The EECS BlogThe Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Blog
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Here you’ll find products or services I have bought, used, or owned at some point. This might include books, tools, accessories, kits, or components I used and would recommend buying. Some books or product models/versions might be out of production by now. In such cases, I might list their later editions or replacement/successor products from the same company/author. If you’re not from the USA, Amazon might redirect you to your local Amazon marketplace(de, uk, …). If the linked product isn’t available there it might get replaced with some other similar product!
Here you can find the tools I own or have used on my projects and would recommend buying.
FLIR DM93-2 True RMS Industrial Digital Multimeter
I own a DM92(not in production anymore, DM93-2 is about the same with some extra features) and it’s overall a great multimeter. I’ve been using it for almost 10 years now and it was used for a lot of projects on this blog.
UT202+ Digital Clamp Meter
I own a UT202(not in production anymore, UT202+ is the replacement). I also bought this meter around 10 years ago. It’s nothing fancy, just a fairly cheap clamp meter that I use for contactless measurements. Otherwise, I use my Flir DMM. You can see it being used in this project I made.
Electricity Usage Monitor Plug
Simply plug the meter into the outlet then plug the device into the meter and you can measure the power consumption of a device.
Generic Non-Contact Voltage Tester
An important tool for a quick check to see if a wire is energized or not.
Component Tester
A very cheap and very handy tool for measuring electrical components like resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes and transistors.
Seek Thermal Compact XR - Thermal Camera for Smart Phones
A great little tool for your toolbox. Very useful for debugging and checking the thermal performance of your projects or products. It’s much cheaper than a handheld thermal camera because it’s just a thermal sensor with a lens that hooks up to your smartphone. You can see it being used in this post while fixing my GPU.
Handheld IR Thermometer
A cheap generic handheld IR thermometer that comes in useful around the workshop.
Siglent Technologies SDG2042X Arbitrary Waveform Function-Generators, 40 MHz
Rigol Oscilloscope
The Rigol DS2072(I bought many years ago) as seen in this post and this post where I used it to measure the length of a coax cable and to measure capacitor/inductor values. It was also used in numerous other projects. It’s a good entry level oscilloscope but it’s not produced anymore so here are a few scopes from Rigol with similar specs.
P20003 High Voltage Differential Probe 5600V 100MHz
A decent high voltage differential probe for the price. This is a must if you are probing mains or higher voltage with your oscilloscope.
USB Logic Analyzer 24MHz 8CH 24MHz 8 Ch
Dirt cheap logic analyzer. I used it a lot in my 8-bit computer build for debugging digital logic.
DSLogic Plus USB Logic Analyzer 400MHz Sampling Rate 256Mbits Memory 16 Ch
This is a slightly more expensive USB logic analyzer but it offers 16 channels, with a higher sampling rate and more memory. I also used it in my 8-bit computer build for debugging digital logic.
HackRF PortaPack SDR(Sodtware Defined Radio) Transceiver
An amazing tool that packages the HackRF SDR transceiver into a portable format. It can be used for debugging, signal intelligence, RF communication experimentation and hacking/cybersecurity.
NanoVNA Portable Vector Network Analyzer
The NanoVNA is a small portable vector network analyzer. It can be used to test/measure antennas, filters, cables, tune antennas or filters, … It’s a great tool if you make your own antennas or if you want to make sure the antennas you bought actually perform the way they should(many cheap Chinese antennas don’t resonate at the proper frequencies). Overall it’s very handy, a great bang for the buck and dirt cheap compared to the average benchtop VNA.
Test/Demo Board For NanoVNA
A nice little demo board with some basic experiments/measurement examples to teach you how to use your VNA.
Attenuator
When measuring higher power signals an attenuator is a must to prevent damaging your measurement equipment.
TinySA Portable Spectrum Analyzer
The TinySA is a small portable 2 in 1 spectrum analyzer + signal generator. It’s very handy, a great bang for the buck and dirt cheap compared to the average benchtop spectrum analyzer.
EMC EMI Nearfield Probes
I bought these probes to go along wit the TinySA so I can do some experimenting with nearfield measurements.
JBC Soldering Station
This is an absolutely great top-quality soldering station. It is quite expensive and aimed at professionals who do a lot of soldering. It has a nice and thin handle, thin and flexible cable, accurate temperature control, the tips have the heating element and temperature sensor integrated into them and are very easy to swap. I bought an older version of this soldering station almost ten years ago. Still working great with the original tips.
Aoyue 968A+ Professional SMD Digital Hot Air Rework Station with a Soldering Iron and Vacuum Pickup
Decent heat gun powered by a pump inside the unit. It has a generic soldering iron with a nice edition of a fume extractor on the tip. I’d say it’s a mid-range soldering station good enough for most electronics hobbyists. You can see it being used in this post while fixing my GPU.
2 in 1 Soldering + Hot Air Rework Station
I used to have this soldering station before I bought the JBC and Aoyue stations. The heat gun(blower motor inside handle) isn’t as good as the one on the Aoyue(air pump inside the unit). And the soldering iron isn’t nearly as good as the JBC. However, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money it’s still a decent 2 in 1 soldering station for a cheap price.
Desoldering Iron
This desoldering iron is not as nice as those desoldering guns but it’s much cheaper. I don’t desolder a lot of stuff very often so it’s good enough for me.
PCB Holder
You can very easily clip in a PCB and flip it around when soldering. For example, you can see it being used in this post where I used it to hold a GPU PCB while I was fixing it.
Tweezers Set
Different kinds of tweezers are very handy to have. I have a similar assortment of them.
USBtinyISP AVR ISP Programmer
AVR programmer that can be used to flash AVR MCUs like the Atmegas or Attinys.
FT232RL FTDI USB to TTL Serial Converter
A USB to serial converter, useful for connecting to, flashing, configuring or debugging all sorts MCUs, sensors, or modules.
vLinker MC+ Bluetooth OBD2 Car Diagnostic Scan Tool
I used it to scan for and clear error codes in my car. Also in this post, I used it to re-code some settings in my car.
TL866II Plus Universal Programmer
A very useful universal MCU/EEPROM programmer. It has support for a very wide selection of EEPROMS.
Ethernet Cable Tool Kit
I have all the tools in this kit except the cable tester(I have the cable tester listed below). I made and repaired quite a few ethernet cables over the years so these tools were definitely a good investment for me.
Universal Cable Tester
I bought this exact universal cable many years ago. It’s cheap and great for testing your DIY cables. A must have if you are making your own ethernet cables.
RG59 RG6 Coax Cable Crimper Tool
Crimping tool for coax connectors. I use this tool for making antenna cables.
RF Coax Cable Connector Crimping Tool
Crimping tool for coax connectors. I use this tool for making antenna cables.
Connectors
I have a box full of different RF connectors such as these so I can always connect together any device, transmitter/receiver, antenna or cable.
Ratchet Wire Crimping Tool For Different Connectors
Great for crimping all sorts of connectors.
Wire Strippers
I have both types of wire stripping tools. In my opinion, they are both ok and I use them interchangeably.
Preformed Breadboard Jumper Wires
I use these all the time when prototyping on a breadboard. Unlike the flexible wire above these will give you a much cleaner tidier look and layout on the breadboard.
Alligator Clips
Alligator clips are used to form quick connections. I use these all the time. You can see them being used in quite I few posts I made.
CREALITY Official Ender 3 S1 Pro 3D Printer
This is the 3D printer I currently use. It has auto bed leveling, nozzle temperature up to 300C, heated print bed, print size, filament sensor, 300x300x300mm printing dimensions. So far it’s been a decent printer.
Before I used to have an Anycubic i3 Mega but upgraded to the Ender 3 mainly because of its larger printing area. Any 3D printed parts in my projects on this blog in the past few years were printed with this printer.
Digital Variable Triple Outputs Linear-Type DC Power Supply
I personally have a HY3005d-3 benchtop adjustable power supply I bought more than 10 years ago. Using the potentiometers to set precise values can be quite finicky. But on the bright side, is not an SMPS but a linear power supply with a big toroidal transformer. The great thing about this is that there is no switching noise on the output.
DPS SMPS Power Supply Kit
In this post here I made a portable batter powered power supply.
Adjustable Electronic DC Load
Useful for discharging batteries, testing power supplies and seeing how your circuits perform under load. For example, I used it in this post here to test a power supply.
Programmable USB Electronic DC Load
I have a similar older version of such a programmable USB electronics load. The great thing about it is you can log data with an app on your PC.
Brother P-Touch Cube Label Maker
I recently bought a label printer and it’s a great tool to have. I labeled all my electronic parts bins. It’s also great for printing labels for other stuff around the house. I much prefer having an app on the phone to control the printer. However, if you want to use it in the field you might prefer the self-contained units with a screen and keyboard.
It runs off of regular AAA alkaline batteries or an adapter. If you want the version with a rechargeable li-ion battery check out the P-Touch Cube Plus.
Large LED Panel Light
I have this light clamped above my workbench and it works great for extra illumination on my working area.
Small LED Panel Light
I also have this light clamped above my workbench and it works great for extra illumination on my working area.
Clamp
I use these clamps to mount lights, whiteboard mounts or other equipment(like this microscope, or hold a heatgun) onto the shelf above my workbench.
Extension Arms
I use these arms for mounting stuff like for example a heatgun onto the shelf above my workbench.
Mini Router/AP
A while ago I bought a few pieces of these mini routers. They are very small and come in very handy for setting up access points out in the field. I used one as a media server by plugging in a flash drive. I was able to stream multiple full HD movies to different clients at the same time without a problem.
Wireless Mini Touchpad Keyboard
I have a similar mini wireless keyboard and it’s very useful when you have to do some minor things on a computer/Raspberry Pi you working on.
Mini Raspberry Pi Screen
I have a similar mini screen and it comes in handy when you have to do some minor things on a computer/Raspberry Pi you working on.
Smartphone Endoscope Camera
Cheap endoscope camera that attaches to your smartphone. Useful to inspect tight spaces. The cable can be a bit too flexible for certain use cases compared to the more rigid ones usually present on handheld units.
Generic Hot Glue Gun
A hot glue gun is a must have around your workshop. I use it all the time in my projects.
Electric Screwdriver
I have a similar electric screwdriver and it makes screwing/unscrewing stuff much easier and faster. But it’s not very powerful and it’s more suitable for small screws. For example, if you are repairing a laptop and you need to remove a whole bunch o small screws this would be the perfect tool.
Cordless Electric Screwdriver
I have a similar electric screwdriver and it makes screwing/unscrewing stuff much easier and faster. This one is much stronger than the one listed above making it suitable for larger things.
