My experience with (active or passive) differential probes has not always been full of joy. There are some active probes, that advertise mucho MHz bandwidths, but seem to cause large peaks and/or enough distortion to result in bogus rms and/or instantaneous current measurements.
Best results have resulted from using a floated DSO with a decent BW, and two 100x probes in A-B mode. Also, there are some shunts that can develop significant error and reactance as they heat up; YMMV. luck, Brian >-----Original Message----- >From: Finlayson Joseph-G3162C [ mailto:[email protected]] >Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 5:54 AM >To: 'EMC PSTC' >Subject: DC Current Probes > > > >Group, > > I am looking to source a DC current probe to measure >steady state as well as inrush currents for a modular chassis >up to 100 Amps DC. Joe: Do you REALLY need a current probe? Can't you do this with a resistive shunt and an oscilloscope, using either differential inputs or simply floating the scope? That said, some of the widest bandwidth current probes (like 3 dB down at 5 Hz, very flat response, 1% accuracy) are available from Pearson Electronics: http://www.pearsonelectronics.com/ . Unfortunately, I don't know of a 100 Amp DC current sensor; all the Tek or HP probes (Hall effect or magnetoresistive) that I've seen are limited to about 6 Amps or so. Ed Ed Price [email protected] WB6WSN NARTE Certified EMC Engineer & Technician Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Applications San Diego, CA USA 858-505-2780 (Voice) 858-505-1583 (Fax) Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
