How do you keep your BNC male/female clean on your test equipment?

[Zucca]

After 20min search, the only useful information regarding BNC and cleaness here at the forum is this one:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/cleaning-bnc-connetor/msg169651/#msg169651

My question is now how to prevent a BNC to get dirty.
I invested a lot on money in my gear and I want to keep it in the best shape possible.

I came up with these solutions:

(cheap plastic)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-100-BNC-Male-Type-N-Male-Pretective-Cover-Cap-Plug-PL-259-Yellow-Dust-Cover-/121235957835?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3a39e84b
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-BNC-Female-Cap-Plugs-Caplugs-Lot-100-Yellow-New-Protection-Dust-Cover-/121136673516?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c344ef2ec

(expensive metal, with chain)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-Amphenol-BNC-Cap-Chain-Dust-Cover-UHF-VHF-/111336347100?pt=US_Radio_Comm_Coaxial_Cables_Connectors&hash=item19ec29d5dc

I think I can live without the cup chain for bench equipment, no big deal.
My concerns are I will surely be irritated when I will see my bench full of little yellow cups or when I always have to uncover a BNC before to use it.

Anyway let´s see what do you thing on this topic, surely it depends on how dirty is your lab air but I think it could be a good general habit.

PS: Right now I am keeping the Agilent stock protector on (black rubber) my MSO BNCs, but they are not user friendly at all.
PSS: Next 3D printing project?

[retrolefty]

My concerns are I will surely be irritated when I will see my bench full of little yellow cups

Just hot glue a few inches of string from the cap and the equipment.

[robrenz]

Bag of 100 for about $6.00 from McMaster Carr.  Soft Vinyl material

[electronics man]

but how would you go about cleening them if they did get dirty?

[XOIIO]

but how would you go about cleening them if they did get dirty?

Read the OP for a link.

[mikeselectricstuff]

The friction fit tends to make them fairly self-cleaning. If cleanliness matters for signal quality, like at high frequencies, chances are you won't be using BNC's anyway.

[Zucca]

Bag of 100 for about $6.00 from McMaster Carr.  Soft Vinyl material

Those ones are driving me nuts, they are so hard to take out and put back in. Moreover the soft Vinyl material is just slippery under my fingers, no grip at all . It could be I had bad ones, they were installed on my Agilent MSOX for the shipping.

The yellow one I posted seems to have a good ring to grab them, but you know in a picture everything looks great and perfect.

The friction fit tends to make them fairly self-cleaning. If cleanliness matters for signal quality, like at high frequencies, chances are you won't be using BNC's anyway.

Good point as always. It just drives me crazy the idea everytime I connect a BNC I am pressing some dirt in the connetor. Yeah, it could be just overkill but the protections cup are so cheap, why not do that?

[robrenz]

but how would you go about cleening them if they did get dirty?

My method using wadding polish and Deoxit here.
My newest method using Simichrome polish here.

[georges80]

Seems like you must be working in a dirt filled environment...

I've used test equipment with BNC's for decades and NEVER had concern for dirt or or cleaning them. Since my test equipment is always in a lab or in my work office, the cables remain connected 99% of the time anyway. Why unplug/plug test cables/probes in all the time?

I think some of you folk are just a tad insane when it comes to your equipment

cheers,
george.

[robrenz]

Bag of 100 for about $6.00 from McMaster Carr.  Soft Vinyl material

Those ones are driving me nuts, they are so hard to take out and put back in. Moreover the soft Vinyl material is just slippery under my fingers, no grip at all . It could be I had bad ones, they were installed on my Agilent MSOX for the shipping.

Then how about these with the pull tab?

[robrenz]

I think some of you folk are just a tad insane when it comes to your equipment

cheers,
george.

Thank you, yes I quite agree

[SeanB]

I just would do what I did and go out and get a whole lot of BNC-RCA adaptors ( used for security cameras) and drill a hole through the RCA side to thread a small key ring through. I have that on the strap of my handy talkie to hold the BNC-SMA adaptor for it for when i move it to a fixed antenna. costs under $1.

I am not insane about clean equipment, but I like to have good connections. My working DMM's often need a good cleaning because they have gone deep into oil and dirt in a machine. I just try to keep them mostly clean and the case more or less unstained, but often they need a good strip and clean to gety back to just scratched.

[XOIIO]

Bag of 100 for about $6.00 from McMaster Carr.  Soft Vinyl material

Those ones are driving me nuts, they are so hard to take out and put back in. Moreover the soft Vinyl material is just slippery under my fingers, no grip at all . It could be I had bad ones, they were installed on my Agilent MSOX for the shipping.

Then how about these with the pull tab?

Cool, BNC condoms!

[Zucca]

Yeah, georges80 and robrenz you are right. Surely I am that kind of animal, proudly insane about cleaness. You should watch me cleaning everything for hours when I buy a used puppy on ebay. At the end I am so happy to see how beautiful the device is, I never think I am wasting time to protect/clean my gear.

Some people clean their cars just inside and outside, some people clean also the engine compartment on a regular base. Does the car run also with a dirty engine compartment? Probably yes. Do you feel the difference between a clean and a dirty engine compartment? Probably not. As soon you are stepping in the personal taste field there is not right or wrong, it is what it is.

A big thanks to everybody for the discussion, I´m loving it! Next step I will buy something and put a review here.

[G0HZU]

The friction fit tends to make them fairly self-cleaning. If cleanliness matters for signal quality, like at high frequencies, chances are you won't be using BNC's anyway.

Yes, I rarely have to clean a BNC connector. Some of my test gear is pretty ancient and the BNC connectors still work fine.

Sometimes a foreign body gets into the connector and needs to be fished or blown out but I don't bother fitting BNC caps anywhere.

However, my (25-30 year old?)  HP8566B spectrum analyser still has its original caps fitted to the rear panel BNCs that provide I/O for some very rarely used functions. I suspect that these have been there for the life of the analyser because the BNC connectors look immaculate underneath if I pop off the cap and have a look.

Lower quality BNC connectors are notorious for being a bit erratic especially up at VHF/UHF and I try to only use good quality stuff from the top names like Suhner or Greenpar. The cheapy BNC connectors used on low cost coax cables and low cost RF adaptors aren't as well made and suffer from an inferior fit when mated. No amount of cleaning can fix this 

[Zucca]

the BNC connectors look immaculate underneath if I pop off the cap and have a look.

Thanks GOHZU. This result makes sense to me and it is worth 0.01$ investment.

EDIT: 10$ is for 100 plastic protectors, replaced 10$ with 0.01$

[Zucca]

Then how about these with the pull tab?

Still the grip of that material is not convincing me. I think they are much better then the other one tough.

My method using wadding polish and Deoxit here.
My newest method using Simichrome polish here.

Lord have mercy I am a sinner. Robrenz your restauration skills are... are... unbelievable... You are better than a time machine. Now my cleaned gear looks like old and dirty again. Dang it!

After to take a look on the difference between a old/restaurated BNC, and the effort you are putting in to get it top notch I am more convinced than before than a 0.01$ plastic BNC cup is not insane madness.

[edavid]

If you buy dirty equipment, that's one thing, but once the BNCs are clean, they are not going to get dirty again for many years.  The exception is if you live next to an ocean or a volcano, but in that case I am not sure how much the Caplugs will help.

[G0HZU]

I'd be a bit cautious about using metal polishes even if it does make the connector look shiny and new. My advice would be to just use the test gear and forget about using dustcaps and just make sure no grit or crud gets into the connector. I usually just blow the dirt out and maybe use a clean cloth dipped in IPA if I think the connector is dirty.

On decent RF test gear it is often recommended to always fit a high quality adaptor onto the main input connector to minimise the number of mating cycles on the equipment connector and also to keep it away from damage.

I try to do this on all of my analysers and I only ever connect high quality Suhner adaptors to my network analyser. Usually it has a precision N to SMA adaptor on the ports and I try to not connect coax cable connectors direct to the VNA ports. Even HP/Agilent recommend you try to protect the main RF connector this way. But this is for protecting precision RF connectors for accurate use up to many GHz.

On a DSO or sig gen or other bit of test gear with BNCs I think you can (realistically) make direct connections as many times as you like and also I don't think you need to worry about end caps unless your test gear is kept in a garage or shed all year round (not a good idea anyway?)

[turbo!]

If the plating is worn off from use, no amount of cleaning will restore it permanently.

[robrenz]

.......Lord have mercy I am a sinner. Robrenz ......

Thanks, those are skills inherited from my pure Italian father 

[Zucca]

Thank you all for the awesome support and inputs, after thinking on all the feedbacks what I get personally is:

If you use the BNC, don´t bother, if you are not using it and you love to have a beautiful BNC for the rest of your life cover it.

I will now order 50 caps to protect manly the never used BNCs in the back panels, I´ll give a shot on the yellow ones in ebay.

Thanks, those are skills inherited from my pure Italian father 

Yesterday I couldn´t stop to watch your videos, I did a full immersion for about 4 hours, really MADE IN ITALY quality. 
I´m now a bad EE, Wannabe Machinist like you worst case when I retire. Mamma mia!

[Zucca]

I got those BNC yellow caps ($4.86 for 50, $2.77 shipping). Very happy with them, they snap in place and get off in about 3ms. The yellow ring on the top ensure a nice and firm grip. They work no problem also in a triax 3 lag connector.

Here some details:



"We all live in a yellow BNC...yellow BNC...yellow BNC..."

[Brian of Romsey]

Hi,

  I found a cheap BNC 'cover' at AliExpress:

      https://www.aliexpress.com/item/escam-10pcs-BNC-Male-Plug-To-RCA-Female-Jack-Adapter-Connector-Coaxial-CCTV-Durable/32857303308.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.167.45b24130IiG0mp&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_2_10152_10709_10151_10065_10344_10068_10130_10324_10342_10547_10325_10343_10340_10548_10341_10697_10696_10192_10190_10084_10083_10618_10710_10307_10301_10303_10059_10184_308_100031_10103_441_10624_10623_10622_10621_10620-10709,searchweb201603_2,ppcSwitch_7&algo_expid=ce75abcb-9dc2-45aa-b161-ae875901ebb8-24&algo_pvid=ce75abcb-9dc2-45aa-b161-ae875901ebb8&priceBeautifyAB=0

  Brian.

[Stray Electron]

I came up with these solutions:

(cheap plastic)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-100-BNC-Male-Type-N-Male-Pretective-Cover-Cap-Plug-PL-259-Yellow-Dust-Cover-/121235957835?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3a39e84b

    I bought a bag of 100 of these from this seller and they work fine.  I was scrounging BNC caps with chains from used equipment but they were always dangling and in the way and these turned out to be much simpler to use even thought they're not as fancy.  Also in some of my HP gear the connectors on the back are recessed and crowded together and it's almost impossible to twist the BNC caps to remove them so these push on - pull off caps are MUCH easier to use.

   I don't care for the black vinyl covers. I've found the size to be inconsistent and sometimes you have to pull HARD to get them off. I actually broke a Type N connector on a dummy load while trying to get the vinyl cover off.