• Scope Probes off Ebay

    From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 7 14:51:29 2024
    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used
    before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've
    just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered
    the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Larkin@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 7 09:57:13 2024
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used
    before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've
    just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered
    the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805
    resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 7 18:14:25 2024
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've
    just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered
    the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready
    made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive
    to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a
    properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Larkin@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 7 12:08:43 2024
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:14:25 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>>surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready
    made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive
    to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a >properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and >half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    Amazon has some crazy cheap coaxial jumpers and SMA and SMB connectors
    and adapters. All the ones I've got so far have been fine. For bench
    work of course, not production.

    Some of the attenuators are OK, some not so much.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 7 23:11:28 2024
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:08:43 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:14:25 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>>>surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready
    made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive
    to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a >>properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and >>half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    Amazon has some crazy cheap coaxial jumpers and SMA and SMB connectors
    and adapters. All the ones I've got so far have been fine. For bench
    work of course, not production.

    What do you mean by "fine"? How did you go about characterising them
    and what were you looking for specifically? IME you get what you pay
    for and cheap connectors are very seldom worth it. Buy cheap, buy
    twice as they say.

    Some of the attenuators are OK, some not so much.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund@21:1/5 to John Larkin on Mon Apr 8 01:04:56 2024
    On 07-04-2024 18:57, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used
    before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've
    just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered
    the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.


    I did some consulting job recently. One of the guys insisted we buy the expensive probes, I carried on with my 900ohms 20:1 10 USD probe. By the
    way, the resistor on the end probe is not sensitive to pigtails, so in
    many cases it's better than the expensive probes

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Larkin@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 7 16:43:47 2024
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 23:11:28 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:08:43 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:14:25 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> >>>wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>>>>surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the >>>>>150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any >>>>>more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The >>>>Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are >>>>hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast >>>>circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready >>>made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive
    to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a >>>properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and >>>half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    Amazon has some crazy cheap coaxial jumpers and SMA and SMB connectors
    and adapters. All the ones I've got so far have been fine. For bench
    work of course, not production.

    What do you mean by "fine"? How did you go about characterising them
    and what were you looking for specifically? IME you get what you pay
    for and cheap connectors are very seldom worth it. Buy cheap, buy
    twice as they say.


    I TDR test connectors and cables, for impedance and risetime, 30 ps
    resolution.

    These edge-launches are great

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHGM7MF

    if you get the pcb stackup right.


    Some of the attenuators are OK, some not so much.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris Jones@21:1/5 to John Larkin on Mon Apr 8 11:06:52 2024
    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used
    before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've
    just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered
    the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Larkin@21:1/5 to lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com on Sun Apr 7 18:36:36 2024
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used
    before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've
    just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered
    the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805
    resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris Jones@21:1/5 to John Larkin on Mon Apr 8 14:40:34 2024
    On 8/04/2024 11:36 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50
    quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek
    one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through
    this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used
    before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already.
    So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805
    resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.



    Thanks, I only looked at the pdf before. For usenet posterity the zip
    file contains Agilent document 54006-90002 and a photo of a probe made
    from a SMA connector with a resistor marked MD1248 950 1%, and a packet
    of resistors marked CADDOCK Part No. 0699-2371 (MD1247) Rev B Model
    MG680 Resistance 450 Ohm Date 12-7-88 Date Code 8845 amongst other things.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeroen Belleman@21:1/5 to Cursitor Doom on Mon Apr 8 09:45:03 2024
    On 4/8/24 00:11, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:08:43 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:14:25 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready
    made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive
    to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a
    properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and
    half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    Amazon has some crazy cheap coaxial jumpers and SMA and SMB connectors
    and adapters. All the ones I've got so far have been fine. For bench
    work of course, not production.

    What do you mean by "fine"? How did you go about characterising them
    and what were you looking for specifically? IME you get what you pay
    for and cheap connectors are very seldom worth it. Buy cheap, buy
    twice as they say.

    Not necessarily. I used to buy phase-matched sets of SMA cables
    from Huber & Suhner. Then, one day, because H+S did not reply to
    a new request for a quotation, I got them from JYEBAO in Taiwan
    via a French representative. They were cheaper *and* better.

    Jeroen Belleman

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Larkin@21:1/5 to jeroen@nospam.please on Mon Apr 8 07:11:15 2024
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 09:45:03 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
    <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

    On 4/8/24 00:11, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:08:43 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:14:25 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>> wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>> decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>> real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>> probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any >>>>>> more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>> load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready
    made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive >>>> to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a
    properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and
    half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    Amazon has some crazy cheap coaxial jumpers and SMA and SMB connectors
    and adapters. All the ones I've got so far have been fine. For bench
    work of course, not production.

    What do you mean by "fine"? How did you go about characterising them
    and what were you looking for specifically? IME you get what you pay
    for and cheap connectors are very seldom worth it. Buy cheap, buy
    twice as they say.

    Not necessarily. I used to buy phase-matched sets of SMA cables
    from Huber & Suhner. Then, one day, because H+S did not reply to
    a new request for a quotation, I got them from JYEBAO in Taiwan
    via a French representative. They were cheaper *and* better.

    Jeroen Belleman

    We get SMA connectors from Shining Star. Excellent.

    Custom RF cables from RF Street. Purchasing notes say not to buy from Lighthorse.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund@21:1/5 to Chris Jones on Mon Apr 8 15:30:57 2024
    On 08-04-2024 06:40, Chris Jones wrote:
    On 8/04/2024 11:36 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so
    decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's
    real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive
    probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering  any
    more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K
    load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.



    Thanks, I only looked at the pdf before. For usenet posterity the zip
    file contains Agilent document 54006-90002 and a photo of a probe made
    from a SMA connector with a resistor marked MD1248 950 1%, and a packet
    of resistors marked CADDOCK Part No. 0699-2371 (MD1247) Rev B Model
    MG680 Resistance 450 Ohm Date 12-7-88 Date Code 8845 amongst other things.
    This is comparison with sub pF probes vs just a resistor/coax. Seems the performance from the coax is very similar to high end active probe. From:

    http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/straight/probes.htm

    Notice, that you can
    have a rather long pigtail on the coax probe and it won't affect the
    signal.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Larkin@21:1/5 to klauskvik@hotmail.com on Mon Apr 8 07:24:47 2024
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 15:30:57 +0200, Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

    On 08-04-2024 06:40, Chris Jones wrote:
    On 8/04/2024 11:36 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>> wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>> decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>> real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>> probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering  any >>>>>> more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>> load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.



    Thanks, I only looked at the pdf before. For usenet posterity the zip
    file contains Agilent document 54006-90002 and a photo of a probe made
    from a SMA connector with a resistor marked MD1248 950 1%, and a packet
    of resistors marked CADDOCK Part No. 0699-2371 (MD1247) Rev B Model
    MG680 Resistance 450 Ohm Date 12-7-88 Date Code 8845 amongst other things. >This is comparison with sub pF probes vs just a resistor/coax. Seems the >performance from the coax is very similar to high end active probe. From:

    http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/straight/probes.htm

    Notice, that you can
    have a rather long pigtail on the coax probe and it won't affect the
    signal.

    We often probe without a ground connection at all, with fet and Z0
    probes. You get a bit more noise but you see what's going on.

    Critical signals get their own "probe" built into the board, with a
    coax connector.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jpy8onicfd1yrlzyp8qc2/T660_Phemt_Oscillator.jpg?rlkey=f5uzzmpmc3z6edqz48c47o31q&raw=1

    That's the clock from a triggered LC oscillator.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/674b2w56c0q9orn/Burst_1.jpg?raw=1


    SMB, when there's enough room.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Phil Hobbs@21:1/5 to John Larkin on Mon Apr 8 10:44:06 2024
    On 2024-04-08 10:24, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 15:30:57 +0200, Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

    On 08-04-2024 06:40, Chris Jones wrote:
    On 8/04/2024 11:36 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>>> wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>>> decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>>>>>> surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>>> real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the >>>>>>> 150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>>> probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering  any >>>>>>> more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are >>>>>> hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>>> load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.



    Thanks, I only looked at the pdf before. For usenet posterity the zip
    file contains Agilent document 54006-90002 and a photo of a probe made
    from a SMA connector with a resistor marked MD1248 950 1%, and a packet
    of resistors marked CADDOCK Part No. 0699-2371 (MD1247) Rev B Model
    MG680 Resistance 450 Ohm Date 12-7-88 Date Code 8845 amongst other things. >> This is comparison with sub pF probes vs just a resistor/coax. Seems the
    performance from the coax is very similar to high end active probe. From:

    http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/straight/probes.htm

    Notice, that you can
    have a rather long pigtail on the coax probe and it won't affect the
    signal.

    We often probe without a ground connection at all, with fet and Z0
    probes. You get a bit more noise but you see what's going on.

    Critical signals get their own "probe" built into the board, with a
    coax connector.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jpy8onicfd1yrlzyp8qc2/T660_Phemt_Oscillator.jpg?rlkey=f5uzzmpmc3z6edqz48c47o31q&raw=1

    That's the clock from a triggered LC oscillator.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/674b2w56c0q9orn/Burst_1.jpg?raw=1


    SMB, when there's enough room.

    We do that with U.FL connectors. They're minorly fiddly, but seem to
    survive OK and work up to 6 GHz, so at the size of a SOT23 and a cost of
    only a few cents, they're Good Medicine. We often populate them for
    debug and then leave them off on production units.

    We use them for I/O connectors in some products, as well--jumpers going
    from U.FL to bulkhead SMA are fairly inexpensive.

    Cheers

    Phil Hobbs

    --
    Dr Philip C D Hobbs
    Principal Consultant
    ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
    Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
    Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

    http://electrooptical.net
    http://hobbs-eo.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to jeroen@nospam.please on Mon Apr 8 23:13:42 2024
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 09:45:03 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
    <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

    On 4/8/24 00:11, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:08:43 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:14:25 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:57:13 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>> wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>> decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not
    surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>> real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the
    150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>> probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering any >>>>>> more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are
    hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    Funny you should say that, but the 3.5Ghz probe I mentioned (a Tek
    P6056 to be precise) has a fragile resistor assembly in the tip
    according to the datasheet and it's easily damaged by rough handling.
    I'd be very interested to know what the secret sauce is in the
    Caddocks and why they're more robust than whatever Tek used in the
    P6056.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>> load.

    Many years ago when I was somewhat impecunious, I used to improvise
    like that, but these days I prefer to just buy whatever I need ready
    made. Some of those top-end RF patch cables can be ruinously expensive >>>> to buy ready-made, but what are you gonna do? No matter how good you
    are with terminations, you'll never emulate the quality standard of a
    properly made, high quality patch lead. When you're as ham-fisted and
    half-blind as I am, it's a no-brainer to buy 'em ready-made!

    Amazon has some crazy cheap coaxial jumpers and SMA and SMB connectors
    and adapters. All the ones I've got so far have been fine. For bench
    work of course, not production.

    What do you mean by "fine"? How did you go about characterising them
    and what were you looking for specifically? IME you get what you pay
    for and cheap connectors are very seldom worth it. Buy cheap, buy
    twice as they say.

    Not necessarily. I used to buy phase-matched sets of SMA cables
    from Huber & Suhner. Then, one day, because H+S did not reply to
    a new request for a quotation, I got them from JYEBAO in Taiwan
    via a French representative. They were cheaper *and* better.

    Jeroen Belleman

    They have some interesting stuff for sure. Shame none of their site
    links work.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund@21:1/5 to John Larkin on Tue Apr 9 01:42:22 2024
    On 08-04-2024 16:24, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 15:30:57 +0200, Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

    On 08-04-2024 06:40, Chris Jones wrote:
    On 8/04/2024 11:36 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>>> wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>>> decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>>>>>> surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>>> real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the >>>>>>> 150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>>> probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering  any >>>>>>> more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0

    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150.

    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are >>>>>> hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast
    circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>>> load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.



    Thanks, I only looked at the pdf before. For usenet posterity the zip
    file contains Agilent document 54006-90002 and a photo of a probe made
    from a SMA connector with a resistor marked MD1248 950 1%, and a packet
    of resistors marked CADDOCK Part No. 0699-2371 (MD1247) Rev B Model
    MG680 Resistance 450 Ohm Date 12-7-88 Date Code 8845 amongst other things. >> This is comparison with sub pF probes vs just a resistor/coax. Seems the
    performance from the coax is very similar to high end active probe. From:

    http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/straight/probes.htm

    Notice, that you can
    have a rather long pigtail on the coax probe and it won't affect the
    signal.

    We often probe without a ground connection at all, with fet and Z0
    probes. You get a bit more noise but you see what's going on.

    Critical signals get their own "probe" built into the board, with a
    coax connector.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jpy8onicfd1yrlzyp8qc2/T660_Phemt_Oscillator.jpg?rlkey=f5uzzmpmc3z6edqz48c47o31q&raw=1

    That's the clock from a triggered LC oscillator.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/674b2w56c0q9orn/Burst_1.jpg?raw=1


    SMB, when there's enough room.


    I do that too, also for all PSU rails. And add resistor in series with
    the feedback path of PSUs, then it real easy to do gain/phase measurements

    I add 900ohm resistor on the board before the UFL, I guess you do the same?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From john larkin@21:1/5 to klauskvik@hotmail.com on Mon Apr 8 16:47:18 2024
    On Tue, 9 Apr 2024 01:42:22 +0200, Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

    On 08-04-2024 16:24, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 15:30:57 +0200, Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund
    <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

    On 08-04-2024 06:40, Chris Jones wrote:
    On 8/04/2024 11:36 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:06:52 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 8/04/2024 2:57 am, John Larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:51:29 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>>>> wrote:

    I never learn. I bought a used "Agilent 500Mhz probe" off Ebay for 50 >>>>>>>> quid as the highest bandwidth probe I thought I had was a 150Mhz Tek >>>>>>>> one. Anyway, I have a large selection of old probes lying around so >>>>>>>> decided to check to make sure the "Agilent" one was genuine. Not >>>>>>>> surprisingly it turns out it isn't. I haven't calculated what it's >>>>>>>> real bandwidth is. I've established it's not as sensitive as the >>>>>>>> 150Mhz one and that's all I need to know. Whilst I was going through >>>>>>>> this palarva, I tested a old probe I came across that I've never used >>>>>>>> before and was amazed at the improvement in signal I got with it. I've >>>>>>>> just Googled its part number and it turns out it's a 3.5Ghz passive >>>>>>>> probe! I never even knew I had one so fast. I would never have ordered >>>>>>>> the "500Mhz" one if I'd known I had this forgotten-about one already. >>>>>>>> So the fake's going back for a refund and I won't be ordering  any >>>>>>>> more probes from anywhere in the forseeable future.

    The HP54006 is a 6 GHz probe, into a 50 ohm scope.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxq4ujmkvo755uy/HP54006_probe.zip?dl=0 >>>>>>>
    They show up on ebay now and then. There's one now, asking $150. >>>>>>>
    You can make your own with some of those Caddock resistors. The
    Caddocks have some magical recipe. And unlike a fet probe, they are >>>>>>> hard to damage. I use them to probe 7 ns 1400 volt spikes in my
    Pockels Cell driver.

    And you can do a GHz at least with a 1-cent axial or mini-MELF or 0805 >>>>>>> resistor on the end of a coax. 450 ohms makes a 10:1 probe. Fast >>>>>>> circuits are often low impedance circuits and don't mind a 500r or 1K >>>>>>> load.



    Which Caddock part number?

    In the zip file.



    Thanks, I only looked at the pdf before. For usenet posterity the zip
    file contains Agilent document 54006-90002 and a photo of a probe made >>>> from a SMA connector with a resistor marked MD1248 950 1%, and a packet >>>> of resistors marked CADDOCK Part No. 0699-2371 (MD1247) Rev B Model
    MG680 Resistance 450 Ohm Date 12-7-88 Date Code 8845 amongst other things. >>> This is comparison with sub pF probes vs just a resistor/coax. Seems the >>> performance from the coax is very similar to high end active probe. From: >>>
    http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/straight/probes.htm

    Notice, that you can
    have a rather long pigtail on the coax probe and it won't affect the
    signal.

    We often probe without a ground connection at all, with fet and Z0
    probes. You get a bit more noise but you see what's going on.

    Critical signals get their own "probe" built into the board, with a
    coax connector.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jpy8onicfd1yrlzyp8qc2/T660_Phemt_Oscillator.jpg?rlkey=f5uzzmpmc3z6edqz48c47o31q&raw=1

    That's the clock from a triggered LC oscillator.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/674b2w56c0q9orn/Burst_1.jpg?raw=1


    SMB, when there's enough room.


    I do that too, also for all PSU rails. And add resistor in series with
    the feedback path of PSUs, then it real easy to do gain/phase measurements

    I add 900ohm resistor on the board before the UFL, I guess you do the same?

    450 usually, for 3.3v type signals.

    High voltage dividers are another story.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)