Test clip for very thin wire

Hi, guys:-

Looking for a way to clip a very thin wire temporarily to a jig builto on a PCB for test purposes. The wire is around 0.1mm (AWG38), so it could easily be sheared off. Something that squashed the wire but is zif would be ideal.

So far, I've only found some special alligator-style clips with duck bill type ends rather than teeth.

Oh, and the contact resistance has to stay as stable as possible during the test.

Any suggestions welcome..

Hi Speh, I get in that position many times and always end up soldering the wire to a flat piece of PCB attached to the end item.

Cheers, Harry

How about those barrier strips that have the little plastic clamp arms?

Something like that might work. Phoenix? Weidmuller?

I don't think so = they are designed to dig into the wire to keep it from being pulled out, so I think they'll shear off the wire.

Maybe Harry's solution is the best.. just make them solder it to a header or something, if it will wet.

Why not use an actual ziff socket

Maybe a microhook?

If you want low force, maybe just solder an iron button to your jig, and clamp the wire to it with a magnet

How many wires/ connections? I've been using pogo stick push pins. (I wish I had some better manipulators.) Can you press the wire onto a pcb pad or something (gold plating?)

If it's up in the air, maybe tweezers, the ones you have to push to open? Perhaps not any better than the duck billed clips. (maybe worse)

George H.

Would Scotch tape work in lieu of solder? I mean along the entire length of the wire, the press it into place at the business end.

In the olden days, you could source a tulip-shaped clip with a large contact area and low insertion force for holding free wires. The retaining pressure was actually adjustable, depending how tightly the mounting screw was torqued in the base, although I doubt that effect was intentional.

You could probably bend your own out of a suitable material.

RL

On a sunny day (Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:56:21 -0500) it happened Spehro Pefhany wrote in :

soldering????

Funny that you are from a Euro nation, yet you are too stupid to know just how small 0.1 mm is.

I've occasionally soldered wires smaller than that - down to at least around 0.07mm (SWG45/AWG41). The soldering itself isn't that big a deal. If it's enamelled, removing that *can* be a pain.

On a sunny day (Sun, 8 Feb 2015 22:43:20 +0530) it happened "Pimpom" wrote in :

Set soldering iron to 370 degrers C, and it just burns. I normaly have it at 320 C these days and that leaves it intact. Works every time. Indeed .1 mm is no problem to solder at all.

But... you must be in and out very quickly, or the wire itself dissolves.

Tim

If you can find it, and lead is not the kiss of death, the old "save bit" solder with a little copper in them would probably work very well and slow/stop the wire dissolving.

On a sunny day (Sun, 8 Feb 2015 15:55:33 -0600) it happened "Tim Williams" wrote in :

Tim are you sure you got your sizes right? I wind coils with .1 mm diameter wire all the time.

capture it in a bent tension coil spring like those old 100-in-one kits used.

when you push one end of the spring to the side, the coils on the other side open up. Insert the wire, release the spring and it clamps the wire between the turns of spring wire.