weaverdouglas22

The labeling makes perfect sense now that I understand the product better. I didn't realize previously that the BNC Adapter worked with the waveform generator (obviously I didn't read the manual!) and being more familiar with multimeters, I assumed that I needed two leads attached to the adapter for signal and ground. I didn't realize that a single BNC probe has both signal and ground in the same lead until your response above made me question if I'm using it properly. Thank you so much! Doug

Thanks for the response JColvin! I'm very sorry but I did not receive a notification that anyone replied and just happened to jump on the forum today and figured I'd check. I see where I went wrong. I did not understand that two of the probe connections on the Discover BNC adapter are for Waveform outputs. I thought that one probe connected to CH1 and the other probe connected to W1 for ground. (I honestly assumed W1 was just a non-intuitive abbreviation for CH1-) I had been using it this way for YEARS and still received seeming accurate measurements from hall effect sensors! Apparently I was just lucky until this last experience where the W1 circuit received too much current. To answer your question, yes, it was the BNC adapter that was burned on the W1 circuit. Thank for helping me figure this out. Doug

My question is what did I do wrong that caused my Discovery BNC to go up in smoke? I was trying to measure a millivolt signal generated by an abs sensor on a car. I was not receiving any signal after testing several sensors. After double checking settings, I wanted to verify that the oscilloscope function was working at all so I connected the test leads to a 12v car battery. I did see the 12v signal on the scope, however the leads became untouchably hot almost instantly. I then looked up the internal resistance of the analog discovery 2 (1M Ohm) and confirmed this resistance using my multimeter. Touched the oscilloscope leads to the battery again and they heated up instantly. I then ran the scope in series with the amp meter in the multimeter. It read 0.001V and there was no excess heat generated on the scope leads. I found this very strange and decided to try the scope directly to the battery one more time and this time a circuit on the Discovery BNC overheated and burned the board. I don't understand why this happened. I have always tested the scope with a direct connection to a 12v DC source for long periods of time and have never had an issue before. A 1M ohm resistance on a 12v circuit should be a very safe current. I'm open to any thoughts! Thank you. Doug