Lancer Video (Part 3)-Tool Choice

In the video the statement was made that you did not have an amp clamp that would pick up the signal. Too much noise. Would the PICO 60 Amp clamp work? PICO states its good for 10mA. All the break out wires were a concern for me. Thanks.

I'm with Paul on that one - low amp probes like the Pico TA018 say they're good down to 10mA, but I've never been able to reliably measure current that low with one before. The signal gets VERY noisy down that low. Plus, whatever reading you do see usually isn't repeatable, i.e. you can read 70 mA, remove and rezero the probe, and get a very different reading.

Sometimes you just have to do direct measurement and put an old school ammeter actually into the circuit.
Breakout leads salvaged from junk parts are a good tool to have for this kind of stuff.

Thank you Tyler, that was the answer I was looking for.

Tyler wrote: I'm with Paul on that one - low amp probes like the Pico TA018 say they're good down to 10mA, but I've never been able to reliably measure current that low with one before. The signal gets VERY noisy down that low. Plus, whatever reading you do see usually isn't repeatable, i.e. you can read 70 mA, remove and rezero the probe, and get a very different reading.

Exactly.
Anything under 1 amp is very noisy on the scope. I can't imagine even trying to read something this low with any of the amp clamps I own.

Never tried it on the small end, but I have made up a long lead and looped it 10x around a high amp clamp to get a reading. Might have to do some testing with the multmeter

DAB wrote: Thank you Tyler, that was the answer I was looking for.

No problem! Like Paul mentioned, there are such things as micro amp probes . They're usually way too expensive to justify for most techs out there.

PDM wrote: Never tried it on the small end, but I have made up a long lead and looped it 10x around a high amp clamp to get a reading. Might have to do some testing with the multmeter

I've heard of guys doing some same thing when measuring air/fuel ratio sensor currents. Always wanted to try it for myself.

Tyler wrote:

I've heard of guys doing some same thing when measuring air/fuel ratio sensor currents. Always wanted to try it for myself.

Heuh :huh: That sounds cool! I had no idea