Products > Test Equipment
Multimeter test lead wear
(1/1)
robdejonge:
A little over a year ago I bought a Cleqee P1600C kit which I've really liked in terms of its modularity. But over time, the tips have gotten iffy. Apologies for the 'photo-of-a-screen', but I've attached a photo of a 'fresh' tip and one that has been on the meter for a year. Fresh meaning it was sitting in a drawer somewhere, but otherwise unused.
My first gut feel was that perhaps the tropical climate here played a part. You'd be surprised how poor a lot of plastics and rubbers hold up to the high humidity. Or perhaps corrosion (I doubt these are gold-plated). But then ... both probes would have been exposed to the same climate. This can't be common, can it?! Is there any way I can clean these?
Alternatively ... getting ready to buy a new meter I thought about getting some nice leads. Wondering if Probe Master probes will fare any better, especially given this climate. Please let me know if you have any thoughts.
Berni:
Gold plating does wear off over time. Especially with the cheep probes where it is really thin.
Tho if anything it tends to be the sides of the probe that might corrode enough to make a issue with contact. The tip tends to experience so much abrasion trough getting pressed into things that it cleans any oxidation off it as you use it. This is why the gold plating will tend to wear off on the tip. But good quality gold plating should help a lot with the sides of the probe not oxidizing.
Tho you might be having the opposite problem of the things you are probing being oxidized. In those cases it helps having really sharp pointy probes to help puncture the oxidation layer on the the thing being probed. I personally like really sharp probes, but they also make it a lot easier to stab yourself accidentally with one.
David Hess:
My favorite multimeter probes are hardened steel. What works well if you have a lathe is to drill out the metal probe body and silver solder a sewing needle in to use as a probe.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
Go to full version