Tom Allen

I have an application where we are testing a device for spark. The spark is AC, the sinusoidal period of signal is 77ns with a duration of 400ns.  When the device we are testing is energized, it takes 1/2 sec for the first spark and will generate about 2 sparks a second. For a device to be considered good we need to see 5 sparks. We can easily get one spark on the scopes screen.  We can that screen shot to labview to evaluate. We can not get even 2 sparks on the screen at one time. With the 77ns period we would need 26 megabits for a one second display, the scope can store 5 megabits. Five sparks takes about 2.5 seconds.  I've been looking through the Open Choice documentation for ideas on how to proceed. It looks like the PC always initiates the data transaction, and the scope responds.  Since we don't know exactly when the spark will happen, I don't think it would be possible to initiate with the PC to catch the spark. 

Can I make the scope initiate the data transaction?  I can get a nice capture of the spark with the memory storage size set to a minimum (1k).  If I could get the scope to push that screen capture every time it was triggered I think I'd have something.

Any ideas?