HOW TO MEASURE TIME OF FLIGHT

Speed of sound is about 1120 ft/sec at std temperature and pressure.... about 1ms per foot

I think the scope and pulse generator may be most of what you need. The biggest problem, after finding the best burst waveform will be the fact that the outgoing signal is thousands of times larger than the received signal. You use one trace, that triggers the scope sweep, on the outgoing burst, then use a second trace with a much higher gain, to see the returned signal. I think this trace should also have a series resistor and a pair of diodes across the scope input, to clamp the large outgoing signal, so that you don't severely overload the high gain vertical amplifier. If the scope has delayed sweep, you will have finer resolution on the timing measurement.

If this sort of simple hook up does not have the gain to see the returned echo, you will have to build some sort of limiting amplifier to boost the signal and handle the huge overload of the outgoing burst.

Can the target be a corner reflector, so that you have good reflection efficiency?

Hi and thank you fog your reply. I've never done anything like this would it be too much to ask to send me a schematic of the gen. and scope hook up along with the resistor/diode network. Once again thanks for taking the time to reply. Regards, Ken email address: snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net

Sorry, I think I will bow out, now. If you are not familiar enough with both the equipment and the transducer to take an educated guess as to how they should be connected, I doubt that my guesses that will have to be refined by experimentation will do you much good.

Then ask one of the PAID STAFF at that lab to show you what to do.

......... Phil