Purchased first oscilloscope. Need help buying Probes

[ccolanto]

Hi there,
Just purchased my first oscilloscope, I'm just starting to get into electronics so i couldn't justify all the bells and whistles of newer machines. It's a used HP 54645D analog/digital oscilloscope which I bought through our local classifieds, but it came without probes.

The unit is in good working condition and the gentleman used a probe of his own with the function generator to show me the machine. He also mentioned that probes can get quite pricey, and that there are unique probes for the digital function of the oscilloscope.

I've quickly looked online for BNC probes and there's a giant price range, from ~$20 to several times what i paid for the scope!
I'm curious if there's a price median you recommend for probes, minimum specs i should be looking for or go-to probes that everyone in the forum can point me to? Also these ribbon-looking digital probes are sure to be expensive if only a single probe can be close to $1000, are there generic non OEM probes for these as well?

Thanks in advance!
Chris

[tggzzz]

Hi there,
Just purchased my first oscilloscope, I'm just starting to get into electronics so i couldn't justify all the bells and whistles of newer machines. It's a used HP 54645D analog/digital oscilloscope which I bought through our local classifieds, but it came without probes.

The unit is in good working condition and the gentleman used a probe of his own with the function generator to show me the machine. He also mentioned that probes can get quite pricey, and that there are unique probes for the digital function of the oscilloscope.

I've quickly looked online for BNC probes and there's a giant price range, from ~$20 to several times what i paid for the scope!
I'm curious if there's a price median you recommend for probes, minimum specs i should be looking for or go-to probes that everyone in the forum can point me to? Also these ribbon-looking digital probes are sure to be expensive if only a single probe can be close to $1000, are there generic non OEM probes for these as well?

Thanks in advance!
Chris

For background theory and practice, see the references at https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/library-2/scope-probe-reference-material/

Work out - and define - what you want to measure - the answer will depend on that.

[tautech]

Welcome to the forum.

Google reveals your scope to have 100 MHz BW, that's not al all high (but adequate) and for general use any of the cheap P6100 BNC probes on eBay will serve your needs.

Sure, you can attempt to find the OEM probes that might give better results at higher frequencies but for less than $20 a pair delivered you'll find the P6100's hard to beat.

I wish you good luck on the LA probes, another member might have ideas where they can be found.

[ccolanto]

Thank you very much! I'll look into them!

[D3f1ant]

I still have a 54645D in storage. The logic probe pod is still the same (identical) as current model MSOX series scopes. You can find them easily on ebay, search for 54620-61601. They are quite expensive as a spare part, not surprising. Because it's only a 2ch scope you may find you use the logic probes quite  a lot.

[ccolanto]

Thanks for that part number! I was hoping to get that here!
Are the 54620-61601 cables worth it? (Question from a beginner:) how often do you use digital probes vs analog probes? What kind of setup would i use these digital probes vs the standard BNC probes?

Thanks!

[AdamHi]

I learned about http://probemaster.com/oscilloscope-probes/ from eevblog, and i tried the and liked them. I use both their o-scope and DMM probes. Nice construction, good price. They had great customer service too.
--adam

[D3f1ant]

How often you use what depends on what your building or testing. 90% of the time you probably only use a single analogue channel, but if your going to start debugging a serial bus you might need multiple digitals to check timing between many lines.

For the cost of the probes, you might be better of with a cheapish usb logic analyser like a logic 8 or 16, unfortunately that scope doesn't have decode.

[ccolanto]

Thanks everyone for their invaluable input!

[nctnico]

How often you use what depends on what your building or testing. 90% of the time you probably only use a single analogue channel, but if your going to start debugging a serial bus you might need multiple digitals to check timing between many lines.

For the cost of the probes, you might be better of with a cheapish usb logic analyser like a logic 8 or 16, unfortunately that scope doesn't have decode.

I disagree. I have used this model oscilloscope for FPGA debugging. The deep memory and fast zoom / horizontal controls allow to go through signals much quicker than you can do on a PC. Also seeing the digital signals in realtime can help to diagnose certain problems quicker than you can do with a logic analyser. IMHO the probes are certainly worth their money if you are building digital circuits.