September 2015 19
PROBE
ADAPTERS
Teledyne LeCroy has introduced two new products that provide a simple and easy interface of third-party
probes and current measurement devices to Teledyne
LeCroy oscilloscopes. The first — the TPA10 TekProbe
Probe Adapter — adapts a wide variety of Tektronix
voltage and current probes; the second — the CA10
Current Sensor Adapter — adapts a wide variety of third-party current measurement devices.
Both adapters attach to the Teledyne LeCroy ProBus
probe interface — a standard probe interface that for the
past 20+ years has been present on the vast majority of
oscilloscopes shipped by Teledyne LeCroy. These adapters
will help users better leverage their existing Tektronix
probe and third-party current measurement device
investments with Teledyne LeCroy oscilloscopes.
The TPA10 TekProbe permits connection of select
Tektronix TekProbe interface level II probes to any ProBus-equipped Teledyne LeCroy oscilloscope. The TPA10
automatically detects which a Tektronix probe is attached;
it supplies all necessary power and offset control to the
probe, and communicates the probe
signal to the Teledyne LeCroy
oscilloscope.
Supported probes include many
popular Tektronix probes,
preamplifiers, current probes, single-ended active probes, and differential
active probes, such as Tektronix’s
ADA400A differential preamplifier,
their TCP202 and TCP202A current
probes, the P6205, P6243, P6245,
P6241, and P6249 single-ended
active probes, and their P6246,
P6247, P6248, P6250, P6250,
P5205, P5205A, P5210, and
P5210A differential and high voltage
differential active probes.
The CA10 current sensor
adapter provides the ability for a
third-party current measurement
device to operate like a Teledyne
LeCroy probe. The CA10 is
programmable and customizable to
work with third-party current
measurement devices that output
voltage or current signals
proportional to measured current.
A simple interface provides a
user with the ability to program the
CA10 to contain the specifications
of the current measurement device
so as to automatically correct for the gain or attenuation,
and display results in ampere units. The CA10 also
provides the ability to easily install physical hardware
components such as shunt resistors and bandwidth filter
components based on the requirements of the device
being used.
Once the CA10 is programmed and configured, the
