Makeshift Breadboard Multimeter Probe

Have you ever been going along building a circuit on a breadboard, and suddenly, you need to check something with the multimeter, but your good probes are nowhere to be found, and your backups are too large to fit?

This instructable will go through how to make a standard 1/4W carbon film resistor into a cheap probe adapter for use with breadboards.

Step 1 Gather parts.

This instructable is fairly simple, and only requires four items.

A generic 1/4W carbon film resistor (the most common type. If you are unsure of your resistor type, its probably this)
Some needlenose pliers.
A multimeter.
A breadboard

Comments

[vishalapr]

I really like your ibles ,am going to subscribe to you soon

[everestx]

Thanks for posting this, this inspired me to make something very simple and very similar..

Using Female Molex pin from an ATX connector (could use a 12v fan, or whatever) I soldered that to an individual pin from a pin header.

The nice thing its, the leads from my meter stay in the molex pin due to the design. Wrapped it up with heatshrink and it's great. If I ever have a chance to post it, I'll be sure to thank you again!

[fallenspirit123]

Lol haha good one!

[Unit042]

4.5 stars and favorited! This is such a good idea! 1/4W resistors can be bought by the hundreds for a mere pittance, and this solves an everyday problem for an avid breadboarder like myself. This is a great ible! Step two could use some clearer info as to what you're doing. Example: I didn't know that the covering on those things were made of two metal cups with leads attached (thus the shiny once rubbed off), I just thought that it was just one big plastic unit with metal leads coming out either end, and a black box inside. How did you find this out? Younger sibling chewing on your electronic parts until "Eureka, I can use this!"

[Unit042]

PS: I hope those parts were RoHS compliant ;)

[the_don125]

Yup, they are RoHS, Heh, I figured it out myself one day. I had a pair of needle nose pliers and a resistor on my desk, and I was like "how do these things work", so I started attempting to crush it open with the pliers, and the paint started flaking off. A little while later, I had the resistive material and two pins and a bunch of paint flakes laying on my desk.

[Unit042]

Yeah, crack that sucker open...! I've done it to a couple of electolytic capacitors. Paper bits and probably unhealthy liquids.

[joedog86]

That's really clever!

[burzvingion]

fancy. +1

[GorillazMiko]

Awesome! Haha, I really like that happy face in the end. :P