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Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020

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Hello Community, and happy March to all of you!

 

Some of you might be thinking to yourselves - what is Cool Tools? Isn't that a bit familiar? And indeed it is. We ran a fun campaign nearly two years ago to talk about awesome tools as a sneaky way to get you all to show us your work benches (check out the original post here: Cool Tools Bench Awards 2018.) We originally thought about doing this annually, but last year we got caught up in an endless winter here in the Chicago offices that left us wanting anything but to think about the cold. However, now that we have experienced our first actual spring day, we have de-thawed, and we're excited to bring you the Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020!

 

What is the Kit Awards?

 

Previously, we asked the Community to share their work benches but now we're curious - if you could only have one kit for the rest of your life - let's call it your desert island kit - what would be in it? Is there a particular tool that has outlasted all others? Is there some indispensable piece of equipment that, if you were to lose it, would be cause for tearing out your hair (as if sorrow would be made less by baldness?)

 

In the comments below, we want you to tell us about your desert island kit - show us in pictures or video, go into as much detail as you want to tell us what would be in it and why. If you don't want to talk about an entire kit, pick out one of your Cool Tools and describe it under categories such as:

 

  • Oldest Friend (tool that you've had the longest)
  • The Most Reliable (the tool you use most often)
  • Weapons Rack (the tool that you'd proudly put on display if you had to)
  • Dream Tool (a tool that either you don't believe exists, or for whatever reason you've never purchased)
  • Or, make up your own category to talk about a tool that you think everyone should have in their kit!

 

What's in it for me?

 

We're giving everyone on the Community through the end of March to leave comments on this post for a chance to win some great tools from our revamped Multicomp Pro line (like the ones below) as well as from others by some of our great partners like Flir, Fluke, Knipex, Klein and others.

 

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Buy Now

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Buy Now

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Buy Now

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Buy Now

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Buy Now

 

 

Then, every Friday in April we'll be picking some winners from the comments below to win prizes. All you need to do is tell us about your desert island kit or one of your favorite tools. To make it even more fun, our Multicomp Pro team has agreed to put together a great prize pack to whoever comes up with what they think is the coolest of the Cool Tools Desert Island Kits! So have some fun with this and leave your comments below. You have all of March to get in your comments, so no need to beware the Ides.

 

We're so excited to see what you all come up with!

 

Want another way to get your hands on some of these Cool Tools? Check out out the RoadTests & Reviews space where will be launching RoadTests for some of these items. Apply for the first one here: Cool Tools 2020: USB Soldering Iron

Attachments:
imageCool Tools Kit Awards 2020.pdf
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  • image

    Since my first year in electronics education. Dymo lettering was still a thing then.

    The first time that I learned the meaning of being careful, taking care of something fragile.

    Thank you Tandy - Radio Shack.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    I think I had a very similar one, alas mine got flatten as I accidentally left in on the garage floor after a troubleshooting session on the car. I backed the car up to get a better position to work from and I then found it in pieces under the tire.

  • in reply to genebren

      wrote:

     

    I think I had a very similar one...

    I still use it a lot on the bench. I need less brain power to catch a measurement of this one than on my other meters. I know it by heart. A glance to the right when probing at a circuit and I get the measurement.

    I think for two reasons:

    • because I'm used to it and have learned electronics with this as my daily companion.
    • because I have a visual brain, not a mathematical one. I have to interpret DMM values.
      I instinctively understand the needle of this meter. I see the needle, I may check the position of the switch, and I know.
  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    I agree with both of those assumptions.  I like meters.  They are sort of like sliderulers. They show you the answer in a way that highly visual people can understand immediately, without adding a second layer of interpretation.  Sometime all the added accuracy and digits on a DMM get in the way and on other days the extra information is critical to the task at hand. (Another reason that I am in the market for a nice DMM).

  • in reply to genebren

    I love that new analog meter movements are still manufactured at low cost. I recently purchased half a dozen different ones from aliexpress, ranging from 50 uA to 30mA full-scale deflection. I checked at the 50 uA one at 1 uA increments, and measurements were accurate to within 2 uA, and with the 30 mA meter checked at 1 mA increments, to within 2 mA respectively, which might not compare to modern digital meter accuracy, but that's not always important, and these meter movements were just $1.60 to $3 each, and sometimes for circuits just the direction of movement is enough to see what is going on.

    The resistance was pretty reasonable too, 1.8 kohm for the 50 uA one, so not much influence on the circuit.

  • in reply to shabaz

    I purchased a Simpson 260 series 7 when I graduated, and it still serves me well.

    Scott

Comment Children
  • in reply to rsc

    Very nice.. I've not seen one of those before, it reminds me of the AVO meters that were available in the UK.

    I feel the urge to use a moving coil meter in a project now : )

  • in reply to shabaz

    I built a nice adjustable 5VDC 4A power supply for RPi use with a moving coil ammeter to watch the power usage of the RPi on boot and after.

    I added USB output ports for charging devices and such - very useful

    image

    image

    Scott

  • in reply to rsc

    Love the box too, super cool being able to see the insides!

  • in reply to rsc

    Hi Scott,

     

    The clear case looks really good, love the industrial look with the insides showing and the meters!

    It's a neat idea, the ammeters are so low cost and it provides frequent useful information about the Pi's processing load I bet.

    I too wanted to build a PSU with an moving-coil meter... just noticed I've amassed more of the meters than I thought.. probably my next few projects better make use of at least some of them!

    image

  • in reply to shabaz

    Great, now I have to go and buy some moving coil meters image

  • in reply to shabaz

    You suggested to me a great idea !!!

    In the next days I will test the new oscilloscope with old tools I have upcycled image

     

    Enrico

  • in reply to balearicdynamics

    Hi Enrico!

     

    Awesome!

    If your idea incorporates a meter, maybe this code is useful, I spent the evening experimenting a little:

    image

    I am still working on it, but the aim is to simplify creating a meter dial using Python code, and then editing it (change colors, etc) in either Inkscape or Powerpoint, to finally print it and cut it to replace existing dials, in case we are measuring something different to micro-amps.

    I'm still working on the code, but will share it as soon as it is tidier (maybe tomorrow).

    I did find a Windows program online, but figured Python for this is most flexible, so we can customise if needed (and hopefully even do log scales if needed).

    If you have any nice design styles to suggest (since you are the guru of good-looking projects!) let me know, I can try to implement it.

  • in reply to shabaz

    Great! Very happy to hear this. First of all, I am just thinking to read the values and signals generated by the Arduino controlling the lights in this project:

     

     

    This includes a microphone, amplified by a circuit, Arduino acquiring the signal controlling four NeoPixel sticks, an orange LED that shows the feedback from the microphone and the milliamperometer itself. I think there are lots of signals, including the possibility to compare the IN values respect how these are read and interpreted by the code. Sounds good?