Rigol current probes?

[Rixen]

Hi all,

I got a Rigol DS1074Z digital scope, beside the kind of noisy fan, im actually really happy with it.
So, recently I have been thinking more and more about acquiring a current probe for it, until I looked at the prices.

The scope itself was 520€ at batronix.com, the lowest end current probes for this scope (RP1001C) is sitting at.. 986€

Jeez. The probes are atleast twice the cost of the scope itself? Like, in what world does that even make sense.. I was offered the new Keysight 1000x with everything unlocked, by a keysight consultant/dealer that sometimes come at my work, to display their new stuff, for slightly less than that!

Is this normal ? Or am I looking in the wrong places?

 

[Harald Kapp]

Seems like this is the real price.
What kind of currents are you going to measure? There are other ways than an expensice probe. The most simple being a small series resistor where you can measure the voltage drop, though not isolated.
For AC a small transformer can be used. For AC and DC a hall sensor can be used. The sensor can be bought from under 1 € plus you will need some electronics to drive the sensor and amplify the output signal.
The do it yourself techniques may be less precice (unless correctly trimmed) but may suffice for many applications.

 

[Rixen]

<6A at about 100KHz was what I wanted to try initially, to see the current phase in a half-bridge inverter in relation to another signal.. Allow some headroom for future projects and it seems even the "cheapest" probe could do that I would think..

I was involved in a project at work recently, lots of current probe usage in that one.. I really got to like the convenience of it

But being a poor student, maybe I could try your transformer suggestion..

 

[dorke]

If it will do,
Hantek has a 20KHz probe for much less.