Using alligator clips for crossover prototyping, do they have too much resistance?

[DaveFred]

There has been some question about how dollar store (or in my case, 30 for $18 CDN on amazon.ca) alligator clips impact crossover prototyping due to potential high resistance.

I decided to run a little test. I ran REW with one alligator clip between each component and then I ran REW again with two alligator clips between each component.

Here are the results,

red is one clip/wire, green is two clips/wires
scale is 73 to 92 db, 1db increments

- No smoothing with 3.5 windows
- ERB smoothing, no windows
- 1/12 smoothing, no windows

My clips measure out at 0.2 ohm a piece and 0.1 ohm in parallel

 

[gdan]

I have very bad experience with this kind of alligator clips.

Usually, they do have a high resistance (I have measure even 1 or 2 Ω) but also, it is not constant. If you move a little the cable the resistance is quite different.

The only solution was to open them and solder the cable to the alligator clip. This does not give very low resistance always but at least it is constant.

 

[TMM]

Yep, same negative experience with these cheap cables too. The conductors are usually quite thin and badly crimped to the clip.

Try cleaning the jaws with some isopropanol too since they often come with an oily residue which hinders contact resistance. Clean the leads of your components too - if they are badly oxidised some treatment with sandpaper might be needed.
Avoid using cables which have badly aligned jaws.

 

[jtgofish]

I remember friends conducting a trial using these with Bybee quantum purifiers so you could insert them on your speaker cables for an easy comparison.The general conclusion was that the Bybees did nothing but the alligator clips by themselves brought about a big improvement.

 

[Zvu]

I solder components point to point and when i need to jump over few components i solder a piece of wire. It's not that hard and not much slower than alligator clips but much more reliable.

 

[freddi]

if picky, I think homemade jumper leads with real copper clips are "ok" - the stuff from China often has thin wire and other problems. One of the worst sounds I've ever heard was from putting a metal file in series with a tweeter using alligator clips - steel does some awful things to audio

 

[scholl]

I use wire nuts.

 

[Max Headroom]

Those cheap alligator clip cables rely on pressure contact.
Slide back the hoods and solder the wires.

Dan.

 

[chrisb]

I remember friends conducting a trial using these with Bybee quantum purifiers so you could insert them on your speaker cables for an easy comparison.The general conclusion was that the Bybees did nothing but the alligator clips by themselves brought about a big improvement.

😀😀



Beverage of choice for Bybee fans would be Kool-Aid?

 

[DaveG]

I have had a problem with the hoods hardening up on clip lead heads purchased in the last 2-10 years.

These slowly hardened and would loose grip and of course good contact, to the the point they are not functional now and difficult to even squeeze to open.

I also have a dozen or so known to be 38-45 years old that still work perfect and show no signs of breakdown.

 

[Pano]

Yeah, who's making the new ones? They seem flimsy and the plastic gets tough. The clip itself is junk. I don't have any as old as Dave's, but maybe 20 years old Radio Shack. Still sturdy and working well. Can you still get the good ones?

 

[eriksquires]

+1 Max

I bought a pack of a dozen, at least half of them had connection issues between the wire and the clips, not to mention using impossibly thin wiring, around 22-24 gauge. In the end, I ripped the cables off all of them and used 18 gauge wire, soldered to each clip. This resolved the reliability issues.

 

[Pano]

I saw some on Amazon that are 16 gauge. Only red and black, tho. Maybe a little too heavy?

 

[korpberget]

 

[korpberget]

This does the trick

 

[Mario Pankov]

I use the one below - its a prototyping board with push in connectors. Then get some thin lead polycaps and you`re good to go. These boards accept 1mm round wire (from coils) without issues.

http://www.usefulcomponents.com/mai...rf_radio/bom_pages/bom_breadboard_small_s.jpg

 

[Tweet]

Decently sized alligator clips can be got from Bunnings (in Oz) in packets of six and are quite cheap too. The clips allow for a larger guage of wire than the usual clips on offer.

C.M


.

 

[Pano]

Korpberet that's clever. At one point I had put push on connectors on all my crossover parts, and made jumpers with male push-on connectors. I used a board with push on terminal strips. It was fast and way once I had it all done, but a pain to set up. I still find a few caps in the parts box with the connectors. Your idea looks a lot faster.

 

[toulou]

That's what I used to do.
Now I use a wooden board full of spade-compatible binding posts with a hole on the side of the shaft.
A bit slower trick, but the extra tightening torque makes me feel more confident

 

[boli46]

This picture is from Lampizators website. Credit where it's due.