Last week the new PCBite Kit 2.0 from Sensepeek arrived. The new kit comes with the great PCBite holder from the previous version, which are very useful to fasten a PCB for soldering, rework or analysis. New to this kit are the handy probes, which also can be magnetically attached to the mirror board.
The mirror finish of the board let you keep the bottom side of the board in sight while you are working on the top side. It is a very useful feature, like in the example shown in my photos where I analyse the communication of the snow flake board and can see the LEDs on the bottom side.
The probes have a nice weight and come with a very precise gold needle tip. You can easily place them on even the finest pin or trace. The tip contains a spring like a pogo pin, therefore it keeps an equal amount of pressure on the board and does not move if there are vibrations or if you carefully move the board around.
With each probe, there is also a different needle with a crown tip. This alternative tip is more like a really tiny fork to be placed on small wires and pins.
There are two pin headers attached to the probe, which makes it very easy to connect them to any kind of equipment. In the kit from Kickstarter, there were also a number of jumper cables including two with banana jacks.
This is really a solution I was waiting for. It is very easy to setup and flexible how to use it. If you have no test points for a signal on the board, you can easily place the probe on any exposed surface and it will stay in place.
You can buy the probes, boards, PCBites and everything else described in this article in the shop directly from Sensepeek. The prices are reasonable for this high quality products and they offer free shipping for all kits.
If you have questions, miss some information or just have any feedback, feel free to add a comment below.
Have fun!
