Duty Cycle test on DMM?

I suppose there is more than one way to say it. To me Duty Cycle is the percentage of time the circuit is on vs. off in one period of the cycle.

Usually a term used when talking of square waves. Lets say the period is one second for the entire cycle and the circuit is on for .5 sec. Then this is a 50% duty cycle. Now say it is on for .25 sec. and off for. 75sec. This is a 25% duty cycle...

Ok. What, in practical terms, might someone want to measure to know the duty cycle % ?

I'm a musician.

Well, hello John!

I do see your point, the "vs. off" should be removed from the first definition. Hopefully the second paragraph clarified my point.

To the OP, Duty cycle adjustments are made in many electronic applications. In my experience I have had to tweak duty cycle when performing servo and timing circuit alignments. A common application might be your VCR. However, I have never done this with a DMM. Typically an O'scope is used but I suppose there are applications where one can use a DMM.

Michael Black wrote:

Thanks! That's an analogy that I can understand.

I played an Arp 2 voice analog synth in the 70's. My understanding (my guess) was that as we altered the shape of the waveform, we made the wave look more sawtooth or squarewave, less sine.

If that's a correct understanding, then how does duty cycle relate to those saw or square waves?

Or in the specific case of this DMM of mine, does the ability to measure duty cycles mean that I could measure and then repeat the settings on the hypothetical analog synth?

Thanks everybody for the education.

Lumpy

On second thought, if I read your notation correctly, I don't think you can substitute "divided by" for "vs.". You can say Ali vs. Frazier and it means, opposed by (my meaning was, "as opposed to") you can't say Ali divided by Frazier. That would not make sense.

To re phrase, Percentage of time the circuit is on as opposed to off in one period.

At any rate, probably still more word than needed and not very eloquently put, hence the second paragraph.

New topic

Do you have an understanding of Quantum Entanglement?

What field are you in?

Auto mechanics often need to measure the duty cycle of fuel injectors.

Lumpy wrote:

Well in that case, old analog synthesizers counted on variable duty cycle in order to get the right "tone", but they were only vaguely calibrated when it came to most functions. Actually, calibration is the wrong word, it's more like a scale so you could reset the controls at a later time. Most likely you'd be listening, and you had the right duty cycle when it sounded like you wanted ( in other words, you weren't concerned with how much duty cycle a violing had, but you'd adjust duty cycle until you had the same level of harmonic content out of the oscillator, based on a mental comparison with a real violin). I suppose if you actually needes something specific, you'd pull out an oscilliscope and look at the waveform.

Michael