Newbie oscilloscope question

Just use a set of test leads, don't hack up a perfectly good scope probe.

Standard banna jack leads will fit the center of the binding post.

Jamie

As you can get some scope probes with the BNC connectors around 2 for $ 10 to $ 15 off ebay I would just cut off the connector of the probe you have. That is unless it is a high dollar one such as a Techtronix.

YOu can probably find a female BNC connector for almost nothing. Then just solder some wires to the female connector. At 1 MHZ and a few inches of wire, it probably won't be noticable on the scope you have.

If it's a dual binding-post/banana-jack on 3/4" centers, adapters are easy to find. Try a search for "bnc banana adapter" on eBay.

Even if these adapters don't happen to have the right spacing for your 'scope, you can always buy one, and a couple of short jumper cables, to make the connection.

Or, wire up a female BNC jack to a couple of wire pigtails.

Thanks everyone! Ivan Vegvary

yup,

Mikek

If you want to pay Pasternack's prices, and get Pasternack catalogs in the mail every month or so for the next umpteen years (>>grin

OK, he's good with google, first hit. Just wanted the guy to see a picture. Mikek

At the price of the adapters unless the probe is high dollar, you can get a whole new probe rated over 50 MHz for the same price. I bought a coupld to use with a 100 MHz scope and can not tell much differance in them an a Tectronix probe rated for the same frequency range. That is why I said just cut off the end unless he has a bnc connector laying around he can just pigtail a couple of wires to.

Pigtails aren't as good. The benefit of a probe and coax cable/BNC connector is that one often works on hazardous voltages, and the probe is a safe handle to grab onto, even if the probe tip is on the 360V node... The best BNC-to-banana adapters for an oscilloscope, are the ones with a grounded shroud so the live wire isn't touchable. These used to be common, but now, not so much.

Some oscilloscopes had a UHF connector and ground binding post, that are compatible with banana plugs; for those, a UHF-to-BNC adapter is the best way to proceed

Maybe overkill to buy a modern probe and try to "hack" it to use on this old 'scope.

Just use a set of conventional 4mm multimeter style test probes. The high frequency limitations of such a probe arrangement aren't a concern with this 'scope, which probably has a bandwidth of perhaps 500 kHz.

I suppose the 1 meg input impedance might load down certain nodes in the Arduino, though...

Here's another thought. One can often find a funtional dual-trace 50 meg or so 'scope with probes in the 50-75.00 range on eBay.

Just a thought...

Mark Z.

I've been wondering about the scope. If the bandwidth is so low, then it may be an AC coupled scope, and lacking triggered sweep. Lots of fun as a beginner, I got one of those when I was about 13 at a ham club auction for five dollars, since it got me a chance to play wkth a scope. But for practical purposes in 1972, the best it could do was display some audio frequency waveforms. Not useful for that logic stuff coming in, not useful for RF.

The conundrum is that the scope he has is available, and can he get something out of it? Fifty to seventy-five dollars is not bad for a scope you describe, but for a beginner, it may not yet be something he's wanting to spend money on.

Michael