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Did I break my scope probe?

Hello all,

I just got my first oscilloscope today, a Tek 2213, off ebay and was playing with it most of the day using ether the probe adjust signal or signals from my computer's sound card. The square waves from the probe adjust where square and the sine, square, sawtooth, etc. waves from my computer where as they should be too, everything was working fine!

Then... I decided I wanted to clean the unit... The first thing I do is take off the pouch bag on top by removing the two screws that hold the plastic back piece on, one more screw later I had the blue case off to look inside the unit. I got the case back on and then give the front panel a rub down with isopropyl alcohol and Qtips. After fully dismantling the probe I did the same to it, the probe is a "Tek p6006 BNC 3.5 / 10x = 7pf. 10M-Ohms"

After I get everything back together and turned the unit on I tested it with the probe adjust signal, the square wave was not square, It has a triangular spike at the top / beginning of the wave and the inverse at the end / bottom of the wave. I switched the probe to the other channel... same thing... test it with my PC... only thing that looks normal is the sine wave*. After all that I connect another probe that came with the unit, an old looking and worn out RCA WG401A. Everything seems to be ok again.

What did I break???

*sorry forgot, If I remember right... I can flip the switch from AC to DC that's on the vertical mode panel and the wave becomes (more) square.
Reply to
Nikolas Britton
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Does this have something to do with adjusting the compensating capacitor in the probe, is the p6006 adjustable, do you twist the probe until the square wave is square?

I guess if thats true then it would make sense that the probe adjust signal is all out of wack because I dismantled the probe and then when I put it back together I didn't compensate it, yes I'm a total newbie with scopes.

Reply to
Nikolas Britton

I'm not familiar with that specific model of probe - the ones I've used have a small 'screw-head slot' in the body of the probe that you tweak with (ideally) a non-metallic tweaker unti a square wave looks square.

On my old Hameg scope there's even a handy 'calibration' output on the front panel, so you can just hang the probe on there & adjust it.

Certainly sounds like you've accidentally 'adjusted' the scope probe - now all you need to do is find out how to set it back

Good luck Adrian Suffolk UK

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

The probe should have an adjustment on it for precisely this reason.

--
*Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects *

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

"Nikolas Britton" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

On that model probe,the main probe body is screwed in or out to adjust compensation,then the collar is screwed to lock the probe body in place. That probe was originally designed for use with earlier 500 series tube scopes,but is perfectly usable for your model.The hook tips and some other accessory tips are less useful for modern circuitry,though.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net
Reply to
Jim Yanik

Thank you all, The metal insert for the variable cap was stuck inside the probe. I had to pull it out with a small pair of long needle nose pliers and reattach it to the other end of the probe, then I compensated it. Everything is working fine again.

Thanks.

Reply to
Nikolas Britton

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