Where to get good quality multimeter probes?

[Merlysys]

If you have experience with a long lasting ones with a moderate price please give details.

Ones on ebay for about $10/pair I bought but they don't last long. I know the brand named ones will last long but they are pricey.

[mij59]

Take a look at this ones from Probemaster  , or use regular 4mm banana test leads in combination with Hirschmann probes.

Edit : url restored, 4mm banana

[TorqueRanger]

I got a couple pairs of fluke for pretty cheap .. If you don't need them right away then I would wait till a nice set come on sale or can find a great deal on ebay..I paid $21 shipped for Fluke silicone with retractable shield and they are my favorite so far..

[markce]

I've bought a pair Fluke silicone with retractable shield last year with the 4mm adapter (TL175). Not even cheap,
nearly Eur 30.
They are very disappointing. Probe resistance is inconsistent, varies from 0.7 to as high as 10 ohm,
Not the 0.1-0.2 Ohm my other leads give me. Nice look and feel though.

[mos6502]

They are very disappointing. Probe resistance is inconsistent, varies from 0.7 to as high as 10 ohm,
Not the 0.1-0.2 Ohm my other leads give me. Nice look and feel though.

That means they're dirty. Clean the tips with a brass wire brush.

My Uni-T probes were like that before I cleaned them. Now they're showing 0-0.1 ohms consistently.

These ones seem like good quality, too: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brymen-Silicone-Gold-Plated-Test-Leads-Probes-Multimeters-CAT-IV-1000V-/171162377470?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27da129cfe

[TorqueRanger]

I've bought a pair Fluke silicone with retractable shield last year with the 4mm adapter (TL175). Not even cheap,
nearly Eur 30.
They are very disappointing. Probe resistance is inconsistent, varies from 0.7 to as high as 10 ohm,
Not the 0.1-0.2 Ohm my other leads give me. Nice look and feel though.

Did  you get the chinese copies ??
MJlorton a video on them ..

[markce]

I have cleaned them. Does make some difference for a short time, but closing the schield also does.
They never are below 0.5 ohm, which for me is a fail.

Don't know if they are chineese copies. Bought them from a big regular EU webshop and not cheap.

[tooki]

I've bought a pair Fluke silicone with retractable shield last year with the 4mm adapter (TL175). Not even cheap,
nearly Eur 30.
They are very disappointing. Probe resistance is inconsistent, varies from 0.7 to as high as 10 ohm,
Not the 0.1-0.2 Ohm my other leads give me. Nice look and feel though.

I'm also gonna bet they're fake. (At absolute minimum, they are defective.) I have genuine TL175's, and they measure 0.19 ohms. 0.7 isn't even close to where they should be.

[tooki]

Take a look at this ones from Probemaster , or use regular test leads in combination with Hirschmann probes.

Quoted to fix URL.

[mos6502]

I have cleaned them. Does make some difference for a short time, but closing the schield also does.
They never are below 0.5 ohm, which for me is a fail.

Don't know if they are chineese copies. Bought them from a big regular EU webshop and not cheap.

Cleaned them how?

It's physically impossible for them to be of such a high resistance, because that would require ridiculously thin wire. 0.5 ohms at 1m would mean 0.03mm² wire or 32 AWG. 0.03mm² is equivalent to a single 0.2mm copper wire, or about twice the diameter of a human hair.

Do you understand now that it can't be the leads? It must be the contact surfaces. I.e., either the tips, the plugs, or the jacks in your meter.

[mos6502]

I'm also gonna bet they're fake. (At absolute minimum, they are defective.) I have genuine TL175's, and they measure 0.19 ohms. 0.7 isn't even close to where they should be.

0.19 ohms is completely impossible. Your measurement is wrong. 0.19 ohms at 1m would equal 28 AWG. That's the wire that's used in IDE cables. Even the Uni-T probes that came with my UT139C have a resistance of 37 milliohms.

Are you doing a 4 wire measurement? If not, your figures are completely meaningless. The contact resistance is a magnitude larger than the actual resistance of the leads. If just a bit of oil from your hands gets on the tips, the resistance doubles or triples.

[commongrounder]

The contact surfaces aren't the only places resistance can build up.  I have several Fluke TL71 lead sets.  I opened a brand new set and they had over 10 ohms of resistance.  I traced it down to just the red lead. Turns out the bonding between the wire and the probe tip, inside the probe body, was deficient.  I actually was able to get the resistance down to .035 ohms just by manipulating the probe tip. This has been the only set of these I've purchased that were bad out of the box.

[mos6502]

The contact surfaces aren't the only places resistance can build up.  I have several Fluke TL71 lead sets.  I opened a brand new set and they had over 10 ohms of resistance.  I traced it down to just the red lead. Turns out the bonding between the wire and the probe tip, inside the probe body, was deficient.  I actually was able to get the resistance down to .035 ohms just by manipulating the probe tip. This has been the only set of these I've purchased that were bad out of the box.

You're right, wire breakage is another possibility. One should always measure both leads and compare.

[tooki]

I'm also gonna bet they're fake. (At absolute minimum, they are defective.) I have genuine TL175's, and they measure 0.19 ohms. 0.7 isn't even close to where they should be.

0.19 ohms is completely impossible. Your measurement is wrong. 0.19 ohms at 1m would equal 28 AWG. That's the wire that's used in IDE cables. Even the Uni-T probes that came with my UT139C have a resistance of 37 milliohms.

Are you doing a 4 wire measurement? If not, your figures are completely meaningless. The contact resistance is a magnitude larger than the actual resistance of the leads. If just a bit of oil from your hands gets on the tips, the resistance doubles or triples.

Of course I'm not doing a 4 wire measurement, as I'm sure the others aren't either. We're talking touch-the-tips-together-and-see-what-the-DMM-shows. Your rude attitude is totally uncalled for.

[mos6502]

Of course I'm not doing a 4 wire measurement, as I'm sure the others aren't either.

Yeah, they're doing it wrong as well. Point?

We're talking touch-the-tips-together-and-see-what-the-DMM-shows.

What exactly are you measuring by doing that?

Your rude attitude is totally uncalled for.

I wasn't being rude at all. If being told that your methodology is wrong and you're giving out random numbers as if they mean something hurts your feelings, then I can't really do anything about that.

[DimitriP]

Of course I'm not doing a 4 wire measurement, as I'm sure the others aren't either.

Yeah, they're doing it wrong as well. Point?

We're talking touch-the-tips-together-and-see-what-the-DMM-shows.

What exactly are you measuring by doing that?

Your rude attitude is totally uncalled for.

I wasn't being rude at all. If being told that your methodology is wrong and you're giving out random numbers as if they mean something hurts your feelings, then I can't really do anything about that.

Slow day at the office?

I read somewhere online that typical lead resistance is between 1mOhm to 1 Ohm and it really only effects measurments of resistance less than 500mOhms.

I'm OK with that since I don't think I own a resistor that's less than 5 Ohms.

Now, giving someone a hard time  for not doing a 4-wire measurement and telling them their "methodology" is wrong for touching the two probes together..that's not ok.

Methodology can always be improved by holding a finger up in lieu of a 4-wire measurement.

[mos6502]

I read somewhere online that typical lead resistance is between 1mOhm to 1 Ohm and it really only effects measurments of resistance less than 500mOhms.

Generally any ohms measurement below 1 ohm is pretty much meaningless unless you're using a Kelvin setup. And again, it's not the resistance of the leads themselves (which is in the milliohms even with cheap leads), it's the contact resistance.

I'm OK with that since I don't think I own a resistor that's less than 5 Ohms.

I'm pretty sure you do, you just don't know it.

Now, giving someone a hard time  for not doing a 4-wire measurement and telling them their "methodology" is wrong for touching the two probes together..that's not ok.

The "hard time" is not for touching two probes together, it's for saying "dude, these fluke probes are bullshit, they're like 0.5 ohms derp" and "bro, your probes are totally fake, the real ones are 0.1923282482 ohms herp" when clearly both measurements are bogus.

Methodology can always be improved by holding a finger up in lieu of a 4-wire measurement.

That's between you and your proctologist.

[Matje]

I read somewhere online that typical lead resistance is between 1mOhm to 1 Ohm and it really only effects measurments of resistance less than 500mOhms.

Generally any ohms measurement below 1 ohm is pretty much meaningless unless you're using a Kelvin setup. And again, it's not the resistance of the leads themselves (which is in the milliohms even with cheap leads), it's the contact resistance.

Only if the leads themselves are A-OK, meaning the bonds between the copper litz wire and the plugs/probe tips are OK. That is not a trivial requirement.

Defective probes are not unheard of, including really crappy stuff (UNI-T, I'm looking at you here...) where the mechanical solution pretty much guarantees the connections will fail, pretty soon.

[mos6502]

Generally any ohms measurement below 1 ohm is pretty much meaningless unless you're using a Kelvin setup. And again, it's not the resistance of the leads themselves (which is in the milliohms even with cheap leads), it's the contact resistance.

Only if the leads themselves are A-OK, meaning the bonds between the copper litz wire and the plugs/probe tips are OK. That is not a trivial requirement.

Defective probes are not unheard of, including really crappy stuff (UNI-T, I'm looking at you here...) where the mechanical solution pretty much guarantees the connections will fail, pretty soon.

Correct. Another reason why making a 4 wire measurement using a bench multimeter or an LCR meter is essential. It will instantly reveal any wiring issues. Let's say you measure 40 milliohms for one lead and 100 milliohms for the other. A difference like that can only occur if there's an internal connection problem or a broken wire. You would never notice that using the ohms measurement of a handheld multimeter.

[Matje]

I'm also gonna bet they're fake. (At absolute minimum, they are defective.) I have genuine TL175's, and they measure 0.19 ohms. 0.7 isn't even close to where they should be.

0.19 ohms is completely impossible. Your measurement is wrong. 0.19 ohms at 1m would equal 28 AWG. That's the wire that's used in IDE cables. Even the Uni-T probes that came with my UT139C have a resistance of 37 milliohms.

Are you doing a 4 wire measurement?

A 4 wire measurement to measure the resistance of the *actual probes* would be wrong. Where would you even attach the sense wires?

Unless one were to use probes to measure the resistance of other probes, now that would be, like, quite weird (and suboptimal, more contact surfaces for no good reason etc.)? After all, 4 wire is used to eliminate the resistance of the probes from the measurement of the DUTs resistance, without an actual extra DUT 4 wire is just meaningless.

[mos6502]

A 4 wire measurement to measure the resistance of the *actual probes* would be wrong. Where would you even attach the sense wires?

At the ... ends of the lead?

Unless one were to use probes to measure the resistance of other probes, now that would be, like, quite weird (and suboptimal, more contact surfaces for no good reason etc.)? After all, 4 wire is used to eliminate the resistance of the probes from the measurement of the DUTs resistance, without an actual extra DUT 4 wire is just meaningless.

Huh? I think you have trouble understanding how 4 wire measurements work.

OK, here's a picture:



And yes, it's a 4 wire measurement. This LCR meter has split jacks. I made sure that the tip touches both halves of the jack.

Check for repeatability:



37 millohms works out to pretty exactly 0.45mm² (around 21 AWG). A plausible wire size for cheap leads.

As an aside, notice how the theta is different in both measurements, due to the different coiling of the cable, resulting in a different reactance, yet the meter managed to correctly calculate the ESR.

[nanofrog]

Another vote for Probemaster. 

Between the 8000 and 9000 series', the modular 9000 series makes better sense for electronics IME. The reason is the connector ends don't pop off in instances the 8000 series would due to the connector + probe weight hanging off of the test point/pin/leg. You can prop them up of course, but it gets annoying if you have to do this all the time.

The 8000 series probe body is really nice to handle, and are excellent if you don't use connectors all that frequently. And if you've the budget, I'd recommend both (i.e. set of 8000 probes only + 9000 series kit).

Their spring loaded probes are also excellent (8000 series softie body w/ pogo pins).

Regarding value, you can get a set of bare probes (8000 lead only), the deluxe electronics kit (9104), and spring loaded kit (815x) for less than a Fluke TLK287 kit (not only less money, but you get more pieces).

[linux-works]

probemaster, here, too.

really good feeling stuff, well built, good flexible cable and I think its anti-burn (soldering iron protection).

[5ky]

If you live in the U.S., probemaster is a no-brainer.

Even with international shipping, I think probemaster might still be the best bang for the buck.  They're quite good, and surprisingly cheap.  $15.90 http://probemaster.com/8000-series-leads-only/

[GreyWoolfe]

Don't forget Frankie and his eBay store:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171162377470?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I have a set of these on my FLuke 27/FM and I like them.