In the day job, I'm debugging a low-powered 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator circuit which is having start-up issues. I have a Rigol DS4024 oscilloscope on the bench. Its RP3500A passive probes load the oscillator circuit too much, preventing start-up (which is already marginal), and damping the oscillations severely once the oscillator is running. I think I will need an active probe to be able to observe the oscillator as I work on both load capacitor tuning and RTC block configuration in the firmware, though I'm open to advice regarding other probing techniques.
The Rigol RP7080S looks like a natural fit since it is designed to work with the scope I have. I'm having trouble finding any reviews of it, though, so I'm hoping that somebody here is familiar with it and can share their experiences and opinions.
One of the specification lines in the
user's manual concerns me: "input noise" is specified as "70mVpp", which seems much too high. Is that a typo?! For comparison, I looked up the specifications of the least expensive Keysight active probe I could find. The
Keysight N2795A datasheet specifies its "probe noise" as "< 2.5 mVrms (referred to input)". I'm not sure if the Rigol vs. Keysight noise specifications refer to the same parameter under the same conditions.