I'm building my first class A amp, the Zen IV, and am presently putting the power supply together. I want to look at the regulated power supply and see how much noise is actually there. I've got a Tek 2445 scope, however I can't deny I'm a little nervous about connecting it up to the power supply. I have no real basis for this fear, I just need someone to say, "Go ahead, hook up the scope, you won't fry it!" Thank you in advance for assuaging my irrational fears. On the off chance that my nervousness is valid, I'd appreciate knowing that too!
Cheers,
Dave
Cheers,
Dave
Check what with your meter first?
I don't understand these questions. What is the problem of putting a scope probe on a supply? The scope's only purpose in life is to do these things.
Jan Didden
I don't understand these questions. What is the problem of putting a scope probe on a supply? The scope's only purpose in life is to do these things.
Jan Didden
Hi Dave,
I know Oscilloscopes are fairly expensive, but they do have a very high input impedance. This simply means that they don't fry up easily. A lot of people hook them up to 220 Vac all the time in my lab, and they don't get fried.
-Sean 😉
I know Oscilloscopes are fairly expensive, but they do have a very high input impedance. This simply means that they don't fry up easily. A lot of people hook them up to 220 Vac all the time in my lab, and they don't get fried.
-Sean 😉
take a look at the several application notes at Linear Technology on noise measurement. They are sprinkled through LLTC's literature -- App Note 70 comes to mind -- although it deals with switching regulators there is an appendix devoted to noise measurement.
to measure noise, you really have to measure it within a known bandwidth -- that's why some of the old TEK 5XXX series scope plugins (like the 5A22N differential amplifier) are so wonderful -- you can set them up for 10Hz to 10kHz bandwidth, and the scope was designed for measurements just like this in automotive and medical technology. The 5A22N measures down to 10uV/cm and as high as 50V/cm. There have also been designs in recent issues of AudioXpress for a low noise measurement preamplifer.
to measure noise, you really have to measure it within a known bandwidth -- that's why some of the old TEK 5XXX series scope plugins (like the 5A22N differential amplifier) are so wonderful -- you can set them up for 10Hz to 10kHz bandwidth, and the scope was designed for measurements just like this in automotive and medical technology. The 5A22N measures down to 10uV/cm and as high as 50V/cm. There have also been designs in recent issues of AudioXpress for a low noise measurement preamplifer.
FWIW, I routinely use my scope on tube equipment, with about 10 times higher voltages. To see what's going on with the power supply, just use the AC coupling for the input.
One other fun trick I've mentioned before is to connect a cap between the supply rail and a headphone amp. Play music or test tones through the amp and listen through headphones- you'll hear for yourself what's on the rail besides DC.
One other fun trick I've mentioned before is to connect a cap between the supply rail and a headphone amp. Play music or test tones through the amp and listen through headphones- you'll hear for yourself what's on the rail besides DC.
Netlist said:
Well, I'm fine. My scope, however, is not.
I'm not exactly sure what happened, but when I connected it up there was a nice pop, and the scope now seems to be dead. So... that didn't turn out quite as I had hoped! Ahh well, I'm sure I'll get it back working soon enough.
Dave
flux01 said:
You "needed" a differential probe -- there was probably a differential between the "ground" of the scope probe and the "ground" of the device under test -- we all learn this the hard way.
jackinnj said:
So how hard of a lesson is this? Do you know what's wrong with the scope, and how to fix it? Thanks for the information, btw.
flux01 said:
Well, this is one of those times where you feel silly, and yet don't mind. I finally got some time to look at what happened and was grateful to find that my power bar became a sacrificial lamb, paying the penalty for my ignorance and saving the scope. I must admit I've never seen a power bar completely fry out before, but I'd rather it be that than my scope!
the first and only time this happened to me I was examining the noise on one rail of a power supply -- wondering how it was getting so noisy and loaded -- turns out that the scope probe was doing the damage. -- there was no isolation transformer on the supply at the time.
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