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.
I
found some ready-made leads from Cal-Test Electronics. I asked and
confirmed they are made from real test lead wire, soldered to good
quality clips:
https://app.caltestelectronics.com/product-list/product-page/view/CT2394/
and bought them from DigiKey, but others sell them as well:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cal-test-electronics/CT2394/5028475
