Your most useful test equipment.

[Fritter]

Hi All,
For some background, I passed an OND in electronics in the 80's. Life took me elsewhere, and I've finally got around to using it practically. My interest is in vintage electronics.
My question is, other than a multimeter, what is the most used and useful piece of test equipment ?
Thanks !

[stj]

Re: Your most useful test equipment.

define "vintage"

[Fritter]

Re: Your most useful test equipment.

Not valves.

[stj]

Re: Your most useful test equipment.

an electric desoldering station.
like a ZD915
CPC has them on special offer sometimes

and a scope - a fast one, 50MHz+

[Fritter]

Re: Your most useful test equipment.

Thanks.

[momaka]

Re: Your most useful test equipment.

Multimeters - you got that right!
And yes, I said it in multiple form, because I always find it handy to have at least one for measuring voltage and another for measuring current. With that said, since I only have 2 hands and can only hold so many probes at once (don't ask how silly I've been with this before ), I also find it very handy to have a good stash of alligator clips / jumper cables of various sizes. Also a large assortment of resistors and heating elements - useful for discharging caps, measuring/limiting current, test-loading PSUs, signal checking/probing, and etc.

Another one is one of those cheap transistor testers / ESR meters found everywhere online. I use it mainly for testing electrolytic capacitors and rarely start a more intricate troubleshooting project without it. If you're going to be working on old stuff, you really ought to have one, as you will often find a lot of capacitors (not just electrolytic, but sometimes also paper/wax and/or other types) can be out of spec.

As for soldering iron... old stuff doesn't care much. A simple 30-40 Watt plug-in type with a good copper tip will be just dandy. But a T-12 tip -based iron would be nice to have any day, of course.

[Fritter]

Re: Your most useful test equipment.

Thanks ! And apologies for the tardiness.