Australia's Science Forum

Hi All
Anyone bought any decent banana plugs recently? I have a mixed bag of different styles, but they all have one thing in common - they are too thin for the slots in the equipment they should be plugged into. I have been prising them open with a small screw driver, but this is driving me insane!

I suggested we buy the pre-made ones, but my HT, for one reason or another, wants me to make them. I don't have a problem making them but want to make it easy for myself.

I recently got some from Haines, product code BPB (black) and BPR (red)
$8 for a 10-pack.

A tip for when making banana plug wires - don't remove plastic coating over wire.
This will give the screw something strong to screw into and not the bare wire ( hope that makes sense )
It saves time as well and makes it harder to students to break.
The same goes for making up with alligator clips

We use the alligator clips, open them up and connect to one side of the round hole. Works for all our items.

I agree re banana plugs - they just don't fit snuggly into old equipment any more

Having purchased the banana plugs from Haines last year, I did find them to be a good fit with the equipment. Now I have another problem. Smee posted that she never strips the wire from the end, instead screwing into the plastic coating. I've tried that and I've tried stripping the wire and bending the exposed wire over.
However, every prac I get a tangled bundle of wires with no plugs. I usually get the stray plugs given to me as well so I'm not losing many. I've asked the teachers to tell the students to grab hold of the plug and not pull it out by the wire, but any instructions such as those are falling on deaf ears. I'm sick of sending out bundles of wires and getting at least 10% back that need repairing.
Does anyone else have this problem? Any solutions? The HT wants the students to use banana plugs not alligator clips.

How tight the screw is done up is important.

Too loose and the wire will pull out .
Too tight and the screw will cut into the wires severing them as opposed to "biting " into them to make a connection...this causes the remaining strands to brake when tugged on .

It is good to fold the stripped end over in half like you did Merilyn ....this increases the surface area under the screw .
I tighten mine pretty tight though .

I am OVER spending hours of MY time at home making new leads and screwing on the plugs.. so I now buy them in ready made.. and YES the plugs at the end have changed dimensions lately and do not fit the older equipment - I use a little screwdriver and tease out one of the sides on the plug - then they fit. Maybe we should tell all our suppliers!

I've been looking at Haines. I bought banana plugs from them and they fitted the equipment really well. Just been looking in their catalogue, I'm sure they've got cheaper as the banana plugs were 90c each and the leads are only 55c (for a 60cm lead). The leads are from IEC so I hope they are good. At that price it is definitely not worth my time, as long as the quality is good. I've emailed Haines asking them about ready-made leads' durability and if they can be repaired.

And Bigmack, tried stripping the wire = no good :( I must be doing something wrong.

I had a really helpful email from Victor at Haines who suggested that the wire we have here is not heavy enough and the best thing was to go to Jaycar and buy more. I going to give that a try and will let you know how I go.

smeee wrote:A tip for when making banana plug wires - don't remove plastic coating over wire.
This will give the screw something strong to screw into and not the bare wire ( hope that makes sense )
It saves time as well and makes it harder to students to break.
The same goes for making up with alligator clips

AWESOME ... so much easier and mine have all worked a treat ... saving so much time stripping and fitting etc .. .Appreciate the information sharing ...

Help! I bought some of the expensive, solid IEC banana plugs, PA0208-002 which are 3 way fitting:
Their instructions are:
Screw to wire
Solder to wire
Thru hole & wrap.
However I cannot work out how to fit them to a cable. We have threaded the wire sideways through the hole where the yellow arrow is, then screwed the screw inside the shaft to secure the wire, but cannot push blue cover over the shaft, it's too tight.
Has anyone else ever bought them? Can you explain their instructions? BTW I have never used the soldering iron to make leads, does it give you a better outcome?