Function Generator Sync Output Elementary Question

[Neil]

What is the sync output on a Function Generator (or Signal Generator)
typically used for? Is it meant to be in phase with the main output,
or just a locked to the same frequency?

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Neil wrote:

What is the sync output on a Function Generator (or Signal Generator)
typically used for? Is it meant to be in phase with the main output,
or just a locked to the same frequency?
Both?

As a trigger for an oscilloscope for example.

 

On Sep 13, 3:02 pm, Neil <neilk...@gmail.com> wrote:

...sync output on a Function Generator....

You could also use it to start a delay that, when it expires, enables
something that you want to happen at the same time as a later portion
of the waveform. Say you have a triangle wave and the sync pulse
occurs at the start of the triangle, but your gadget needs to work at
the peak of the wave. So you set the delay time equal to the time that
it takes to get from the start to to peak. Now this sort of thing can
be done on o'scopes with all the fancy controls they have, but suppose
you only have the FG and your gadget? You could use a scope to set it
up and then, when it's working, pull out the scope for another use,
leaving the circuit working.

Or the above delay, triggered off by a single repetition of the
waveform's synch pulse, could, after any amount of time, trigger off
the FG! Thus one pulse fires the delay (yielding a second, minute,
hour, day, week, month, year or whatever), after which another pulse
is generated. Can your FG, as it stands, give one pulse per year? Of
course it's a bit tedious experimentally setting the delay time just
right.