Oscilloscope to view mains power

Hi,

I've purchased a 20MHz Dual Trace Oscilloscope (see previous thread called
"Opinions on Oscilloscopes") and it's been quite fruitful so far. Thanks to
all who helped me make a decision.

I've been working on low voltage circuits, and building simple rectifiers.
It's great to see the actual wavefrom change from AC to half-wave AC and so
on.

Now, I'm not stupid, and I know not to play around with mains. But I do
want to see mains in action.

I am interested in alternative power sources (solar to battery to inverter
etc.)

I want to see the "modified sine wave" output of my little 150W inverter and
when I buy my 1500W inverter I want to see that too.

I also have 3 phase power to my house (from the electricity company), and
I'd really like to see the 3 sine waves on my scope (with the dual trace, I
guess I can look at two at a time).

Why? Seeing is believing....it really helps me to actually see what's
there. It's just the scientist in me, I guess.

So, a very simple question....

My scope has 1MOhm probes with a 10X switch. I believe this switch makes the
probe 10MOhm.

It seems to me that this is safe to apply to a mains socket (with all other
sensible safety precautions in place - e.g. DON'T TOUCH the metal tip of the
probe or its ground clip!).

Am I wrong?

If you say it's OK, all risk is on me. My widow will not come and find you
and sue you. :-)

BTW, My house (and workshop) has a Residual Current device. I know not to
rely on it, and I also know it doesn't protect against putting yourself
between active and neutral.

tia,
RR



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