| Electronics > Beginners |
| Why are scope probes so damn big? |
| << < (4/8) > >> |
| In Vacuo Veritas:
HP 10400A is the part number. |
| Berni:
--- Quote from: In Vacuo Veritas on November 08, 2018, 03:10:07 pm --- --- Quote from: alanambrose on November 07, 2018, 06:21:43 pm ---Duh, we're working on these little things 1mm scale, and the damn probe is over 6 inches long with all the leverage that goes with that. Is this a design left over from the valve radio era that hasn't been updated? Alan --- End quote --- Probes from that time are even bigger... HP used to make small scope probes but they were fragile and fell apart like confetti. I don't know why. It's also the fact that most circuits now are digital and have self test makes probing and scopes in general much less useful than they used to be. Logic analyzers come with small clips. --- End quote --- I have two scopes with MSO capability but i rarely ever used it. These days serial interfaces are more common so you can usually get away with 4 analog channels just fine. The analog channels give you more information about the waveform anyway. You can see if the edges look fine, you can see it floating, you can see weird things if two pins short together etc. I find SMD resistors or 1.27mm pitch chips pretty easy to probe with a normal scope probe. If i need to probe smaller things, or i need to hold a probe on a point for longer then i simply solder a tiny wire to the point and then grab that wire using the 'wichhat' clip for the probe. You can probe 0.5mm pitch chips too but its kinda dicky and you often end up shorting to the pins next to it, but for just quickly checking if a pin on there is getting clock its certainly good enough. |
| In Vacuo Veritas:
...and they're still expensive! Wow. I wonder if there's a market for miniature scope probes, and why no one cares about it? I'd expect Chinese manufacturers to sense that market and in one week we'd have not only a design but orderable products! |
| AndyC_772:
I miss the Tektronix P6139A probes that I used to have with my old scope. They were 500 MHz bandwidth and much smaller than the clumsy Agilent probes I have now. |
| malagas_on_fire:
--- Quote from: In Vacuo Veritas on November 08, 2018, 07:49:25 pm ---...and they're still expensive! Wow. I wonder if there's a market for miniature scope probes, and why no one cares about it? I'd expect Chinese manufacturers to sense that market and in one week we'd have not only a design but orderable products! --- End quote --- Try these for size ..: https://ebay.us/TsUEth or already wired ... https://ebay.us/3DCb3j |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |