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A question for the multimeter specialists....

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Oida!

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Sep 30, 2017
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It's in my blood.
I have lost one of the two transparent (vinyl?) litte "caps" that protect the tips of the leads.

My question is this: With my lone remaining little cap, m I better off protecting the tip of the red probe? Or should I be capping the black one? Or, does it matter none at all?

I know this is probably a "So what? Who cares?" type of question. But I'm actually pretty eager to hear what y'all have to say.

Cheers!
 

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jimindm

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I usually get rid of those things when I unpack a set of leads.

I do not think it matters at all. You can cover either one or neither one.

You can pick up a pack of those little covers at about any auto parts store. Look for colored vacuum caps.
 
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SuzukiGS750EZ

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I don't use anything to protect the tips. What I do when I'm packing leads up in a tight space or bag is throw on the plastic shrouds used to not short leads together. But otherwise, don't worry about it.
 
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budmur

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I'm not sure if it's true, but I've heard the probes are considered CAT-IV with the caps, CAT-II without.
 
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king nero

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I've fu(ked more MM's by measuring voltage with the switch set on amps, or by carelessly pointing around the probes in a high voltage cabinet, than by not using those throw-away shrouds.
 
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MikeF2316

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Those caps will add a little safety at higher voltages. If you use only one it would be better to be on the lead that's not at ground potential, in case your finger is on the lead and another part of your body is grounded. Or in automotive type applications, the tip of the probe could be on something hot, and the side could contact some grounded metal of the body.
 
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Robbie B

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Those caps look to be safety Sally equipment so you don’t put your eye out with them. The probe doesn’t appear to go through the cap. Chuck em’ in the trash and keep going.
 
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Bogie1632

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Oida!, why do you feel you need them? In the end I'd guess that's important to you whether others agree or not. Just curious.

As for me and pretty much ever MM I've seen used by others, we never kept the caps past the MMs initial unpackaging and never looked back. Never been an issue, never needed them to protect the pouch. Never worried about the tips getting dulled. When that happens I'd just run them across a dressing stone anyway.

Of course, YMMV.

V/R
Bogie
 
C

Citation

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budmur said:
I'm not sure if it's true, but I've heard the probes are considered CAT-IV with the caps, CAT-II without.
Click to expand...

This is true.
https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/accessories/test-leads/fluke-tl75
Fluke also has a set where a sleeve twists out.
https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/accessories/test-leads/fluke-tl175

In the OP's picture it looks like those are just tip caps to keep things from getting stabbed when the probes aren't being used. But, that may just be the picture.
 
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TractorJeff

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Citation said:
This is true.
https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/accessories/test-leads/fluke-tl75
Fluke also has a set where a sleeve twists out.
https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/accessories/test-leads/fluke-tl175

In the OP's picture it looks like those are just tip caps to keep things from getting stabbed when the probes aren't being used. But, that may just be the picture.
Click to expand...

I agree on the Sleeve's changing the rating. Also agree that what is in the picture looks like "shipping" protection covers.
 
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TuxThePenguin

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Oida! said:
I have lost one of the two transparent (vinyl?) litte "caps" that protect the tips of the leads.

My question is this: With my lone remaining little cap, m I better off protecting the tip of the red probe? Or should I be capping the black one? Or, does it matter none at all?

I know this is probably a "So what? Who cares?" type of question. But I'm actually pretty eager to hear what y'all have to say.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

You can probably buy caps on Ebay for like a buck. (Yes, you can buy cheap probe sets and just replace it, but a $5 Ebay probe set won't compare to a Pomona set in quality (or ProbeMaster or whatever other good probes there are, but being a Fluke meter, those are probably Pomona probes))

the biggest reason the probes should be sharp is so that you can scrape through oxide layers on stuff you test (if you don't scrape through the oxide layer, you will have additional resistance added to your measurement which will throw it off).

Heck, do you have silicone and starch? Add some starch to the silicone, it becomes more like a putty, then form a little bit around your probe tips (or a piece of wire that's around the same diameter or slightly smaller for a tighter fit) and bam, new cover with under a dollar of materials (considering how little silicone this'll take)

note that probe covers/caps and sleeves (which I see others have discussed already) are not the same
 
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Citation

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TuxThePenguin said:
You can probably buy caps on Ebay for like a buck. (Yes, you can buy cheap probe sets and just replace it, but a $5 Ebay probe set won't compare to a Pomona set in quality (or ProbeMaster or whatever other good probes there are, but being a Fluke meter, those are probably Pomona probes))

the biggest reason the probes should be sharp is so that you can scrape through oxide layers on stuff you test (if you don't scrape through the oxide layer, you will have additional resistance added to your measurement which will throw it off).

Heck, do you have silicone and starch? Add some starch to the silicone, it becomes more like a putty, then form a little bit around your probe tips (or a piece of wire that's around the same diameter or slightly smaller for a tighter fit) and bam, new cover with under a dollar of materials (considering how little silicone this'll take)

note that probe tips and sleeves (which I see others have discussed already) are not the same
Click to expand...

Good comment about protecting the probe tips. With my garage meter I don't worry about this too much. I'm aware that the beat up tips will probably add a few (2-4) ohms to any resistance measurement. This isn't a problem if I want to see if the resistance of this thing is around 1k ohms but a big problem if I need to see if it's 10 vs 15 ohms. In general it won't affect voltage measurements which is a lot of what I do in the garage. At my bench I have several sets of probe tips including sharp ones for when this matters (but no 4 wire resistance test setup).
 
OP
O

Oida!

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Joined
Sep 30, 2017
Messages
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It's in my blood.
Bogie -

It's not as though I feel like I need them, per se. If I were using my multimeter daily, you can be sure these caps would be tossed into the trash pronto. But my wrenching is done at home, at night, when I have time. So to have these things on the tips of the probes isn't as annoying.

So, what did I do with the lone, remaining cap, you ask? I pitched it.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Cheers!
 
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