PowerProbe's Awesome Main Cable

First off, I don't like logic probes. I don't like being told that something is "good" or "bad" without seeing what's actually happening. But I did like how the PowerProbe came with a really long cable that went to the battery. Even had an extra extension for extra length. I also really liked the battery clamps it came with as the slightly curved jaws stayed on the posts much better. Large flat jaw guys like to jump off the posts at the worst of times! But ya, with the PowerProbeI liked how you could take it wherever you wanted and know you are at least testing with a good power and ground. It beats the frustration of trying to find a good ground near the back of the vehicle when everything's rusty.

I asked my Snapon rep for some of those cables and clamps. He actually just gave me some for free! He warrantied a few units and had the cables lying around. Score! Those cables have turned out to be way more awesome than I ever thought!





Anytime I'm doing any kind of electrical testing the first thing I do is grab those guys and clamp it onto the battery. Then I take the other end with me wherever I'm after. I use banana plug everything including my multimeter. The main test probes I use have a male banana plug end before the tip so I can just plug other accessories right on.



The cool thing about that is the PowerProbe3 cords are also banana plug style so I can plug my meter directly into the cord! Plug both leads in to verify your connection at the battery and start testing knowing you always have quick access to a known good power and ground! Way more convenient than jumper wires. And the ends are shrouded so you're not going to short it out.

If that wasn't cool enough I just found out they work awesome as test lead extensions for when you need to capture waveforms on a drive. I needed to do that the other day and had to figure out how I'm getting the leads from under the hood all the way into the car. Then I remembered this cable. It's a two wire even so I was able to plug both of my test leads into it and use the 20ft cable to bring it into the car. Then for hooking the other end up to my Verus I used some stackable test leads.



These guys are ultra handy as well. They have a male and female banana plug at both ends. Plus they're shrouded so if you're not using the male end you don't have to worry about it shorting on anything. I've used them lots. Especially for my amp clamps that don't have a stackable ground lead. Plus I like having my ground stacks lying on the side instead of a rigid tower sticking 10 feet out of the Verus! :lol:

Anyways, just thought I'd share that in case it helps anyone out.

I thought I was the only one using Power Probe accessories for my scope and meter :silly:
Simple minds think alike I guess
I saw a seminar about testing outputs from the PCM connector with a Power Probe before replacing the pcm. Basically just activate every output with the pcm disconnected with your Power Probe and an amp clamp around the Power Probe lead to see if anything is drawing enough current to cook a driver.
The spec was anything more than 1.2 amps for more than 6 ms will kill a driver.