The performance of surface conversion based negative hydrogen ion sources is mainly determined by the caesium dynamics. Therefore, fundamental investigations in vacuum and plasma are performed at a flexible laboratory setup with ion source parameters. Studies on the influence of Cs on the plasma parameters of H2 and D2 plasmas showed that ne and Te in the bulk plasma are not affected by relevant amounts of Cs and no isotopic differences could be observed. The coating of the vessel surfaces with Cs, however, leads to a considerable gettering of hydrogen atoms from the plasma volume and to the decrease of ne close to a sample surface due to the formation of negative ions.