Garage Lube

3 m and 5 m Permanent Ground Test Leads

You’ve got the smartest oscilloscope, now have our smart leads. Our premium PicoBNC+™ leads are colour-coded so that the colour of the lead in the engine bay matches the colour of the on-screen waveform in PicoScope Automotive – never again will you waste your time wondering which lead is which.

Our premium leads are fully screened to minimise noise pickup so you can have complete confidence in the signal that you are measuring.

The 3 m leads come with fixed 1.5 m ground extensions and are designed for working on most cars and small vans. All Pico premium test-leads:

• Are fully shielded for the complete length of the signal cable
• Are colour-coded BNCs for the scope connections
• Have shrouded/stacking banana plugs

These Test Leads are the direct equivalents of the Premium Test Leads (TA125-TA128 for 3 m, and TA199-TA202 for 5 m). There are some slight changes to the cables and sleeve colouring as part of the manufacturing to fit the new PicoBNC+™ connection.

The new versions are automatically recognised by PicoScope Software when they are connected to the scope. ConnectDetect™ works as before with these new Test Leads.

Premium Test Leads

The 5 m leads come with fixed 2.5 m ground extensions and are designed for working on larger vehicles.

• 3 m or 5 m long
• Fully shielded
• Insulated BNC at scope connection
• Shrouded / stacking banana plugs

Why are test leads special?

Oscilloscope test leads might look like any other piece of wire, but they are highly engineered to minimise noise and to ensure that the signal that you are acquiring is not distorted.

Construction

A special coaxial cable is used to try to ensure that the signal reaches the oscilloscope without modification. A coaxial cable is a thin conductor enclosed in an insulator (with defined characteristics also called a dialectric) which in turn is surrounded by a conductive shield (ground), and the entire cable is insulated. The BNC plug used to connect the cable to the scope has one pin connected to the inner conductor, and the shield connection completely encloses it.

Care and feeding

The inner conductor (centre core) is usually very thin (improves performance) and can be damaged if the cable is twisted. Always roll-up and unroll your test leads (and any leads with BNC connectors e.g. scope probes) without twisting them to prolong their life. Don't pull hard on the cables and avoid bending them sharply (small bend radius). If you treat them well, your test leads will reward you with a lifetime of service.

See our Scope Probe Page for guidance on testing high voltage and high speed circuits.