No.126 - Sensepeek PCBite Kit (6019) Review

[@karlkarlsson9699]

Love seeing this, the creator went to my uni and donated a set to our student lab, love it!

[@nrcha]

The PCBite kits are great. I got one from Elector a few years back. They only had DMM probes back then, but still - what a gret tool for troubleshooting smd boards. Thanks for the video.

[@IanScottJohnston]

I think these are the redesigned probes which have a lower centre of gravity so should be even better.

[@nrcha]

@@IanScottJohnston Ah, I didn’t realise these were a new design. Anyhow, the bigest issue with PCBite is that there’s not enough probes 😀 So I’ll be ordering another set of probes then.

[@TheStuffMade]

Looks very handy 👍 Usually I just solder in some thin wire wrap wire (30 AWG) when I need to do measurements on boards like that, but of course that's a bit of a compromise when looking a high frequency signals.

[@IanScottJohnston]

Same here, the Kynar wire is always nearby……but will be looking forward to trying this in anger next time.

[@jacobamador7989]

Love my pcbite. I have a few sets. I actually changed workbenches to ones that have a metal layer underneath the top so i can use them anywhere.

[@absurdengineering]

I had this for a couple years now. Well worth the money when you need it.

[@BaconbuttywithCheese]

Nice review Ian. I've resin printed similar spring loaded standoffs and they work great. Aluminium armature wire is what i'm looking at for probe positioners. You want something with zero spring in it. Heatshrink coated of course.

[@amirb715]

looks very nice. Just last night I was having nightmare keeping two scope probes with my left hand on two tiny 0402 resistors and turning the power supply with my right hand on and off to capture and decode an I2C bus when troubleshooting a scope that is stuck at boot. This would have made life so much easier

[@tgsoapbox]

Great review - I've been looking at this for a while now

[@amirb715]

interestingly mouser is also selling their full range of products

[@deeon8835]

Hey Ian, I'm interested in upgrading my Fender Frontman 15R. After discovering your "Fender Frontman 15G Upgrade & Modifications," I'm keen on implementing the same modifications on my amp. Would you be able to create a brief video demonstrating your upgrade process? Thanks!

[@IanScottJohnston]

Hi, that’s an old, old project and I don’t really have the time to revisit it sorry. Any information is on my website…….I think!

[@tgsoapbox]

One additional question I do have - A lot of what I'm working on are boards from old T&M gear that sit on extenders - Did you ever try using the probes on a board that was oriented vertically instead of horizontally in the holders?

[@IanScottJohnston]

If you want the probe to lie horizontal then they won't do that.....but would work on on a vertical board just as long as the probe is vertical.....somehow.

[@atec9228]

Great video. Wich model is your bench power supply??. In the video can i watch near the Rigol a blue Power supply. Thanks

[@IanScottJohnston]

EEZ BB3 www.crowdsupply.com/envox/eez-bb3

[@atec9228]

@@IanScottJohnston Thank you for the link

[@radio-ged4626]

Certainly a good bit of kit for the professional, but a little expensive for the hobbyist. If you've already laid out for probes for your scope as an amateur personally I wouldn't want to pay out that much again. Of course it will pay for itself in no time at all if you're a professional. Quite impressive overall, a well thought out design.

[@Choober65]

As an electronics Egnier of over 30 years. I have now given up designing or making anything as I sss no point. No one wants to work anymore, and I can't say I blame them.

[@Evergreen64]

This looks like it was designed by someone who needed just this product and thought "I bet others would like this too:.

[@LavalBolduc]

Out of curiosity, what is the rated bandwidth of the scope probes ?

[@IanScottJohnston]

200MHz scope probes.

[@amirb715]

the only issue I have with this for repair purposes is that when doing repair you dont usually have a bare board outside the unit. Most of the time it has to remain mounted in the chassis and sometimes even at an angle and I am not sure if this system will be that helpful

[@IanScottJohnston]

More aimed at design where a lot of probing would take place compared to repair.

[@bikothewolf]

I have done some probing on PCBs inside chassis with an older version of this kit and it is doable. If you need to probe something that is at a to step an angle or vertical and you still have access to a magnetic surface (like that chassis of the equipment in question) I would look into dial indicator holders. They mostly have magnetic bases and with a little modification they can hold normal scope probes rather well.