In Search of Updated Electronic-Electrical Portable Workshop Tool(s).

Sounds like a great topic for an internet search.

The opinions you get here will depend on the type of tools currently owned by those who respond.

This sounds almost like a term paper project.

Don't forget the BFH.

Amen to that!

Without being frequently up-dated, all other tools are about worthless.

Dude, what you are asking for is a magic bullet. They don't exist. Even the best systems designed with on-board diagnostics still require an intelligent human to verify the results and determine the true root cause.

For instance, automobiles have OBD-II designed into them. You may get a power train trouble code P0420, Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1). So would you go out and purchase a new catalytic converter for your Suburban that costs $2,400? You could. But that might not fix the problem. Or you could go on-line and Google P0420 and find out that code might mean the oxygen sensors have degraded. Those are only about $60 each from parts stores so for four of them is about $240. Or you could use your brain and realize that the very small exhaust manifold crack/leak you can hear thiffting at idle is actually PULLING IN excess oxygen into the exhaust stream and throwing off the numbers for the catalyst because the sensors 'think' that the catalytic converter is not 'storing' the oxygen properly. (True story by the way. The original catalytic converter is still in the truck with over 240,000 miles.)

My employer pays me a lot of money. A LOT of money. What they are paying for is 35 years experience. I am an electrical engineer and I can design analog, signal chain, instrumentation, and power electronics devices. But what they really pay me for is to FIX things. When the itshay hits the fan, I'm on a plane to somewhere to figure why something BROKE, how to FIX it, and update the design so it doesn't happen AGAIN.

As for tools, for about 99.9% of the things I fix, I use a quality digital multi-meter (Fluke 87-III or similar) and a low-end 'lunch-box' oscilloscope you can buy for about $2,500. Add in wide-band clamp-on current probe, an active differential probe, and some various leads and connector pin adapters. That's it. Plus, the brain of course.

There is simply no substitute for sitting down and doing the WORK to learn about the system and how it is supposed to work. Then starts the boring and laborious process of very systematically mapping out all the data/electrical/material/ etc. flows and carefully taking data in a very organized manner. Then varying a parameter and take all that data again. Then vary another parameter and take all that data yet again. And so on, until you truly understand the system. Now you are almost ready to start trouble-shooting.

I'm not interested in finding out what some unmarked two-terminal device is. If it doesn't have a marking it's pointless and worthless in the big picture. Unless of course you are trying to reverse-engineer someone else's design where they ground off the markings of the parts.

Good luck with your quest but I fear you will never find your Holy Grail.

A lot depends on what you need to carry....The biggest change in tools is the battery powered variety now available...and wider variety of 'for purpose' vehicles...

http://www.worktrucksusa.com/

Oh come on! Who hauls porpoises in a van?

Cowphin spotting....

I would think that a competent workman would already know what the tools of his trade were.

Finding the most modern assortment of those is a simple internet search away from you.

It depends on what you're going to be working on.

If you're going to be using them a lot it's worth paying more for good mechanical tools, but, get a set of the cheapest you can find for bits that you may only ever use once or twice (tri-wing, security torqs etc.).

For the DMM, and, I know I'm at odds with most people here: even if you're going to use it a lot, I always buy the cheapest I can find. For fault finding and debugging resolution is far more important than absolute accuracy. Oh, and the ones where you manually select the range are ultimately a lot faster to use than the auto ranging ones.

It is really necessary to outline the equipment you need to test.

If you mean the usual building electrical system, the modern electrician's multi function box which measures loop resistance, insulation, fault level, RCD time/current, voltage and current is an advance.

If you need to fix everything on a "combine harvester" you may need a van load.

Beyond the usual VOM, a good oscilloscope or equivalent laptop attachment with recording capability is really helpful to see the otherwise invisible occasional events or transients.

Here is a sample list of the tools I use:

1. Pencil & paper. There are times when I need to make a note, calculate a dimension or draw a sketch of an idea.

2 A Radio. It sometimes seems that I can think better when I have soft music playing in the background, plus it tends to keep me calm when I encounter a frustration.

3. My favorite beverage. Not only does it keep me hydrated, but it gives me a little burst of energy when I need it.

4. A package of cookies or other snack. Sometimes when i am fixing or fabricating something i get the munchies.

5. My cell phone and my tablet. There are times when I reach an impasse, so I call a buddy to get a different perspective or use Google to search for a possible solution, or post a question on a website like cr4.

I have been doing that sort of work, on-and-off, for over fifty years, and I have to agree with Brave Sir Robin. On the other hand, I also own a lot of test gear, ranging from simple test lights and cheap ($4) "throw-away" digital multimeters to lots of oscilloscopes to exotic Hewlett-Packard and Rohde & Schwarz signal generators and spectrum analyzers with everything in between.

The "coolest" device I have, though, is a hand-held "black box" (It's actually blue!) with a single ZIF socket which will accept everything from an incandescent lamp or a resistor to a 40-pin DIP integrated circuit, with a liquid crystal display just above the socket. LED's, capacitors, inductors, all kinds of transistors...not very many things have spoofed this little guy. There are only two buttons on the unit, one labeled "ON" and the other "TEST"; turning it on and pushing the "TEST" button starts the fun. After about one second, the display indicates what the tester believes to be connected, including part numbers for IC's, along with an analysis of whether the part is within specification or not. It also displays the pinout of the device being tested. All of this from a 9-Volt battery, but the unit's best feature is that it cost only about fifty dollars!

It does, however, occasionally make a mistake, and that is when Sir Robin's device becomes indispensable.

Ed Watts,

Your ''black box" is an interesting addition, what's the part number or detailed description.

Regards.