If you’ve been tuned in to Electonic Design’s articles this past year in the test & measurement arena, you’re probably aware of a series by Colin Mattson (Keysight Technologies) on advanced oscilloscope triggering techniques. In the first article, he elucidates on pulse and pattern modes, where the characteristics of a pulse and the uniqueness of a pattern are utilized as the impetus of signal acquisition.
In part two, he delves into edge-mode triggering, where the edge characteristics of a signal are used to mark the trigger for waveform capture. In part three, he covers protocol triggering, where the patterns adhered to by a protocol (such as I2C and SPI) are detected.
A comment on one of his articles reads:
“Email on trigger! I thought you were joking, but that’s an incredibly weird and fun capability. As someone who has spent a lot of time waiting for powerline transients to happen (or not), that’s a really nice idea.” – Ed Price
I, too, have not come across (directly with) an oscilloscope that’s capable of sending an email wirelessly (IoT-mania?) after a trigger event. In my opinion, such a system would come at a hefty cost. At least, consider the operating expense, the wear-and-tear that will decrease oscilloscope lifespan, and the risk of false alarm.
But a feasible solution to this problem is fun to think about. Perhaps a high-voltage detector would do nicely, its output interfaced to an LVS, then an Arduino hooked to a cheap GSM module (for text messaging) or an ESP8266 (for email). It would be more economical in terms of both money and space. Does anyone have any good ideas on this?