Showerthought: That $200 diagnostic tool I bought was a total waste

I picked up a fancy multimeter with all these extra features from some online store about six months ago. Cost me $200 because I thought I needed it for complex board repairs. Turns out my old $40 Fluke does everything I actually need for 90% of the jobs I do. The extra bells and whistles just sit there collecting dust in my bag. I really should have just stuck with what worked and saved that cash for more thermal paste or a good soldering iron. Has anyone else bought a tool that looked amazing in the ad but ended up being useless for your daily work?

2 comments

2 Comments

wadebailey3d ago

Feel your pain on this one. Bought a fancy thermal imaging camera attachment for my phone thinking it'd help me find hidden shorts on boards. Used it twice, got blurry pictures both times, and now it's just sitting in a drawer. My old technique of gently touching components with my finger works way better and cost me zero dollars.

anthony_jenkins613d ago

And like @wadebailey said about his thermal camera, sometimes the old school methods just work better and cost way less. I keep going back to my cheap multimeter too because it does the job without all the extra features I never use.