Manufacturers and probe compatibility - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: fonograph
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 19, 2017, 11:39:22 pm
content: Can I use any probe with any scope or does Keysight probe only work with Keysight scope,Lecroy probe only with Lecroy scope and so on.Becose I might get Rohde Schwarz scope,but they dont have the kind of probes I need,the one I need are made by Keysight so I dont know if they can work together.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 19, 2017, 11:49:55 pm
content: Passive probes are all the same. Active probes are different.

author: fonograph
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2017, 01:02:41 am
content: So if I want to use active probe,I must use it with scope that is same brand?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2017, 01:04:14 am
content: Yes, since they all have different placement of contacts for the power and communication lines.

author: fonograph
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2017, 01:08:11 am
content: what kind of manufacturer do you think have best active probes? Is there some probe that you think to yourself "wow,this is really good" that would make you gravitate towards that manufacturer if you were to purchase new scope?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2017, 01:10:32 am
content: Picking a scope by the probes is like picking a car by the color. All probes are the same functionally, they just are designed to work with specific equipment. Pick a scope that satisfies your needs, and you will automatically know what probes to get.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2017, 01:20:15 am
content: Powered probes can be used on other brands.......with adaption.Recently one was pictured in a thread (not found again yet) using a BNC standoff arrangement that allowed power to be inserted into a small PCB that the active probe contacts connected with.It can be done and people that already have active probes on hand or get them cheaply regularly do it.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2017, 01:22:25 am
content: Quote from: tautech on May 20, 2017, 01:20:15 amWell, yes, everything is possible. You can also make your own probes with some effort, people do that as well.Presumably if this was an option, OP would not have this question in a first place.

author: tablatronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2017, 12:39:05 am
content: From what inunderstand , Ideally the impedance should match or else you might not be able to compensate the probe perfectly, but that all depends on what frequencies being measured and type of probe range, it might not matter but probes and scope cna range from 2-20pf etc.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 23, 2017, 10:06:03 pm
content: A lot of probes have a sense pin to tell the scope what the attenuation is - 1:1, 10:1, 100:1. These are incompatible since different brands use different resistor values, so won't autodetect correctly. If you buy passive probes with sense pins you should make sure it's compatible with your scope.

author: macboy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2017, 11:27:22 pm
content: Quote from: bson on May 23, 2017, 10:06:03 pmSometimes even this is no guarantee. I have some Tektronix P6158 20:1 probes, and my Tektronix 2465A scope won't detect them properly (it says 100:1), but my Lecroy Wavepro 960 does properly detect them as 20:1.