Like any complex tool, the only way to become skilled at using it is to practice. So find some way to generate signals, play around and try things. The internal calibration signal is the most handy thing to start with, and we will start by looking at it and learning all that we can about the scope.
Plug it in and turn it on (button at the extreme lower left). It takes about 25 seconds to start up. Connect a scope probe to CH1, find the vertical row of channel select buttons and press CH1 so that it lights up. Make sure none of the other channel select buttons are lit up, press them to deselect the channel if any are. Each button press toggles the selection.
Avoid any temptation to touch or use the AUTO button. It will change every scope setting (or so it seems) and waste inordinate amounts of your time if you have done any setup at all.
The extreme bottom right corner of the front panel has a pair of rectangular metal loops. The bottom of these is a ground connection, the top is a signal output that we are going to use. Connect your scope probe to the upper loop. It is not necessary to connect the probe ground (it is already connected inside the scope. The manual calls this "Compensation Signal Output".
The signal output is a 1 kHz square wave with a 3.2 volt amplitude.
The scope has a box around the four channel select buttons that also surrounds some other buttons and knobs. These are vertical control. If you turn the big knob, the scale will change. At the bottom left corner of the screen is a yellow "parallelogram" with the vertical scale indicated in volts per division. Pushing on the big knob changes it from the usual "coarse" to "fine". I rarely or never want to use the fine adjustment. The little knob moves things up and down, but a very handy feature is to press it, which puts 0.0 volts at screen center.
Next to this vertical control box and to the right is a smaller box. This is the horizontal control box. It changes the horizontal or time scaling. At the top of the screen, near the left is a box labeled "H" that shows the time per division and you will be able to play with the big knob and see this change. Pushing the big knob puts the display into a "dual mode" that I will explain later.
The little knob in the horizontal group is surprisingly interesting. It moves the trigger point right or left. Pushing it puts the trigger point back to zero. As you move the trigger point, a value at the top right of the screen in a box labeled "D" will change and tell you how many time units the trigger point has been moved.
If you are having trouble getting a stable display, it probably has to do with the trigger setting, and we will get to that next.
Tom's electronics pages / tom@mmto.org