What's in Your Toolbox?

Embedded Geek asks: "I am a software developer with access to (conservatively) $100K worth of emulators, protocol analyzers, and debugging equipment at work. Nevertheless, as in every lab since Frankenstein's, I can never find a meter or screwdriver when I need one - and God help you if you need electrical tape! Over the years I have accumulated a personal toolkit to fill the gaps between what my employer provides and what I need to get my job done. In addition to the basics (a meter, screwdrivers, cable ties, boxcutter, extra power cables, duct tape) I have a number of oddball items that have come in handy (serial cable gender changers & converters, a dental mirror, dental picks). I'm curious what other items slashdotters doing hardware/software development have found useful that their bosses never provide. What about those in the IT/support world?"

Comments

Forceps

[secret_squirrel_99]

I keep several pair in my box.. Great for pulling screws out of tight spots, fishing wires.. etc

What i ALWAYS have:

[Unknown Poltroon]

Lockblade pocket knife
Victornox(accept no substitutes)swiss army knife.
Leatherman
Paper clips.

I have rarely ever found myself needing more.

All I do

[Apreche]

is usually build PCs. And not as often as I'd like (the poorness!) but my favorite tool is the little grabby thing that gets loose screws out from motherboards. When doing any work with a pc and screws it is guaranteed you will drop a screw onto the board at least once. Radio Shack makes great computer tool kits.

Headlight

[linuxwrangler]

My favorite is the LED Petzel "Zipka" (sp??). It's quite small, the batteries last a very long time, and the unit is thin enough on your forehead that it doesn't get in the way when you have to squeeze back/under/over/beside your desk/rack/computer to see/insert/remove a serial-number/cable/screw...

Tools

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

A couple of old laptops, set to boot dos and run a terminal emulator. Use them all the time. Dos boot disks with Aefdsk, fdisk, format and debug. Jumpers and paper clips to jumper pins 2-3 of RS-232 connectors to loopback signals. A lineman's handset, preferably obtained in the traditional way. RJ-45 and RJ-11 crimper, connectors and cable. Extra ethernet hub, patch cables and crossover cables. Spare SDRAM modules Everyone else's username and password.

chemicals in my toolbox

[dunkelfalke]

one important section of my toolbox are various chemicals:

isopropanol for cleaning various surfaces
good thermal grease (for changing coolers)
instant and epoxy glue
ballistol (for saving fans, great lubricant, not only for weapons)
sea water spray (for my poor nose if i must work in dusty environment)

Re:What I Carry

[Telastyn]

In addition:
1 15' ethernet cable
1 3' crossover cable
1 ethernet linker
1 $5 generic telephone with phone line
a small CD binder with:
A Dos boot disk
A Tom's root boot disk
An imaging floppy (ghost or whatever)
A win2k cd
A Linux cd of choice
A cd full of network drivers
A MS Office cd
A cd of sun freeware

Metal nibbler

[JumpSuit Boy]

AKA sheet metal nibbler. The case has an extra flange just where the full length isa card is suppost to go. No problem. Plus no more ragged edges from when you hacked it out with your leatherman.

http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=NIBB LE R

Velcro

[spudwiser]

i think velcro might actually (no fooling) be the official way of bundling cable runs according to the IEEE. we learned this in my Cisco class in high school. i just use tie-wraps :)