Showerthought: Those cheap panel testers I wrote off actually saved my butt on a Cessna 172

I was totally skeptical about the $40 Drok tester from Amazon, figured it was just garbage for home gamers. But last Tuesday I had a stubborn intermittent fault on a nav light circuit in a 172 at KAPA and that little thing narrowed it down to a broken pin in 15 minutes. Has anyone else had a cheap tool surprise them like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam_adams18d ago

Man, I told myself the same thing, called it a glorified multimeter with a screen. Then I used one on a buddy's Archer that was doing this weird flicker on the strobes and it caught a cold solder joint I'd been chasing for two days. Guess we're all hypocrites now, huh? Just don't tell my Snap-on guy I said that, he'd lose his mind.

lilykelly18d ago

It's funny how that works, isn't it? We all have this thing where we think we know what a tool is for until we actually need it for something specific. I notice it all the time with my friends who swear they don't need a pressure washer until they see the moss on their patio, or the guys who say Bluetooth scanners are a gimmick until they're tracing wires in a ceiling. That's just human nature, I guess - we convince ourselves we're above something until it saves us a headache. And the Snap-on guy thing? Man, I feel that. Those guys get so attached to their brand loyalty, it's like they take it personally if you use something else.

alicecooper18d agoTop Commenter

You got it mostly right, but it's not a glorified multimeter. A multimeter can't do what a thermal camera does. The multimeter is for voltage and continuity checks while the camera sees heat. That cold solder joint you found was probably a high resistance connection heating up under load, which is exactly what those cameras are made to catch. They're just two different tools for two different jobs, even if they both help you track down electrical gremlins.