Hi I Wanted to show you a trap for young players. Look at this one. Um, I've got my LCR meter here. I've just got a short on.

There are just two banana plugs with a, you know, a big copper short right across there. soldered quite nicely into the holes though there, so that's an issue. But look at this point, two, four, three Ohms. and if I give this a little bit a little bit of a wiggle.

jeez. I could fart halfway across the room and this thing's gonna change. Do this. I can't actually? Well, Gowell 0.7 I've actually had this at like, well, 2 ohms there.

Oh, look at just over ranged I think this is like 2 AIIMS I've got it manually on the 2 Ohms range. Look at that like an Ohm what is going on here? Like it's just ridiculous, able to get it down, but it's it's all over the shop and I can fiddle around with it and it's just absolutely ridiculous. And of course, there's nothing wrong with the meter. if I actually plug in these.

Well, this banana plug lead here. no worries whatsoever. look at that and I can't cheat all those around like that. And no, it is not a problem with the jacks either because they're solid input jacks.

and I actually I First found this on a multimeter I thought art might be an issue I Tried another multimeter. It's the same thing. It's actually this shunt at fault, so would you believe it? It's a shunt built specifically for the purpose for shorting out ammeter just to do you know, calibration and stuff like that. But it's got a real problem.

Let's take a closer look at it. now. as you can see, it's a fairly you know it's common type of our banana plug. I Don't know the exact term for this, but sort of like these are, you know, free rotating, you know, splayed type context.

they're designed to, you know, compress a little bit when they go into the banana plug to help make contact. but obviously there are this contact, so they rely it not only on these contacts around the so these splayed out contacts to make contact with the wall inside the banana RR jack, but also then you've got the contact to the solid shaft inside as well. by the way of these rings that either end and I Don't ever recall having any major problems with these. I Do know that you know this is not the choice of banana plug you use for like really high current applications.

You'd use the direct solid type for those sorts of things, but I've never had an issue like this where it is so like a high. the contact resistance is so bad that it causes a problem. and look, you know there's nothing wrong with the solder the solder connections on there. They're like solid as so there's absolutely no worries there whatsoever.

It's got nothing to do with that, it's obviously inside these and um, I don't know if this is sharp on camera, but it does look like it's rather tarnished. So I think what we've got here is maybe a combination of the particular design and fit of this particular you know, splayed contact rotating contact here, and maybe a, you know, a piss-poor quality our gold plate on the thing. So it's probably a combination of those two issues. So cuz obviously, there's nothing wrong with the you know, the solid contact.

It's got to be these rotating ones, but these are incredibly common. For example, they're used on these top-quality our probe master probes and these are the Ducks guts and they use a similar, sort of, you know, basically the same thing, but they maybe feel a little bit tied out something like that. but I've never had an issue with that. but look at the maybe, look at the quality difference in the gold plate there.

I mean this is not particularly old. I mean we manufacture this like I Don't know, like four months ago, four or five months ago? I Mean it's not, you know, ten years old or anything like that. So if we have a close-up view of that, you've got the probe Master one on the top to the gold plate on that look like the Ducks guts, right? No worries whatsoever. I've never heard of any issue with something like that.

This one looks just all tarnished and corroded and whatnot. It looks just looks terrible. and obviously you can. Actually, you might.

Can we see some pitting on the outside of those contacts there? Wow, that's that's pretty. Oh, that looks pretty bad, doesn't it? Maybe it's maybe it's yeah, it looks like maybe that outer ring the solid part of it inside actually looks quite nice and shiny. but that outer splay bit looks really terrible. So what we're gonna do is just zoom into this with the Tigana microscope and have a look at it.

I Mean it just looks terrible. Muriel Look at that. It's just the tarnishing on that. as you can see like this suppose at: gold plating on the inside barrel looks okay, but under there you can see that that's tarnished it just.

and and the outside of these fled flange things just looks terrible. Absolutely awful. Wow Now let's actually compare that to the probe master. Look at that really is no comparison that.

Wow Yeah, not at all. And these are used these Probe Masters I've used these quite a lot. They're being plugged in and out of meters constantly. They've obviously got a real top-quality hard gold plating on them and these cheap-ass ones I can't remember where I got them from I probably got them from eBay or something like that and they are truly awful.

but I like I Would never have expected that bad a resistance on one of these banana plugs. I've never seen it that high before. It is truly atrocious and you can see as you can see like the solder joint is rock solid. It's nothing at all to do with that.

and by the way, I am and the Bremen leads as well which I supply if my meters. They're actually not actually cut away the insulated shroud around the outside and it uses a similar sort of thing, but it's almost really hard to turn those. but they're like a hard nickel plating or whatever. you know, some sort of nickel alloy or something like that.

It would never had it a contact issue with those. A close-up look at that and how you can get such really horrible gold plated in quote marks, contacts cuz yeah you might. They might look nice and shiny when you get them, but if they're not the correct type of gold plating process is, they're not the correct thickness. you know, like a nice thick plate in and everything else then they can easily wear off or tarnish like that.

Horrible. And here's actually a brand spanking new one I still had in my drawer. So as you can see, it's not terrific. So it has fared a bit well sitting inside my drawer.

but it you can still see that it's pretty horrible. like that is not I could cope lady. Look, it's almost like I like it's still like a brass or something like that. It's just atrocious.

And here's a comparison with another type I've got in my drawer and I think I got these. These are like a quality brand one. I think I might have got these from you know, funnels or somewhere or a digi-key or something like that I can't remember exactly. Once again, they're like the nickel plated nickel alloy type one and as opposed to these ones and when you zoom in, you can just see the quality of that plate in.

it's just it's just not there. Sorry about the glare. I Know the glare is not absolutely. - I Look at the pit in, look at the pitting on that.

well look, it's just either this is unused, this is unused straight out of my drawer. Wow Well and of course you get nothing like that. just just. you know, the beautiful alloy plating on that.

No worries whatsoever. Never had an issue with these ones whatsoever. I use though, making all sorts of our test leads and things like that. but I've got these cheaper ones.

Just shocking. Don't cut the mustard at all. and other brands like these keysight ones here. They will also use the same thing once again.

I've cut it away and they've got the of the rotating flange type thing and there's nothing wrong with these. but if you get that poor quality plating then you're going to come a gutter are very common to find that these aren't gold-plated On this end, it depends on the manufacturer. Some that have you know really comfort in there gold plating process and the hardness of it and everything else. like the pro masters for example, not only do they give you the gold plated artist, but they also give you the gold plate on the banana jack as well.

The problem with the banana jack is that plug is that there's a lot of force on there when it goes into it like that. and if you don't have a really top quality hard thick gold plating on there like those then it'll You know these things are which aren't even good out of the box, then it can scrape off. so that's why it might be common like on these. Broman ones are for example to have the gold plated tips but then have the nickel alloy plated banana jack like that because they're going to get a lot more insertions and scraping over the entire surface.

and if you're wondering, does actually are rotating these inside the jack actually caused a problem. Well let's take a look at it here. let's arrange that and then we can null that out there you go. So I'm gonna try and not move these contacts, but as you can see, that's really quite solid and let's move those around in there.

No no worries whatsoever. So there's nothing inherently wrong with those flanged Jack's you know I pull them in out a little bit and like there's not like we're down to a hundred micro amps are there's nothing wrong. Maybe I'll slightly changed it. Geez, sorry.

like 500 micro Ohms yeah, but there's really there's there's nothing in it. and I can do the same thing for the Bremen probes as well. So let's know all that out, shall we? Oh hello, there we go and rotate those around. No problems whatsoever.

Pull them in, pull up, pull them out, put them back in. once again. that's changed by, you know, a couple hundred micro ohms there. but not.

that's all good. And by the way, don't just assume that these solid ones might actually be better. because let me show you, they may not be. These ones, though, are very good.

Look I just don't know that out before. I can turn those around no worries whatsoever. and that's not giving a problem. And let's just for kicks, take a look at these flute probes.

They're just the standard ones. What are they? The Teal ninety or something in Teal 70 or something. You can't remember the exact model number, but these are actually a solid Jack later they're solid plugg and let's give these above and I have to hold that I Found I Couldn't really get a reliable enough contact these together because they're not going play did and they're They're just like holding together over. The pressure of my hand was not enough to actually give me a good contact so we can actually rotate those around in there as well.

and they're there. Okay, - what's a little bit of oil? little little bit of variety there. a little bit of variety, but yeah. so I don't know.

Is that worse? Are those solid ones? Even these in this particular case, the fluke ones actually worse then the other rotating ones like that I don't know that it Bo probably not that it'd be like an interesting experiment. If you're really into your contacts, you're a bit of a contact aficionado I don't know anyone got any research on whether or not these contacts are in better or worse in what what particular application because I'm sure they might have. There are pros and cons, but anyway, there you go. I hope you found that interesting.

Don't trust the gold platings on your connectors because some of them are just truly awful. So these ones which I've got like a drawer full of them, they're gone straight. Yeah we go straighten the bed and I'm going to find all the leads I've made with them and rip them apart and use them better quality ones which I've actually got cuz they're just atrocious. So there you go trap for young players.

just watch the are plating on your banana jacks or other connectors and things like that and it's may not necessarily just be the flange rotating type like that I Can imagine that even the solid types. if you get really piss poor gold plating on them then you could come a gutter on those as well. So I'm not saying avoid these type at all. I think they're excellent and they do work very well.

but in this particular case, if I completely come a gutter and just found these cheap-ass ones, they've just like they're no good. even out of the box you can see the pitting on the contacts anyway. if you liked the video, please give it a big thumbs up. and I know it's the other way on.

YouTube Isn't it? whatever? Anyway, catch you next time.