56 votes
Accepted

CRT Oscilloscope - part of the plot is missing

The trace is perfectly fine. On CRT oscilloscopes, the brightness of the trace depends (partly) on how fast the electron beam moves across the screen. The horizontal speed is set by the sweep time. ...
JRE's user avatar
  • 71.2k
22 votes

CRT Oscilloscope - part of the plot is missing

No, nothing is missing. If you turn up the sweep rate of the timebase you can probably see the rise/fall time of the low vs high transitions of the calibration signal. Turning up the intensity may ...
Chris Stratton's user avatar
18 votes
Accepted

What is this oscilloscope accessory?

That's an attachment used when taking high frequency measurements. It minimizes the distance between the probe and ground. The little finger is your ground. Here is a similar attachment: https://...
earl's user avatar
  • 1,117
17 votes
Accepted

What are the differences between a x1 and a x10 osciloscope probe

The pro is that a 10x probe has 10x the input impedance so will interfere with the signal being measured less. The con is that it is reducing the voltage on your signal by 10x before it reaches the ...
DKNguyen's user avatar
  • 56.7k
16 votes

Good uses for 1:1 probe

Noise in oscilloscope front ends is quite high, maybe 1mVp-p. Using the 1:1 probe lowers the input-referred noise floor by an order of magnitude. Still pretty crappy, but opens a few doors.
Spehro Pefhany's user avatar
16 votes

Review request: DIY DC to 50MHz differential oscilloscope probe

After actually building the thing I can finally answer my own question in hindsight. I've built the circuit as featured in the question, with a 1:10 attenuator. Could I get away without ...
jms's user avatar
  • 8,611
14 votes
Accepted

How to connect the oscilloscope to a circuit

The circuit as drawn has no earth connection so it is isolated from earth. You can, therefore, connect any single point of it to ground without a problem. Note that the circuit correctly shows both ...
Transistor's user avatar
  • 176k
14 votes
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Why is an oscilloscope's Attenuation switch placed on the probe?

The reason for putting an attenutator at the probe is to reduce the loading presented by the probe to the circuit under test. For a high-impedance probe (most probes) the cable looks like a capacitor, ...
Peter Green's user avatar
  • 22.2k
14 votes

Why doesn't this DIY high-speed probe reflect signals?

The point of this probe is that the scope has its 50Ω termination enabled. Since the scope input impedance is matched to the cable, there is no reflection from the scope. Once the load side is matched,...
Mr. Snrub's user avatar
  • 2,593
13 votes
Accepted

Why are oscilloscope input impedances so low?

I would say a combination of a few factors. The input stages of an osciloscope are a difficult compromise. They need to be have a wide range of gains/attenutations, they need to be tolerant of user ...
Peter Green's user avatar
  • 22.2k
12 votes

CRT Oscilloscope - part of the plot is missing

The rise time of a fast square wave signal observed through a 60 MHz probe should be around 5 nanoseconds. This is too fast to be clearly visible with your current time base (1 ms/div?). Set your ...
Dmitry Grigoryev's user avatar
11 votes
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DIY Oscillosope probes

This is generally not a great idea. You're much better off making grab points for regular scope probes (making sure to provide nearby grab points for the ground clip, of course). There are a number ...
WhatRoughBeast's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

High speed passive probe - contradiction between authors or different points of view?

For 100 MHz and slower probes, the wavelength of the signals in question is long enough that the cable doesn't really act like a transmission line and the probe tip pretty much directly 'sees' the ...
alex.forencich's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

Does this experiment show that Kirchhoff's Law hold when there's a changing magnetic field involved in a circuit?

The lumped component models to which KVL is applied are just that--models. Like all models, they are only accurate to the extent that they represent the relevant characteristics of the system they ...
ajb's user avatar
  • 3,414
11 votes

Why are oscilloscope input impedances so low?

A lot of things are the way they are because of history, and de facto standardisation. A general purpose oscilloscope input is a difficult compromise between not loading the circuit, not being damaged ...
Neil_UK's user avatar
  • 166k
10 votes
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How is a 50Ω "back-termination" accomplished on a scope probe line?

When probing high frequency signals, the standard way to allow an arbitrary length of cable between the device under test (DUT) and the scope, is to make the scope 50\$\Omega\$ input impedance, and ...
Neil_UK's user avatar
  • 166k
10 votes
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Using Oscilloscope So That Nothing Blows Up

@Tom Carpenter's comment is correct. All oscilloscopes are "mains-Earth" grounded. Which means that the ground lead is connected to the ground pin of it's power plug. So what you actually did was this:...
rdtsc's user avatar
  • 16.2k
10 votes
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Noise (capacitance-related?) in serial signal

So, I followed the advice given by the two kind people that commented... Here are the results. Ali Chen indicated the slow edges can be attributed to the capacitance of the RCA cable; and "Anonymous" ...
ttsiodras's user avatar
  • 427
10 votes

Good uses for 1:1 probe

Convenience. A 1:1 probe (or the x1 setting on a switchable x10 probe) will probably have slightly lower capacitance than a 50ohm coax of the same length, and also handy clips on signal and ground. It'...
Neil_UK's user avatar
  • 166k
10 votes

CRT Oscilloscope - part of the plot is missing

What makes you think there should be a vertical part? The vertical parts show the voltage. So let's say your top level is 1V, and bottom level is -1V, you will only see a vertical line if there is ...
Opifex's user avatar
  • 505
10 votes

CRT Oscilloscope - part of the plot is missing

Look very closely at the rising edge of your third photograph, and you can faintly see the vertical trace. Since the width of the square wave is not perfectly stable, you can't see the falling edge. ...
WhatRoughBeast's user avatar
10 votes

Differential probe input impedance 1Meg, but 50ohm oscilloscope mode recommended

The probe itself is an active device which has input and output, each one with its characteristics (given in the manual): Impedance matching, like with a standard signal generator with 50 Ohm output, ...
devnull's user avatar
  • 8,517
9 votes

Does the circuit troubleshooting tool used in 2001 A Space Odyssey exist in the real world?

The movie the tool is a visual prop to help the audience understand that they were analyzing a circuit. It has elements of real devices like continuity meters and board schematic view tools, but is ...
user1850479's user avatar
  • 16.8k
9 votes
Accepted

Homemade high-voltage probe not dividing the voltage by proper amount

This meter claims to be \$ 20k\Omega\ per\ volt\$ when measuring DC voltage. For AC voltages, ohms-per-volt is less (can't make out the value 3k/V? 5k/V?) However, on its most-sensitive voltage ...
glen_geek's user avatar
  • 25.7k
8 votes

DIY Oscillosope probes

There are two basic types of passive probe, low impedance probes and high impedance probes. Low impedance probes are used with the scope input set to 50 ohm mode and a 50 ohm coax line to the scope. ...
Peter Green's user avatar
  • 22.2k
8 votes

How the low inductance of short ground clip probes prevents interference?

It doesn't prevent interference. It prevents ground lead impedance. Simply imagine an inductor in series with your ground connection: that acts as a low-pass filter. So, high-speed currents can't be ...
Marcus Müller's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Is it acceptable to use decoupling capacitor ground pad as ground for oscilloscope probe?

In general you want to minimize the loop area when probing fast signals. So, as a rule of thumb, you should select the ground connection that minimizes the loop area. Now this is only in general. ...
user110971's user avatar
  • 6,117
8 votes
Accepted

Oscilloscope probe noise

Why and from where am I getting this unwanted 50mV peak to peak ripple Start by thinking about 220 volts (if that is your AC supply running in your building). Because it runs in two wires where one ...
Andy aka's user avatar
  • 455k
8 votes
Accepted

My sourcemeter lets me do a four probe connection using banana connectors or tri-ax. What do the extra lines on the tri-ax do?

The triaxial cables are for low-current, high-precision measurements in the nanoamp range. From the 2450 datasheet: The real-panel diagram shows how the conductors are connected. The second (middle) ...
Adam Haun's user avatar
  • 22k

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