Agilent equipment bugs

[btriffles]

Here are some bugs I've found in the simulated Agilent oscilloscope and function generator in Multisim 10.1.  I know I can use other equipment, but my goal is to allow my students to practice with the same equipment we have in our lab.

Agilent function generator:

• DC offset is limited to +/-2 V (the actual hardware allows any DC offset as long as the output signals doesn't exceed +/- 10 V)
• DC offset values greater than +/-200 mV are clipped to +/-200 mV when saving to a file and reopening
• The display doesn't switch from "mVDC" to "VDC" when exceeding 999 mV
• The 50 ohm internal resistance of the is not simulated (even though the output is still labeled "50 ohm")

Agilent oscilloscope:

• Autoscale doesn't adjust the horizontal (time) scaling
• Autoscale doesn't adjust the triggering
• The averaging feature appears to incorrectly average adjacent samples instead of triggering periods.  For example, try averaging a square wave in Multisim.  It completely destroys the shape, when it should have no effect (other than reducing any noise).
• Triggering fails when you zoom in horizontally such that less then 1 period is shown
• When pressing the Single button, the left part of the plot is often blank
• When the horizontal/vertical scaling values have many significant digits, they often overlap at the top of the display, making them unreadable
• When there are too many digits for a cursor value (at the bottom of the screen), some digits cannot be seen
• The color of the cursors is almost the same color as the grid, making them difficult to see
• It is extremely difficult to use the knob controls.  They lack precision for small adjustments and don't move quickly enough for large changes.  You should implement a better input method, such as numerical, text-based input.  Another option would be to implement acceleration when spinning the knobs in a manner similar to PC mouse acceleration.

Also, there is no reason why the non-Agilent virtual oscilloscope should limit the Y position to +/-3 V.

[yyao]

Hi there,

Thank you very much for this detailed list. I will add these issues to our list of things to work on for future releases.

As for easier input methods, you can try the arrow keys and the page up and page down keys. When you press these keys, the last knob which you visited will nudge up or down.

Please let us know of anything else that you may find. If we come up with any workarounds, we will post them as well.

Thanks!

[btriffles]

Yes, I knew about the arrow keys.  Without them, I would have given up on trying to use the Agilent oscilloscope.  However, my feedback on the sensitivity of the knob controls also applies when using the arrow keys.

Here are a couple of suggestions for keyboard control of the knobs:

• Document this feature (preferably in the program but at least in the manual)
• Make the page up/down keys move at a faster rate (e.g. 10 times faster)

 
Thanks for recording these bugs in your database.  I'll let you know if I can think of any other reproducible bugs.