Whats your Work-Bench/lab look like? Post some pictures of your Lab.

[Yansi]

I seriously DOUBT the scope is designed to be used with floating measurements. The ground of the probe is more than likely the same potential as the oscilloscope's case.  When floating the scope's ground at a lethal potential, you get the same voltage present everywhere on the controls, case and metal parts available to be touched. It is a serious case of misuse, that can kill somebody.

I may sound as a "safety officer", but no I am not one. Just old enough to be sane enough not to publish let alone pursue people on a public internet forum to this stuff, when uneducated beginners can get lethal injury from ideas like this.

High voltage differential probes are nothing that spectacularly expensive these days.

[SilverSolder]

[...] 5MHz single channel is not much. However this thing can run on 27V DC [...]

Looks cool!  - does it run off batteries or something like that?

[Pawelr98]

Yeah, don't follow my example when it comes to measurements.

Of course it has a metal case at ground potential and you would get a shock.
However there's no risk of a mains - ground short or internal isolation breakdown when measuring such floating potentials as it's not running from mains.
I just hook up it up to a battery , set the desired parameters beforehand and leave it like that to pick up the waveform.
If I have to (even more rare) tweak it, then I use thick gloves that can withstand quite a lot of voltage.

"Expensive" is a relative term.
A probe like that is in fact more expensive than any of the scopes I have on my bench.
This russian scope is about the same as a new Tek standard 10X 50MHz probe, or even cheaper than that in the former USSR.

In general I do care about my own safety, made my own floating 230V source for low-power work.
But I cannot run a welder or a VFD from that, not enough power or runs off 3phase.
So in such cases I just hook up this thing.
And a lot of companies won't say "OK, you can order that 300USD probe for measuring stuff".
I work with what is available.

Most of the time I don't have to do go that far. Over 3 years I would say 5-6 times I had to go with such improvised measurement.

Looks cool!  - does it run off batteries or something like that?

27V DC is one of the options, meant to be used with two 12V lead-acid in series.
I most often run it off 7 li-ion cells in series which is OK, since internally it already runs at 31V.

The other option is 115V 400Hz which is an aircraft/military supply.
Basic power source beeing the soviet bloc 220V 50Hz standard mains.
So it's more of a military-design "in the field" scope.
It even included a belt to carry it around.
And it has multimeter integrated, which is separate from the chassis ground.

[tautech]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

[SilverSolder]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

Any reason you couldn't run a scope off a sine wave inverter and a 12V car battery?

[tautech]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

Any reason you couldn't run a scope off a sine wave inverter and a 12V car battery?

Not excepting for load constraints and lack of mains earth safety risk.

[faraday]

This is my little setup

[BU508A]

  for the Weller family

   for the two 34401A

 

[Yansi]

Is really even the top one a 34401A?

[faraday]

for the Weller family

   for the two 34401A

 

There is 34410A on the top.


Yep, weller, had my first when I was 10 . Still working BTW.

[McBryce]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

Any reason you couldn't run a scope off a sine wave inverter and a 12V car battery?

Not excepting for load constraints and lack of mains earth safety risk.

And the fact that you are then converting DC to AC so that the SMPS can convert it back to DC at almost the same voltage (and of course all the accumulated losses along the way).

McBryce.

[SilverSolder]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

Any reason you couldn't run a scope off a sine wave inverter and a 12V car battery?

Not excepting for load constraints and lack of mains earth safety risk.

And the fact that you are then converting DC to AC so that the SMPS can convert it back to DC at almost the same voltage (and of course all the accumulated losses along the way).

McBryce.

If you're only doing this infrequently, efficiency is not a big concern.

[McBryce]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

Any reason you couldn't run a scope off a sine wave inverter and a 12V car battery?

Not excepting for load constraints and lack of mains earth safety risk.

And the fact that you are then converting DC to AC so that the SMPS can convert it back to DC at almost the same voltage (and of course all the accumulated losses along the way).

McBryce.

If you're only doing this infrequently, efficiency is not a big concern.

True, but it still doesn't seem sensible. It's like using a sinewave inverter in a car, only to then plug in a USB charger to charge your phone. Why not just use a DC/DC converter to increase the voltage directly?

McBryce.

[SilverSolder]

Getting a lot of scopes to run from DC is not anything special these days if you're happy to do away with a Line trigger. Many of the later Teks ran a prereg stage into their SMPS where some 45V is all that's needed for them to run on DC whereas many DSO's will run on ~15V if you bypass their SMPS and feed them with DC.
Just gotta do your homework. 

Any reason you couldn't run a scope off a sine wave inverter and a 12V car battery?

Not excepting for load constraints and lack of mains earth safety risk.

And the fact that you are then converting DC to AC so that the SMPS can convert it back to DC at almost the same voltage (and of course all the accumulated losses along the way).

McBryce.

If you're only doing this infrequently, efficiency is not a big concern.

True, but it still doesn't seem sensible. It's like using a sinewave inverter in a car, only to then plug in a USB charger to charge your phone. Why not just use a DC/DC converter to increase the voltage directly?

McBryce.

Practical reasons, I guess.  All scopes (and other mains powered instruments) can run off an inverter, so it is a more general purpose tool that may come in handy in other situations?

[S. Petrukhin]

(Attachment Link)
Added a small LED bar at the top of the bench to improve visibility.

And this little S1-107 scope is quite useful, sometimes even more useful than the other, much better scopes.
5MHz single channel is not much. However this thing can run on 27V DC, allowing measurements of floating potentials (well, mains are internally isolated too, but I wouldn't want to stress the isolation) like for example VFD's, welders etc.
This thing also comes with 20V/div setting which means it can display a full 1200Vpp signal on the screen using ordinary 10X probe. My two other scopes (schlumberger 5228 and Tek TBS1042) can only do 400Vpp on 10X.
Quite useful for that last 150-200V extra when measuring flyback primary overshoot.
(Attachment Link)

An old Soviet oscilloscope pleases the eye, but it is still dangerous to fly it at high speeds. Look at my simple isolated probe for low frequencies. You can buy components very cheap on Aliexpress and recalculate the resistor to 1500V, for example.
https://oshwlab.com/f33net/high-voltage-differential-low-freq-probe

[Pawelr98]

An old Soviet oscilloscope pleases the eye, but it is still dangerous to fly it at high speeds. Look at my simple isolated probe for low frequencies. You can buy components very cheap on Aliexpress and recalculate the resistor to 1500V, for example.
https://oshwlab.com/f33net/high-voltage-differential-low-freq-probe

A transformer-based probe is an interesting solution, especially with the premade parts.
80% of the time I operate in AC mode so not having DC value is not really a big deal.

Is there anything I should watch out for in that scope ? I have it since 2017 and I'm rather familiar with soviet electronics (I have soviet spare parts too).

Schlumberger 5228 can too take 700-800V signals on 10X, however they just don't fit on the screen.
Unless I use the "coarse" adjustment (can lower Y gain even more) and more/less calibrate it on some source with known amplitude.
Usually I just move the beam around to look at the overshoots and other stuff while keeping the offset in mind at all times.

What I really like about soviet gear is the price.
Though the price mainly remains low on the former USSR side.
Once it crosses the border (Ukraine/Belarus/Russia to Poland and further) the price can jump quite a lot.
For certain gear like RF Wobbulators it can be as much as 10X. Usually just 2-3X but it's still affordable.

Amateur wise it's the cheapest way to get a "normal" scope.
S1-94 on used market costs around 30-40USD which is not bad for a 10MHz scope (though those can underperform considering high input capacitance).

And the newest addition to my workbench.
A 100W transformer soldering iron.
I really like how fast it goes up in temperature and how universal it is (eg. wire can be bent into DIP shape for quick desoldering).
Some people complain about the weight and size but I like it, I have big hands.
For soldering big copper pads and wiring I would say it's perfect.

[SilverSolder]

[...]
And the newest addition to my workbench.
A 100W transformer soldering iron.
[...]

I have a similar soldering gun - sometimes, a normal soldering iron just isn't powerful enough...   but it is pretty rare.

[chetman]

I started to play with electronics on such transformer soldering irons - I have two such soldering irons, one ZDZ 75 / 45W Łódź soldering iron
and the second ZDZ 120W Lodz, despite many years of service, work perfectly. They are great for soldering cables, I use them when I need to fix something in cars, sometimes with electronics

[SilverSolder]

I started to play with electronics on such transformer soldering irons - I have two such soldering irons, one ZDZ 75 / 45W Łódź soldering iron
and the second ZDZ 120W Lodz, despite many years of service, work perfectly. They are great for soldering cables, I use them when I need to fix something in cars, sometimes with electronics

My first soldering iron was similar,  a Weller 100/140 watt gun.  It was very good for teaching "nimble handling"! 

[Pawelr98]

I started with such soldering gun too, when I was 8 years old, now I'm 23 and I decided to go back to it.

And honestly it's better than big soldering irons using a heating element.
Those take quite some time to heat up, this thing on the other hand is way faster, takes around 1-1.5 second to melt solder.
Working with traditional solid rosin flux is easier too, I can just "bump it" to take some rosin on the tip and it doesn't evaporate, since it cools off quickly.
I can take my time with soldering.

My current bench setup has also grown a bit since the last time I have shown my full bench.
Tektronix TBS1042 that I managed to get for free. Factory was closing down and you could get various stuff if you asked.
Not really up to modern standards (limited memory) but I can still work with that. Especially for single shots and automatic measurements.

Also I made my own power strip.
Bought a power strip casing, some 3x1.5mm^2 wire, a plug and connected everything.
Making your own is much better because you can get just the right length and the quality is as good as you make it.
Mounted the strip right behind the wooden frame, since it had passthrough holes.

Isolated 230V source now also has a small power strip for easier use.

[SilverSolder]

I started with such soldering gun too, when I was 8 years old, now I'm 23 and I decided to go back to it.
[...]

Yep, I just used mine earlier today - messing around inside a power tool charger with big solder terminals, the soldering gun made short work of it.  Obviously it isn't what you'd use for SMD components, but it has its uses! 

Cool idea with the isolated power strip, definitely easier than digging out the isolating transformer every time - I might copy that!

[boffin]

Upgraded the datacentre at work yesterday, hopefully this deals with the temporal displacement issues

[Pawelr98]

Cool idea with the isolated power strip, definitely easier than digging out the isolating transformer every time - I might copy that!

I use a converted UPS for the isolated 230V, the strip at the front is connected to the back of the UPS.
Used two screws that managed to get through the metal casing of the UPS to mount the strip.

24V 20A DC SMPS installed into a 1kVA UPS.
Two overcurrent protections, one on the DC supply, one on the UPS inverter.
The output is stabilised and ramps up from 0V up to 230V (within one second or so) during startup, certain devices with high inrush are easier to power.
UPS uses mains-frequency transformer so the thing is quite a chunk of metal. Moving it around is not easy.
The output of the UPS is unplugged from ground internally, voltage feedback goes through an opto-isolator that also provides 150-240V adjustment using a trimpot (I could make it a variable source if I wanted to).

This setup is quite a lot more sophisticated than a standard isolation transformer.
I got both the UPS and the SMPS for free, companies throw such stuff away all the time.

[elekorsi]

I recently moved my electronics workshop into a separate room, as in the old workshop it was to messy (dust) and cold in the winter.
Nothing really special to see, just basic equipment, but i have some space on the shelves to fill in the future 
I need to install the power outlets on the right bench, same as on the left one, hope to find some spare time soon...

[SilverSolder]

I recently moved my electronics workshop into a separate room, as in the old workshop it was to messy (dust) and cold in the winter.
Nothing really special to see, just basic equipment, but i have some space on the shelves to fill in the future 
I need to install the power outlets on the right bench, same as on the left one, hope to find some spare time soon...

That looks very professional - Is there a brand name for that shelving?  I also like the tool hook system...