Message	Date	From	Subject
1346	2008-01-19 08:14:43	bkopski	Experimenter's Tool
Very often I find it desireable to temporarily "probe in" capacitance in a circuit breadboard / assembly. Over the decades I've come to rely on HB "pF Stix" - a broad range of capacitors glued on the end of an insulating probe. I use values from 1 pF thru 10 uF, and I've done this both in the shack and in the professional lab. An accompanying photo shows what I mean. I've found that the "stick" part can be wood dowel, plastic rod, or plastic tubing and that it's best to cut a small notch in the end to "nest" both the cap. and some adhesive. Hot glue works great for this purpose. BTW - often the local hobby shop will have various sized wood dowel and telescopic plastic tubing under the application nomen of "push rods" or "control rods". Happy Experimenting, Bob K3NHI

Very often I find it desireable to temporarily "probe in" capacitance
in a circuit breadboard / assembly. Over the decades I've come to rely
on HB "pF Stix" - a broad range of capacitors glued on the end of an
insulating probe. I use values from 1 pF thru 10 uF, and I've done
this both in the shack and in the professional lab.

An accompanying photo shows what I mean. I've found that the "stick"
part can be wood dowel, plastic rod, or plastic tubing and that it's
best to cut a small notch in the end to "nest" both the cap. and some
adhesive. Hot glue works great for this purpose. BTW - often the
local hobby shop will have various sized wood dowel and telescopic
plastic tubing under the application nomen of "push rods" or "control
rods".

Happy Experimenting,
Bob K3NHI