Electronic – How to connect to service pads without soldering

serialsoldering

I am trying to connect to service pads like the these (the golden, round connectors)

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my soldering skills are good enough to solder some wire onto these, but I have to check a lot of different pads and most of them just for a few seconds (I am looking for the TX Pin which gives me console access to the embedded device that I am trying to repair), so soldering seems to be a suboptimal solution.

So my question: Is there any kind of standard trick to get around soldering here? Maybe something like a special kind of crocodile clip?

Please excuse that this might be a duplicate. I am not a professional in electrical engineering, but rather a pure mathematician who tries to help his father-in-law with a problem involving an nasty programmed and very bad documented drone.

Best Answer

There are probe stands that hold a probe on legs and the probe rests on the contact under its own weight. Or clamp a probe to any old stand. They vary in appearance quite a bit.

enter image description here https://cdn.tmi.yokogawa.com/acc_701919_lg.jpg

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https://www.picotech.com/images/uploads/accessories/_sml/TA102.jpg

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https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/oscilloscope-probe-holder-with-vision/

enter image description here https://www.tek.com/probes-and-accessories/high-voltage-differential-probes#

This Tektronix one has a hinged head that holds two probes like chopsticks and sits on two feet.