Not sure about purpose of DSO accessories

[luxfx]

Long story short, I'm in a financial position to realize my long term electronics interest, and have a breadboarded circuit in mind I'd like to pinnochio into a Real Product. I'm adding some Real Tools to my workspace now.

I'm looking at the Rigol DS1054Z Kit1 on TEquipment. It's been a decade+ since I've used an oscilloscope and I'm not too sure about a couple of the accessories.

50 ohm feed through -- what's the purpose of this? I've seen online that 50 ohms is some sort of standard for this but I'm not sure why or what purpose it serves.

T adapter -- when/how do you use a T adapter? Maybe triggering from either of two inputs? Can signals be combined, like an AC+DC offset waveform?

Thanks!

[rstofer]

When you feed a signal from a generator with 50 Ohm output impedance, you might want to terminate the coax with 50 Ohms right near the load.  I thought the 1054Z had a 50 Ohm selection for the input impedance but I can't find it.  So, I would use the terminator to match the impedance right at the scope BNC.

[Z80]

Hi,  both of those accessories are for use with 50 ohm coax cables not the standard probes that come with the scope.  The feedthrough terminator is used if you want to measure in a 50 ohm environment (common in RF circuits) as the scope doesn't have an internal termination.  The tee adapter just lets you connect 2 cables to a single channel input.  This can be used to 'tap' off a signal in a coax setup eg: Sig gen > scope > circuit, preserving the coax characteristics.

[alsetalokin4017]

The DS1054z does _not_ have selectable 50 ohm input impedance, all channel inputs are fixed at 1 Megohm.

It looks like that kit1 includes 2 50-ohm feedthrus, one the Rigol part and one the CT brand part.

Some of the cables/adapters will be more useful with your FG and DMM than with the scope, but yes, all those items are good to have on hand.

[luxfx]

Thanks! I'm shopping for a FG this week, and my BM869s should arrive any day now....  Quite a step up from the $18 and free-with-purchase meters I've been using!