New Pomona mini-grabber to banana supplier

[thm_w]

Pomona mini grabbers are my most used power supply banana clip style for years.
Normal alligator clips are a bit large, won't fit well on a 0.1" header. And those logic analyzer probe clips can't handle much current.

Price of Pomona stuff is absurdly high recently, but it looks like Mueller is making these now at a reasonable price. As far as I can tell its basically the same product.
Just no Pomona logo, and the spring force is very very slightly higher.







Digikey ($8 USD):
- Red: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/mueller-electric-co/BU-P4723-2/9360353
- Black: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/mueller-electric-co/BU-P4723-0/9360352

[bitwelder]

I understood that probably Pomona and Mueller must be using a common provider?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/ponoma-lead-package-with-mueller-clips/

[coppercone2]

i would test the plastic to see how well it tears and stuff like that

Is muler using sintered molds wheras pomona is used polished steel molds? Did the price go down because there is a surface quality reduction because metal 3d prints or something are being used for the mold instead of traditional molds? there is less mold flashing.

[rdl]

I will probably buy a pair on my next order, but I'd like to see other colors besides red and black.

[alm]

For heavier duty applications than the EZ-Hook XKM-style grabbers as is commonly shipped with logic analyzers, like for power supplies up to a few amps, I like Parrot Clips. I like the PCX and PCM, not the PCS. The PCS's spring is much weaker and its banana jack is quite loose. I use the W2 size for up to 0.025" square pins, but would think the W3 size works better for anything bigger. The W1 size is too small for leaded components, but not the right shape for SMD in my opinion. I don't know if there's a Canadian distributor.

[Bud]

Pomona mini grabbers are my most used power supply banana clip style for years.
Digikey ($8 USD):
- Red: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/mueller-electric-co/BU-P4723-2/9360353
- Black: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/mueller-electric-co/BU-P4723-0/9360352

Not sure hows that cheap, if a finished Pomona 36" lead with a grabber and a banana plug on the other end is just cad $14 ( usd $10) on Digi.

[thm_w]

i would test the plastic to see how well it tears and stuff like that

Is muler using sintered molds wheras pomona is used polished steel molds? Did the price go down because there is a surface quality reduction because metal 3d prints or something are being used for the mold instead of traditional molds? there is less mold flashing.

Yeah its clearly a new mold. I don't know enough about injection molding though, just will have to see how it lasts over time.

For heavier duty applications than the EZ-Hook XKM-style grabbers as is commonly shipped with logic analyzers, like for power supplies up to a few amps, I like Parrot Clips. I like the PCX and PCM, not the PCS. The PCS's spring is much weaker and its banana jack is quite loose. I use the W2 size for up to 0.025" square pins, but would think the W3 size works better for anything bigger. The W1 size is too small for leaded components, but not the right shape for SMD in my opinion. I don't know if there's a Canadian distributor.

The PCS would be the style that I am interested in sadly. There are banana plugs you can get that are a reallly tight fit, that might improve things (these ones).
They even have premade scope ground lead: https://parrot-invent.ro/product/oscilloscope-ground-pcm-w2-clip/
Shipping to canada is not too bad $19. So might try them out thanks.

Not sure hows that cheap, if a finished Pomona 36" lead with a grabber and a banana plug on the other end is just cad $14 ( usd $10) on Digi.

The problem is the grabber end is fixed without banana connector. For some reason this style with the female banana connection is more expensive.
I don't like using the fixed end versions, but, yeah that option should be fine for most people.

[floobydust]

I take the Pomona 36" lead and cut it in two, solder banana jacks or whatever I want at the ends to make two test leads out of one. 36" is way too long for test leads.
My mistake was trying Aliexpress grabbers, the plastic tolerances and especially chinesium metal plating guarantees a bad connection. They will jam if you press them open as well. Total waste of time.
The hook metal and plating is important and all the better ones I have are copper.

I find the best test leads are from Japan but sadly I see no North American sales/distribution: Teishin Electric Co. Japan catalogue http://www.teishin-bel.co.jp/mokuji_tla/allkatalog.pdf
Note they have metrology ones as well. I was going to do a group buy because DHL is expensive, but lost my contact in Japan.

[coppercone2]

well it might just be new tech that made it cheaper because it makes a mold from 3d metal printer. Or it could be new tech made it worse because they reduce the injection pressure or something because the new mold is weaker (i.e. materials change). I don't know enough about it to make a guess on what the effects could be.

[alm]

The PCS would be the style that I am interested in sadly. There are banana plugs you can get that are a reallly tight fit, that might improve things (these ones).
They even have premade scope ground lead: https://parrot-invent.ro/product/oscilloscope-ground-pcm-w2-clip/
Shipping to canada is not too bad $19. So might try them out thanks.

The W2 size has a much better bananajack than W1. I have not tried the other sizes. The W2 at least has a copper or brass tube, while W1 only had a sheet of slightly springy copper/brass pressing against the plug (at least when I bought it back in 2010). The W2 size works okay, though not great, as long as you don't use plugs with retractable sheaths. Those will just launch the clips.

I mostly switched to the PCM style. Their plugs without sheath are also quite weak, so I buy leads with sheathed plugs and cut off the sheath for use with power supplies.

You could also consider buying PCM clips without lead and add a short pigtail with a female banana jack.

[thm_w]

Parrot clips arrived. A bit of a handmade product, you can see where they have been glued and hand filed to fit the case. I don't mind.



A few quality control issues:
- Maybe 60% of them are smooth to actuate, the other 40% have some binding, will try to grease them
- One had the wrong color handle (green instead of black)
- One was dirty

Other criticism:
- Can do without the clamshell package and printed card, just throw them in a bag with no instructions is fine with me.
- Banana jack on the W2 seems good. But the ergonomics with banana plug is not great, blocks your finger at some angles. The Pomona ergonomics are better.
- Plunger arm seems like it could be 2-3mm shorter, it doesn't need to be as long as it is. This may or may not be an issue with use.
- Heatshrink is white with writing on it, OK, but could look better if it was plain black and red though? minor thing. Here you can compare:



Pros:
- Grabbing ability definitely better, less likely to slide off due to the sharp metal beak
- They can also fit into tighter spot than the Pomona, tip width:
       - W2 2.4mm
       - W3 3.6mm
       - Pomona 4.6mm

[thm_w]

The Parrot clips just have spring of metal as alm said above, then you need to solder a wire to that. The instructions show a screwdriver going into the middle slot, which was confusing, just used some pliers to pull the middle plastic: https://parrot-invent.ro/disassemble-and-assemble/

The roughness of the plunger was due to the ejector pin mark (?) from injection molding, some units had been filed down, some had not. If you clean up that plastic then it should become smooth again.