[ARC5] Alligator clip leads

[Dave Merrill]

If you bring a magnet close to those wires you'll discover one reason they
are so cheap.

Dave N9ZC

On Sat, Nov 27, 2021, 3:31 PM MICHAEL ST ANGELO <mstangelo at comcast.net>
wrote:

> I had the same set of flimsy clip leads. I liked the alligator clips but
> the wire was junk.
>
> I got rid of the wire and replaced it with quality stranded hookup wire
> and soldered the wire to the clips. Don't forget to put the boots on the
> wire before soldering the clip. The wiring harnesses in old desktop
> computers is a good source of wire.
>
> As an extra precaution against breakage I place heat shrink tubing over
> the solder connection. The tubing is long enough to stick out of the boot.
>
> Mike N2MS
>
> On Sat, Nov 27, 2021 at 12:56 PM Steve WD8DAS via ARC5 <
> arc5 at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>
>
> Over the years I've been frustrated by failures of alligator clip leads.
> Nothing is worse than thinking the device under test has a problem when in
> fact it turns out a bad test lead that are the issue.
>
> This has only gotten worse in recent years, as most of the
> commercially-available clip leads have become complete junk:   A few
> strands of weird metal inside stiff plastic insulation, with cheaply-made
> alligator clips loosely clamped (not even crimped) on the ends.
>
> My old leads are wearing out so a couple weeks ago I bought some new clip
> leads from a reputable vendor.  They turned out to be the worst ever - half
> of the leads had no continuity right out of the package.  I tried soldering
> the wires to the clips but the few strands of wire did not seem to want to
> take solder - very odd stuff.  I trashed them and went on a search for good
> test leads.  I first sought good test-lead wire and clips to make my own -
> the minimum quantity of the wire was  too high.
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20211127/78bdf244/attachment-0001.html>