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What Piece of Test Equipment Do You Find Most Useful?

FazzaGBR

FazzaGBR

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2018
Messages
65
Location
United Kingdom
When it comes to repairing retro/vintage computers, my Digital MultiMeter and my rework station (soldering iron and hot air gun all-in-one) are my two most used tools.

I have recently purchased a laptop POST card to help me with my retro laptop diagnostics as it connects to the parallel port which a lot of my retro laptops have so hopefully that will help me with some of the laptops I have.

What test equipment do you have that you find most useful when it comes to vintage/retro computer repair?
 
daver2 said:
I find my analogue multimeter just as useful as my digital one for some jobs...

Dave
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Natural signal averaging/smoothing :-}. Plus the analog display is really nice for qualitative analysis. I like my Simpson 262, but I've given up on the resistance function as the necessary 22.5v NEDA 215 battery for the higher ranges is unobtanium and comparable replacements (212A) are ~$35. I suppose that I could engineer something with a LiPO pack and boost converter to handle both that and the 1.5v (D-cell) used in the lower resistance ranges; taken together there is a decent-sized cavity to work with.

Addendum: I see this in eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/234680333841 Worth a taking a flier. This was a major piece of test equipment for me back in my vacuum tube-based youth. Used alongside a VTVM (look it up :-}) that I built. Life was simpler ... and more dangerous BITD.
 
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Oscilloscope.

Its a voltmeter, a signal analyser, a logic analyser. It gets used for almost every job, digital or analogue (though the battery one is more useful for CRT's). I could not be without it.
 
Most of the most common "Most Useful" pieces of test equipment have already been listed, but I'd like to mention a solid runner up. Your built-in temperature probe, a.k.a. your index finger. I have diagnosed many faults with this handy device.
 
Weller soldering station, Hakko desoldering gun, Fluke digital multimeter, can of dexoxIT
 
  • The Retrochip Tester Professional, by Slabbi.
  • An oscilloscope
  • A tester
  • The Datamaster miniprobe
  • Common sense
 
hard_fault said:
Most of the most common "Most Useful" pieces of test equipment have already been listed, but I'd like to mention a solid runner up. Your built-in temperature probe, a.k.a. your index finger. I have diagnosed many faults with this handy device.
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I have a burn scar thanks to that, so I wouldn't recommend this
 
Anything that involves avoiding electrocution, burns, and damage to your eyes (e.g. exploding pieces of solid tantalum or 'arc eye') should be avoided.

Perform a risk assessment (sorry - was forced to attend a Risk Assessment refresher course at work)!

Dave
 
It would have to be the Mark I eyeball.
look first then engage brain.

I do really like a good scope though. I have both analog and digital because one size really doesn't fit all.
 
Good light. You can't do anything without good light.
Then a capable multimeter for firstly buzzing out cables and direct shorts, followed by checking resistances, then voltages.
Scope after that.
 
Multimeter, ESR/Parts Tester, soldering iron, hot air workstation, AGP/PCIE card tester (shows continuity on the BUS), jeweler eyepiece, decent liquid no clean flux, ATX power supply tester with LCD redout, ISA/PCI post card, decent variety of tweezers and screwdriver bits, desoldering iron with pump.

What I need is a preheat table for board work and a scope of some kind plus some GPU VRAM stencils for when I get to reballing and replacing BGA VRAM on graphics cards.

Some of that is repair equipment and not test but you get the point. The equipment you need depends on what you are trying to diagnose.
 
Well, don't see it in the list... but I'll have to say a logic probe.
Overall the o-scope is the most versatile, but the logic probe is handy, easy to use, and quick.
It helps me track down most IC chip failures.
-J
 
johnx993 said:
Well, don't see it in the list... but I'll have to say a logic probe.
Click to expand...
A logic probe is very useful when poking around, especially a probe with audio (old Radio Shack CMOS Logic probe is my favorite). The older CMOS probes could handle different voltages nicely also (nothing higher that 12v though)

I like a magnifier like this:

I have my Dad's. I also like a desk lamp magnifier/lamp.
Safety glasses, Seen too many chips.caps blow. While it won't kill you it does hurt and even soldering sometimes splashes. Any of that stuff hits your eyes it will damage the eye.

On fingers do be careful, burned the finger print off on of my thumb once. Had a perfect finger print on the chip that was in backwards.
 
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