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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
  • 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

      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

      Nice!  And WOW!  Your meter is an earlier version of mine - and mine is almost 30 years old! imageimage Kudos for taking such good care of it.

  • 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.

  • 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 balearicdynamics

    Thanks  and I'll know you'll know how to put your prizes to good use!

     

    Those are some sweet looking pieces of test equipment!

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    old is gold. HPIB is really an old protocol predating the GPIB. i have worked at calibration software during my days at Agilent (now keysight, and before Agilent it was HP image) so i have my hands on some really old HP electrical test equipment (ETE). Many of them obsolete with more than 20 years old but still run with top notch accuracy. one i remember is the HP 3458A metrology grade DMM and one specialty is that it has the older HPIB type of commands that is not fully compatible with the newer GPIB. Back then, no newer generation of DMM is able to replace the 3458A. my very first encounter of SMU is during my time there, where we use Keithley SMU as one of the ETE to calibrate Keysight U2722A SMU. i couldn't recall the Keysight power supply model that i use though but i recall a lot of engineering hours have been put in to understand the inside-out of the power supply for calculation of measurement uncertainty, an important component in performing calibration.

  • in reply to weiwei2

    Nice post - I like power supplies - I just can't help buying them (but mostly I buy old ones at auctions or on ebay).

     

    Current favorites are a 4 channel HP 6629A which lives under the bench and is controlled via HPIB by a GUI that runs on a PC. It's connected to a little breakout pod so theactual footprint on the becnh is tiny. About 30 years old, still within 0.1% of settings on voltage and working fine.Cost £50 plus abVAT and about £20 shipping. With the GUI it offers all the fancy features of modern 4 channel supplies and the ability link any combination of outputs.

    My other everyday machine is a modern AimTTi with 2 outputs (forgotten the model number and can't check right now of course.).

     

    There are loads of others dedicated to particular test set ups, and some unloved (for whatever reason) and banished to cupboards.

     

     

     

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    I hope your wife and the away children stay safe.

     

    Your cake making skills are way ahead of mine!