Otc 3820-06 Low Amp Probe

Works well but the cable is way to delicate for the automotive repair shop environment. Time will tell how long it will last. Great tool to have with a scope to look at the current signature of things like fuel pumps, alternators and actuator.

Excelente producto

*I'm a 15+ year mechanic turned EE. Without getting into theory here, I think this review is a much needed perspective for this type of device. I fully understand and appreciate the level of misconceptions about tools like this coming from the auto/HD truck industry myself, and my goal here is to help my fellow wrenchers out by explaining to you that you really don't need to spend your hard-earned money on stiff like this*I returned mine after testing it thoroughly. I was unable to reliably measure DC currents under 100mA. Period.Most cars won't tolerate more than 50mA without killing the battery in a day or two. Don't listen to the tool truck dope trying to sell you a nicer, tool truck brand version of one of these: he understands even less than you can fully appreciate right now as you're reading this. Trust me when I say these devices are all the same as it pertains to DC currents this low. If you think you're going to solve parasitic draw projects with this, think again. For that matter, Hall Effect devices like this in general will not reliably give you a low DC current reading unless all you need are gross ballpark figures. It works fine on AC for the most part, but that's the nature of electricity. AC changes with time, DC does not. This device measures changes in the current via the magnetic field or produces. If the current is steady and not very high, you're screwed.I tested this tool on a Fluke 28 II (waterproof 87v), a Fluke 115, and a Keysight DSOX1204g bench oscilloscope. I was able to get it to read down to 10mA, ONLY because I had it set up in a controlled test circuit where I already knew the current and the B-field. Without already knowing the number I'm looking for, I would never be able to trust this in the field for something like 80mA, which is plenty enough to kill most small car or older weak batteries overnight. I'd say three or four in ten attempts to zero the probe carefully before clamping onto the wire displayed figures that were usable. I really wanted to like this thing, too. Believe me, I really made an effort to make it work.Keep your expectations reasonable, and you won't be disappointed. It DOES accurately measure DC currents above 2A DC, and would still be useful for some charging system diag, though I've never needed anything like this to correctly diagnose an alternator, as I'm sure most of you haven't either, so you decide what's right for you.If you're in the market for this sort of thing, let me throw a suggestion at you: read up on using the fuse volt drop method to find draws. Basically, you take your DVOM in DC mV range, and go through each fuse looking for your draw. Black lead on one shoulder of the fuse, red lead on the other. Positive or negative number on the meter doesn't matter, only the distance from zero. Fuses that read 0mV across them have no current through them, so move on to the next one. Fuses with non-zero numbers are circuits you should look into further. There are charts out there that make this easy to understand, because the mV drop reading depends on the size and form factor of the fuse itself. Best of all, you don't have to pull any fuses to find your draw nearly every time. That's a very nice feature on modern cars with 30+ modules on board that spring to life when you inadvertently wake up other modules on the network by pulling fuses with the old battery disconnect Amp-meter inline version, causing you to chase your tail for hours.Save your money, read a little about how these work and why they cannot be that accurate for what we want them to test, and you will be far more successful with parasitic draw vehicles. I 100% promise you'll be faster and more accurate with the above method than with this tool, it any other like it. These are facts, gentlemen. Best of luck. Hope this helps.

This has become my go-to for home and work, have bought 3 or 4 for different jobs. One of the few types of models that can give a decent reading in the 10 mA range if you are careful (and reads DC). Bandwidth is a couple kilohertz so don't try on audio.For the price it rocks, plus this particular brand is the only one I found that comes with a BNC+banana adapter. Other models always had dedicated shielded individual banana prongs designed for a DMM, making them nearly impossible to attach to a scope.(caveat: the brands have not all been the same but the model design has been exactly the same and all have worked with similar performance)

OTC quality at its best....