Agilent Technologies 53150A, 53152A, 53151A manual Setting the Resolution, Operating the Counter

1

NOTE

NOTE

Chapter 1 Getting Started

Operating the Counter

For most of the Counter’s settings, when you continue to press either the up-arrow or the down-arrow key when you reach the end of the available settings, the value for the setting “rolls over” to the value at the opposite end of the range. For example, if the GPIB address is set to 31, and you press the up-arrow key, the value changes to one.

However, when you adjust the value in the units position for the number of measurements to be averaged, rollover does not occur. If you press the up-arrow when the value in the tens position is zero and the value in the units position is nine, or if you press the down-arrow when the value in the tens position is zero and the value in the units position is one, there is no change. If the value in the units position could roll over (in either direction), it would allow you to set a value of zero for the number of averages. Since at least one measurement must be taken, zero is an illegal value.

When the resolution setting is high (e.g., 1 Hz), and a large number of averages is selected, it takes a considerable amount of time for the Counter to take the measurements, compute the averages, and display a reading. As a result, the rate at which the display is updated is considerably slower than at small numbers of averages and lower resolution settings. For example, when the resolution is set to 1 Hz, and the number of averages is set to 60, a new reading is displayed every 60 seconds (approximately).

Setting the Resolution

Since less time is required to compute each measurement as the resolution of the measurements is reduced, the resolution setting affects the rate at which measurements are taken and displayed, as well as the number of digits displayed for the measurements. As a result, the rate at which the Gate indicator flashes changes when you change the resolution.

As shown in the procedure in the diagram on the next page, the available resolution settings are 1 Hz (the default setting), 10 Hz, 100 Hz, 1 KHz, 10 KHz, 100 KHz, and 1 MHz.

1-34 Operating Guide