On Fri, 26 Mar 2021 17:51:59 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:

Why is it still necessary to worry about probing a floating ground?

Most digital scopes have power requirements like high-end laptops, so
why can't they have a battery option?

They all have plastic cases, so why can't they have isolated supplies
and no earth connection?

There are scopes with battery power. I bought the Owon DS8202 for that
reason, along with good memory depth.

It's just one way of increasing measurement flexibility and of
monitoring ground loop effects, but requires care in use.
Even low voltage circuits can present energy hazards to
technicians and their test equipment.

For AC measurements, ground is everywhere, so your isolation
should be limited to low frequency nodes.

Can't say much for the scope - it has the usual triggering and
noise issues as most of the present digital offerings.

The battery can be expected to last ~3yrs. I refurbed the pack
using cells from offshore and added a balancing circuit. Hopefully
this will increase their lifetime.

There are "handheld" scopes with internal batteries as well (Wave2).
These can make low-frequency monitoring a bit less invasive and
replace expensive differential probes, in some applications.

Holding them in any energised circuit application is not advised.

You need internal waveform memory to save data, if you want
to process it on a grounded PC, later.

RL



RL