Test Leads and Wires

The container holding whatever connects an instrument to the thing you are measuring. It is a box of its own because leads are the first thing to spread across a workshop and the first thing missing when you need one.

This is where the cords for the power supplies come from, the crocodile clips for the electronic load, and spare probes for the multimeters when the supplied ones are not enough or the wrong length.

What is here

• Banana-to-banana cords in various colours and lengths. The colour is not decoration: red and black for plus and minus saves you one destroyed instrument a year.
• Crocodile clips — loose, and already fitted to leads.
• Probes, ordinary, with a sharp tip.
• Bags of connectors: banana plugs, ferrules, adapters — for anyone making up a lead for a particular job.

Worth remembering

• Leads have a voltage and a current rating. A thin probe meant for a multimeter is no good for five amps out of a power supply: it heats up, and its insulation is not for mains.
• Check a lead for continuity if the readings look strange. A broken strand inside intact-looking insulation is the most common cause of “the instrument is lying”.
• Do not cut up leads from this box for your own projects. There is hook-up wire for that in the component boxes.

How to use

1. Take what fits the connector and the current, not what is lying on top.
2. Coil a lead before putting it back. A tangle at the bottom of the box is the next person spending five minutes and then taking a different one.
3. Do not quietly return a damaged lead: set it aside and tell us.

Access

The container is in the hackspace room, so a plan that includes hackspace access is required. No induction is needed.