i was browsing around eBay, looking for ideas for test points for my logic analyzer and oscilloscope.
mainly, i was tired of clipping the J-grabber onto a DuPont hookup wire, and touching it to just the right spot, or clipping it to a jumper wire with the insulation stripped a bit. i just like to test my circuits at various points to make sure things are as expected, after soldering them up. i figured, once i start milling my PCBs, i won't have as many jumper wires to clip to.
predominantly, i found the test points that are just a loop of wire, with a glass or ceramic bead for an insulator/spacer. i found them to be cheap enough, but not with the color-coded selection i wanted. it occurred to me, i could probably use small glass art/jewelry beads with a small loop of wire. but i am not sure if the beads have a big enough hole (anybody use them for anything?).
I often use two connected pads, side by side, add and solder a loop of wire between the pads.
Or
Install a male header pin to a pad, use female header pins on the probes wires.
Hi,
If I realise that a test point is going to be at the end of a resistor, not SMD, I lift the resisitor slighly off the PCB before soldering so a probe hook can slip under the resistor lead.
Or make a 360deg loop in the resistor lead before soldering it in, if enough room.
Or mount the resistor vertical, so the test point is the upper U bent wire.
If I'm using strip or vero board then its easy to make a loop out of the board with a bit of component lead offcut.
Hi,
If you need to edit anything in your post, you can by looking at the bottom right hand side of your particular post and click on "Quick Edit More" , "Modify".
As you now have two posts, you can "Remove" the first one if you like.
i don’t know, everyone wants to make things because they think it will be cheaper/better when actually, more often than not it’s better and cheaper to buy something off the shelf.
