EEVblog #453 - Mysteries of x1 Oscilloscope Probes Revealed

What people said

Recommends Dave Tweed · 2015-01 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “How does a passive 1x Scope probe work?”

That's addressed in the material linked in the other answers. Also, Dave Jones addressed this topic in his EEVblog #453 - Mysteries of x1 Oscilloscope Probes Revealed [this video] .

Recommends WhatRoughBeast · 2015-04 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “What does the bandwidth of a probe mean?”

The answer lies in the fact that oscilloscope probes are not simple RC circuits. Instead, the cable from the tip to the scope is a lossy coax, and its impedance interacts with the scope input resistance/capacitance to provide a low-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of ~6 MHz for your particular probe and a normal scope input. See [this video] for an entertaining video, with the important stuff starting about 10 minutes in. Note that this is a function of the particular coax the probe manufacturers chose. You can get dedicated 1x probes with bandwidths up to 15 MHz.

Recommends Bimpelrekkie · 2015-10 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Issue with circuit design 10x probe”

Maybe you have already seen this but if not, have a look at: [this video] probably in your case what is bugging you is that the connection from the probe to the scope is not a transmission line and/or it is but it might not be properly terminated.

Recommends Joren Vaes · 2017-04 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Scope probe having ringing with 10x option”

Is this a 1x/10x switchable probe? If so, your probe likely doesn't get the rated bandwitdh in 1x mode, giving you only the fundamental, and a quite attenuated one at that. See this video by EEVblog Dave L. Jones for more information: [this video] For the 10x: Fourier analysis teaches us that there is a lot of high-frequency content in a square wave. This means that your 25MHz square wave also have frequency components at 75, 125, 175, ... MHz. This could also lead to a quite distorted signal - A quick glance seems to indicate that you ahve the first and third harmonic only (square wave has odd harmonics). On top of that, make sure your probe is well adjusted. Most probes have adjustable compensa

Recommends Bimpelrekkie · 2017-07 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Oscilloscope probe compabitibility”

In general: yes the probes for these generic oscilloscopes will work across different oscilloscopes. What you need to pay attention to is that the probes need the input of the oscilloscope to have an input impedance of 1 Mohm. I have never seen an oscilloscope that does not have this capability (or setting). You can even buy "generic" oscilloscope probes on Ebay which are not that expensive and good enough for hobby use. I would not recommend them for professional use though. Oh, and to get the maximum bandwidth (20 MHz) you must use 10:1 probes or set the probes to 10:1 if there is a switch. At 1:1 the bandwidth is limited to a few MHz. See EEVblog Scope probes video [this video] Oh, also +1 for

Recommends Bimpelrekkie · 2019-05 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Why are oscilloscope input impedances so low?”

I see that you have many questions about scope inputs and probes, you can find a lot of answers by looking at the videos Dave from the EEVBlog makes. In some videos he discusses scope input stages and in this one why a 1:1 has a limited BW: [this video]

Recommends Martin · 2020-02 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “How to measure a signal generator with an oscilloscope probe?”

Don't use scope probes for outputs of signal generators because they are not simple coax cable, they have deliberate loss even on 1x setting. EEVblog explains at this point in the video [this video] .

Recommends Bimpelrekkie · 2021-06 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Oscilloscope impedance mismatch issue”

Realize that you can only use an oscilloscope probe propely when they're connected **directly** to the oscilloscope. If you connect a cable in between the signal will be distorted! Maybe this video: [this video] will provide some insight. You call the probe "1 Meg Ohm", that means it needs to be terminated by 1 MOhm, which is in the oscilloscope. You added a wire and connectors in between **that will add capacitance** and your signals will be attenuated! An oscilloscope probe isn't designed to be used like that.

Cites Greg d'Eon · 2015-01 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “why does a x100 oscilloscope probe grant a wider bandwidth than a x10 probe”

This video covers some relevant things. [this video] I'm not certain (and I haven't watched the video), but I think the difference in capacitance causes the change in bandwidth due to a different rise time.

Cites PlasmaHH · 2016-02 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “DIY Oscillosope probes”

A typical passive scope probe looks a bit like this (first google image search hit): [LINK] and every part in it is engineered well, often with decades of experience in mind. Certainly you can do your own probes, and it depends on what your actual goal is. See just something? Certainly possible, easy and cheap. Look out for Z0 probes for example. Have an idea of how the actual waveform looks like? This now gets incredibly much harder. The typical bandwidth of switchable probes in the 1X position is 5-8MHz and even the best engineering can't get this much higher, so will you be able with your home setup? Unlikely. Here are just two examples of things done in modern high performance probes tha