General > General Technical Chat
Silicone vs. PVC measuring leads
tooki:
--- Quote from: mendip_discovery on May 05, 2024, 03:51:51 pm ---PTFE, because I like my measurements to be accurate.
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Nobody sells multimeter test leads with PTFE (Teflon) insulation because Teflon is way too stiff. Consequently, nobody makes really finely stranded wire with Teflon.
There are certainly measurement applications where Teflon is used, but certainly not as your everyday probe wire.
KE5FX:
--- Quote from: tooki on May 06, 2024, 07:42:53 pm ---In a nutshell, I’ve become more willing to accept very high quality PVC, which can actually be softer than silicone, at lower cost. In particular at small gauges (like 0.25mm2/24AWG), getting good silicone gets a lot harder, to the point that I’ve mostly moved back to PVC for that. Too many small silicone wires aren’t really designed as test lead wire and have fragile silicone with too much stiffness and memory.
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That being said, it's disturbing how much I like this cheesy Chinese 30AWG hookup wire. It is easy to strip with fingernails but also hard to damage the insulation accidentally. Especially nice when point-to-point wiring is needed on dead-bug prototypes.
coppercone2:
thats good wire for the lab if you have good work ethic and planning
like clean work space until a project is put away or finished
IMO you don't need 3000V rated wire, if you are careful
nctnico:
--- Quote from: tooki on May 06, 2024, 07:42:53 pm ---Another good brand is SKS/Hirschmann. Not quite as soft as Stäubli or Fluke/Pomona, especially the larger gauge PVC. Their ultra-small test leads (the ones with “DuPont” style connectors) use extremely soft PVC that is very nice.
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My opinion on these is different. I have two sets but made my own replacements using silicone wire.
tooki:
--- Quote from: shabaz on May 06, 2024, 12:27:14 am ---For red and black wire for thin test leads, I've been using very flexible 24 AWG wire from CPC/Farnell. It's very low cost (£0.99 for 5m lengths) and 'feels' great in use, too. It has 133 strands. However, it is PVC, so it has limitations like temperature range.
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What is its actual cross-section? Because the specs cannot be correct: they say it’s 24AWG (which is 0.22mm2) but they also specify it as 0.5mm2. Both cannot be true.
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