Electronics > Beginners
What probes / leads will I need for this Siglent meter, power supply, and scope?
merk:
Hey!
I am looking for general advice and through looking at online manuals I have not found a good answer. I'm sure many of you will have answers for this easy question. Just so you understand my use case. I am a hobbiest audio / synthesizer enthusiast. I am interested in building modular synthesizer type circuits. This will be 99% of my use case. I plan to use the power supply for -12V, G, and +12V. The oscilloscope will be for audio rate frequencies.
I purchased 3 pieces of Siglent equipment and they are all in shipping right now. I immediately began to wonder what (if any) test leads / probes they will come with and whether I should buy my own leads.
The items I purchased are:
SPD3303X-E Power Supply
https://amzn.to/37nkBFy
SDS1104X-E Oscilloscope
https://amzn.to/2ZCpDeO
SDM3055 Bench Multimeter
https://amzn.to/2ZEg1jC
Am I right to assume the Power Supply uses "banana" plugs and will those attach to the posts on a breadboard?
Will the Oscilloscope come with 4 probes? If so, are they of decent quality?
I assume the multimeter will have test leads, but are there better leads for probing tiny IC legs (SMD)?
One final question that occurred to me after my purchase. When using the power supply to deliver -12 and +12 for an op-amp circuit - Do you connect channel one's positive terminal to ground and channel two's negative terminal to ground? That leaves channel one negative as the -12 and channel two positive as the +12? Then do you also connect the ground over to the circuit also?
Thanks to anyone that takes the time to read and answer!
- merk
sokoloff:
Your audio frequency use case is not at all stressful on the scope, so I’d stick with the stock probes there.
You might consider buying a few nicer multimeter probe cables (Pomona or similar), but mostly don’t go crazy buying stuff ahead of your needs. That’s the recipe for having hundreds of dollars tied up in stuff that isn’t what you needed or never got used.
It’s very easy to turn into a collector/hoarder in this hobby. Resist. Buy what you’re 75+% likely to need; then buy more as you need it. It’s so tempting to get yourself “all kitted out” on day 1; I think it’s a bad idea. (Full disclosure: I did similar and many times wished I hadn’t, especially since now I don’t want to throw away a bunch of stuff that I won’t likely use, but that I paid good money for...)
ve7xen:
The power supply will not include leads. Standard 2.5mm banana plugs or spade lugs will work with it. Since the quality of the cables you can find almost anywhere is questionable (and nearly all of them use PVC insulation, which is awful), I recommend building your own. I use Belden 8899 test lead wire and for power supplies I prefer Pomona 4555 MiniGrabbers for low current DUTs. Whatever power connectors are common on modular synths, you might want to get something compatible with that too. I use Mueller BU-16 banana plugs. Or you can just buy them premade, Pomona makes them which you can get at Mouser etc, and there are probably eBay sellers making custom ones with decent quality cable and such.
The oscilloscope will include 4 probes. They won't be HPAK quality, but perfectly usable. I wouldn't replace them, and you may find replacements aren't well matched to the 'scope's frontend anyway and might not have enough tuning range to equalize. You might want to pick up some BNC to MiniGrabber cables, buy/build some BNC to <insert common modular synth connector here>, or BNC to banana adapters; at audio frequency and low impedance you can use them as 1X probes.
The multimeter will include leads. I haven't purchased this unit (you can probably find a YouTube unboxing...) so I don't know the quality, but I'd expect them to be on the upper end of the Chinese brands (which is to say usable but not nice). Probemaster probes come highly recommended by anyone that's used them, as far as I can tell, but I haven't used them myself (they don't seem to use distribution and their shipping rates to Canada seemed exorbitant). I use Pomona 5519A. They're nicer than most Chinese leads, proper rubber sleeving and such, but on the lower end.
tautech:
@merk
SPD3303X-E comes with 2 sets of leads, one banana to croc clips and the other spade terminal to croc clips.
All the binding posts support 3 types of connection; Banana, Spade terminals and and the post is cross drilled to accept ~1.5mm dia wire.
SDS1204X-E comes with four 200 MHz switchable 10:1/1.1 probes and they're quite reasonable quality. They're certainly 200+ MHz rated probes.
SDM3055 has nice supple silicone leads with detachable croc clips and IIRC probe condoms that cover most of the probe point to just leave the tip exposed. I've seen less sharper and lesser quality ones on DMM's and for now I'd recommend you try them and get a sharper set for fine/precise work.
IMO there's NO need to supplement the supplied probes/leads with anything better until you've tried the ones provided and find their limitations for your needs.....even then you might find they're quite fit for purpose.
BillB:
+1 for sokoloff's, ve7xen's, and tautech's comments.
I also have the units you listed, and the SPD3303X-E cables - spade to alligator clips or spade to banana plug are a tad on the short side IIRC. You might want to eventually pick up some banana patch cables (ebay quality is fine) or as mentioned below, make your own.
The SDM3055 probes are of decent quality, but the tips are large and aren't very useful for fine pitch parts. You may want to pick up a set of nicer Probe Master or Pomona probes. I've got a Probe Master 8043SK set that is really nice and the Pomona 6341 set. If you need to do four-wire measurements, a set of ebay quality kelvin clips might be useful for you.
The SDS1104X-E probes are fine for basic use. You'll eventually collect various BNC to whatever cables, micrograbbers/minigrabbers, and connectors/adapters.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version