Acquiring and Displaying Waveforms
3–4
TDS 500B, TDS 600B, & TDS 700A User Manual
When using a passive probe with any product, compensate it to ensure maximum
distortion-free input to the oscilloscope and to avoid high frequency amplitude
errors (see Figure 3–1). To compensate your probe, do the following steps:
1. Connect the probe to the probe compensation signal on the front panel.
Connect the probe ground lead to the ground terminal on the front panel.
2. Press AUTOSET.
3. Press VERTICAL MENU ➞ Bandwidth (main) ➞ 20 MHz (side).
Probe Compensated Correctly
Probe Overcompensated
Probe Undercompensated
Figure 3–1: How Probe Compensation Affects Signals
4. If you need to change the input impedance, press Coupling (main). Then
toggle the side menu selection W to get the correct impedance.
5. TDS 500B and 700A models only: Press SHIFT ACQUIRE MENU ➞
Mode (main) ➞ Hi Res (side).
6. TDS 600B models only: Press SHIFT ACQUIRE MENU ➞
Mode (main) ➞ Average (side). Use the keypad to set Averages to 5.
7. Adjust the probe until you see a square wave with a perfectly flat top on the
display. Figure 3–2 shows where the adjustment is located.
To Compensate
Passive Probes