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Test Leads
Test leads
Over the years i’ve found that there are a lot of test lead sets out there. What type of insulation. What type of wire. What type of probe. 90 degree or straight. Removable probe, Clamp on probe. Wire piercing. $7 to $180. Blunt to sharp and thin. Retractable covers. So many it becomes befuddling to the user. I started with cheap vinyl blunt probes that didn’t’ come off the wires. They were stiff and difficult to get reliable readings. The wires were a coarse stranded copper and the banana plugs weak. I was blaming the meter for the errors back then. It wasn’t till I got very frustrated with a difficult job that I broke down and bought another new meter. I was working with a power company employee and he showed me his Fluke 87A. It can be dropped for the top of a power pole and survive. Something I don’t recommend. It was twice the price of the best meter I ever bought, but I bit the bullet and saved to buy one. It changed my life in trouble shooting. But the main thing different was the leads. I’ve bought 3 sets of replacements since buying that meter. The bare industrial set today is $80. Comes with red and black straight guarded probes and red and black straight clamp probes as well as red and black cables with one straight and one 90 end. Fine silver coated wires and silicone insulation. They are very supple and easy to get around in a cabinet. The straight probes are very sharp and have a about 30 degree angle from the point.. Thin enough to get into the back of a connector. Or even onto the pins of a flat wire connector. And the best thing is the sure grip leads don’t take a set or knot up. Fluke makes hundreds of test leads for different applications but the TN220 is the one I like. I originally bough the TLK387 electronic set because I was doing board work, But it’s a bit much for this field.
I’ve laid out what I like, but what have you experienced and like. I have a mix mash of 14 meters, but always comes down to the test leads. Did not know that when I started.
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