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The one tool that is really worth the investment is a service/toner vacuum cleaner.

These things rock at the part of computer repair that sucks the most (no phun), the cleaning.

You can use compressed air and clean out your shop every ten computers as you just spread dust around. (Also am I the only one who hasn`t masterd these enough to prevent them from blowing dust in your face?) You can used a normal vacuum cleaner and try to use the big bulky thing to clean out every little corner while risking sucking a vacuum between the mainboard and the case cousing it to bend and/or crack. These tonar cleaners have a flexible thin rubber nozle that fits between pci cards, hard disks well, everywhere.

Now that I googled one I realised how expensive these are, but the one I used was a leftover over from the copier repair days of someone.

BTW, check out the Xcelite PRO-SERIES ergo screwdrivers (model #XPE500 for the 5 piece). I love these things -- using quality German made handtools is really satisfying. I think I paid $25 at Fry's.

Someone mod parent up....

Seriously, if you travel via air, none of these work. If you travel, you are going to have to pack everything tool-wise, since nothing is allowed in your pockets anymore. Given that, Jensen is your friend.... That being said, there's nothing wrong with Craftsman. Visit your local Sears, and assemble a small kit. Consider including a 1/4" ratchet, sockets, and some pliers. I'd recommend a small set of vice-grip needlenose, a set of straight and curved needlenose w/ wirecutters, and a small set of snap ring pliers. A versatile bit-driver and a set of bits (flat, crosstip, hex, torx, security....) rounds it out. Not much you CAN'T work on give this, and it will all fit in a shaving kit.

For the nit-pickers, yes, I know that the TSA list specifics on exactly what is and is not allowed. Having printed the list out in preparation, and shown it to the agent at security, I still lost. My recommendation: give money to the EFF and don't piss on superman's cape in the mean time. John Gilmore is my hero.

No links to the above, other than Pseudo-Google.

The 3M velcro straps (Hook and Loop Fasteners) are great and don't cost much. They have multiple types (length, width, colors) perforated or not.

I like the 600" x 1" roll with 8" perforations. Allows me to cut them down the middle and in half if needed. 300 1/2" x 4" straps for less than $7. Great for all kinds of organization tasks.

Here are some of the places I've found them:

Mouser
Jensen Tools

AVR is indeed good. My first MCU was 8080, then some flavors of 8051; before that was just TTL, lots of it. Got to practice with them when I was repairing IBM 360/370 at school. Today I like AVR a lot, they are simple and easy to use, and AVR-GCC is fairly reliable (haven't failed on me yet, at least.) The C code translates into machine commands quite well - AVR was marketed as RISC optimized for high level languages. I can believe that.

PIC ... never worked with them; I treat them as dinosaurs of MCU world. But at previous job we had a portable device where a PIC (24-pin or something) was used. Why? Because the engineer knew PICs and had the tools. That's the only reason.

And with regard to Ford Pinto ... I am not *that* old, thank you :-) I just read a lot. But I don't own anything Ford anyway, just in case :-) Prefer to stay with something more reliable (being dirt cheap helps too :-)

Jensen's 'Create-A-Kit" is kind of neat to see the selection of tools available to you.

Get a $5 cheap kit, and make note as you go what tools you need, and aquire them. Jensen Tools is a good place to check out. Kind of pricey, but a pretty good selection of tools,. test equipment, etc.