Thanks for all the links and the manual. Ive got a lot of reading to do now.I would like a step by step how to do it if possible to satisfy my lack of patience and curiosity,if possible.
OK, here's a quick run down on the controls on your V212. Maybe it'll help get you started where to set the knobs to look at the output of your generator. These descriptions are kind of "basic" and geared towards looking at a120VAC and 50/60Hz generator output. Sorry if If I've made any errors. As always, the info in your Operators Manual is best.
I won't repeat the safety issues about grounding (or ungrounding) or using isolation xformers or whatever. Please be careful is all....
Here we go...
ON/OFF button. Pretty self explanatory.
Next down, there's a hole for trace rotation. You can stick a screwdriver in here and adjust the trace so that horizontal is correct. Leave it alone for now.
INTENSITY. How bright it is. (duh) Try and use the lowest comfortable brightness. Excess intensity for long periods of time can "burn" the phosphor on the screen and leave dark areas. Start about 1/2 way up and adjust to taste.
FOCUS. Once the scope is fully warmed up, adjust to get the narrowest, sharpest (least fuzzy) trace.
TIME/DIV. This sets how long it takes the trace to sweep horizontally. The graticule on the V212 is 10 divisions wide and 8 divisions high, so if you set the Time/Div to 1mS, it will take 1millisecond to sweep across 1 division, and 10 milliseconds to sweep across the entire face. Since 50Hz equals 20mS per cycle, a Time/Div setting of 2mS would result in a 50Hz sinewave just filling the entire screen horizontally. A slower setting (5mS/Div) would show more complete cycles on the screen and a faster setting would stretch out the waveform to see less cycles but detail. Start at about 5mS/Div and play from there.
VOLTS/DIV. This sets the vertical amplitude... how many volts it takes to move the trace vertically.
So, 120VAC(rms) = 170volts peak, or 340 volts peak to peak. So with a setting of 50V/Div, a 120VAC(rms) [340Vp-p] sine wave would span nearly 7 vertical divisions. If you used a 10X scope probe, which divides the signal amplitude by 10, then you would use 5V/Div to get the same results.
Note that there are 2 Volt/Div knobs, one for each channel.
AC coupling switch. This 3 position switch has AC, GND, and DC settings.
On "DC", signals are shown "as is" and the scope can measure AC as well as DC signals.
On "AC", the signals are AC coupled, which means that any DC component is blocked. This is handy for looking at AC signals that ride on top of a DC level. Like looking at "noise" from the output of a car alternator, where there may be a few hundred millivolts of AC noise that rides on top of a 12 - 15VDC battery voltage.
For looking at the output of your AC generator, you can use either the AC or DC setting, since there should be no DC component to the signal.
"Ground". This simply grounds the scope input and allows no signal to pass. This is handy for momentarily killing the signal so you can set where the trace is (vertically) with no input.
There's one of these switches for each channel.
SWP VAR. The variable sweep knob allows you to fine tune the sweep rate and It's effect is similar to the "TIME/DIV" knob except that it''s infinitely variable instead of the finite (and accurate) steps of TIME/DIV.
Note that if SWP VAR is in any position except the far clockwise "cal" position, the actual TIME/DIV shown will not be accurate.
POSITION (vertical) Sets the vertical position of the trace. For measuring AC signals, centered vertically is usually best.
POSITION (horizontal) sets the horizontal position of the trace. Pulling the knob out expands the trace 10X. You'll mostly use with the knob pushed in. (normal position)
MODE has 5 positions... CH1, CH2, ALT, CHOP, ADD.
If you only have 1 scope probe, then you will only need to use CH1 (or CH2 if you prefer). ALT, CHOP, ADD are for displaying signals from both channels (2 probes) at once.
INT TRIG Internal triggering. Just leave it set to whichever input channel your iprobe is on (probably CH1)
LEVEL This sets up the trigger level. If you look at your signal on the scope and it appears to be "scrolling" horizontally, then you need to adjust the trigger level to "freeze" it in place. Once you've got the motion stopped, then you can fine tune the trigger level to set where in the cycle (what voltage level) the scope starts it's sweep from. Play with it and see....
SOURCE (trigger) Mostly just leave it set to "Int" for general work.
CAL 5V This little post has a 5 volt peak to peak square wave on it. As I recall it's about 1Khz.. Connect your scope probe to it to verify vertical calibration.
Errr... I think that's about al the controls on the face that you need to think about to start with. You've got a link to the Operators Manual for "the bigger picture".
Let me know if you have any other questions about your V212