oscilloscope probes (ins and outs)?

What is really the internals of these oscilloscope probes?
Are they basically a circuit that steps down your input voltage to a very
tiny amount safe enough for the delicate circuitry of the scope to handle?

By the way what are some recommended books for a beginners to oscilloscopes?

 

What is really the internals of these oscilloscope probes?

(This is just a guess) but the oscilloscopes I've seen show a high input
impedence, like > 20 Mohms so I'm guessing that there's pretty much
electrical isolation provided by something like a FET.

 

oscilloscopes?

sci.electronics.equipment is an appropriate group for discussion of test
equipment and accessories.

Probe internals vary tremendously depending on the type of probe. They
could be anything from a straight wire to... well, anything. A typical 10x
passive probe contains a series resistor of around 9MEG, and then a trimmer
capacitor at the scope end.

Scope inputs are generally not "delicate", at least for a reasonable quality
scope. Your scope manual will tell you what its limitations are; often they
can handle up to 200V or so, depending on sensitivity range.

Old Tektronix manuals are a great way to learn about how to use a scope and
how scopes work. I believe they also have some books on using scopes, but I
don't remember the reference offhand; ask on sci.electronics.equipment.

 

The typical high speed probe contains a 9 meg resistor that in
combination with the typical 1 meg input resistance of the scope forms
a 10 to 1 voltage divider. They also have a small adjustable
capacitor across the 9 megs to trim the high frequency division
against the input capacitance of the scope and the cable. There are
also 100 to 1 versions for high voltage work.