Trigger Condition         GO BACK  Previous: Trigger Source   Next: Trigger Delay 

Trigger Condition defines when a trigger is detected based on the signal level and the slope.  The four choices are:

                                                                   1.      Trigger Source > High Level (rising edge)

                                                                   2.      Trigger Source < Low Level (falling edge)

                                                                   3.      Low Level < Trigger Source  < High Level (level trigger)

                                                                   4.      (Trigger Source > High Level) OR (Trigger Source < Low Level) (edge trigger)

There are two types of trigger detection, one is called edge detection; the second level detection. In the trigger conditions above, 1, 2 and 4 are edge detection and 3 the level detection. Edge detection compares at least two sample points against the threshold level. Level detection only detects one sample point.

When Free Run is selected, trigger source and level are not needed.

The table below visually explains when the trigger event will happen in these four conditions. The red mark shows the instant in time that the trigger event is detected:

Trigger Delay

Trigger delay allows a captured signal to include some data before or after the trigger event.  This is done by defining some number of points, or the percentage of the total Block Size, that the capture occurs after the trigger event. For example, if the Block Size is set to 1024 and the trigger delay is 10%, the data capture will happen 102 points after the trigger event.

A negative trigger delay is more common for transient data capture.  Negative trigger delay means that the data capture will include data points before the trigger event. For example, a -10% trigger delay means that the data capture will include 102 data points before the trigger event with Block Size 1024. Some instruments call a negative trigger delay a Pre-Trigger. The following picture shows the concept of a negative trigger delay:

 Figure 60. Pre-Trigger (negative delay ) example.