signal
Because high-speed oscilloscopes are not capable of triggering directly on a
test signal, you must first connect an external timing reference signal to the
front-panel Trigger input connector. This input allows the oscilloscope to syn-
chonize to the input signal. If an external timing reference is not available, you
can use a clock recovery module (for example, the 83496B or 86108A) to
derive a trigger signal from the input data signal. This can be either a recov-
ered clock or data trigger.
You can also select free-run triggering when an external trigger is unavailable.
However, you will only be able to view the waveform for amplitude information
only without any timing information. This is an easy way to examine the ampli-
tude of a signal.
Figure 2-4. Trigger Controls