Cool electronics tools

Hand tools, soldering irons, scopes, multimeters. Talk about em HERE!

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zburhop
 
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Cool electronics tools

Post by zburhop »

So this may sound silly but..... I'm a Industrial Designer that does a bunch of electronics work. I'm looking at spending some money on some well built cool designed electronics tools. Soldering irons, multimeters etc. Does anyone make some cool looking and innovative stuff for a younger trendier market? I am so sick of Bright yellow flukes, or craftsman red etc. Their design is like that of a broom. Functional but ugly and boring. It just seems like something i use so often and look at constantly could at least be designed well and look good. Any recommendations would be awesome!

Thanks,
Zach

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by Franklin97355 »

For a soldering station you can't beat http://www.hakkousa.com/detail.asp?CID= ... 085&Page=1 for "Cool looking" or you could always get some sugru and mod your own. Most electronics people are more interested in quality, precise equipment over "cool looking stuff" since most of the time it's sitting on the bench just working as it should.

zburhop
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by zburhop »

Thanks for the reply Franklin. Im looking for something a little more professional looking . Just some very well designed stuff. You develop such a relationship with your tools it'd be nice to find something i actually care about.

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by Franklin97355 »


zburhop
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by zburhop »

Im sure technically they perform fine but they are all soooo ugly. There is no ergonomics....or thought put into button placement or labeling etc. Just giant bricks....... I'm sure youve seen little bits.... they are doing great as far as using color and good materials and actually thinking about how people use this hardware. Not to be cliche but if Apple designed a soldering iron...it certainly wouldn't be like any of these.

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics ... ire-design


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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I'm an instrumentation guy, so my opinion is diametrically opposed to yours. I couldn't care less what kind of shell someone puts around a meter if I was being paid by the meh. The shell doesn't take measurements. The functional part on the inside is where the excitement lives, so I'll take a brick if it has >30M impedance, 10 microvolt resolution, and a NIST-traceable calibration certificate.

I'll admit that it's hard to design a truly elegant enclosure for a device. It's easy to stick a rubbish mechanism inside a beautiful shell though. It's also hard to create a device capable of maintaining statistical process control at high precision, and that's where the 'there' is when it comes to measurement gear.

Tools are functional objects, and the first rule of good design is that form *follows* function. If you have to sacrifice function for form, you're looking at a bad design.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

I design instruments for use by non-instrumentation types, so I'll stake out the middle ground. We work with industrial designers to build sleek cabinets and attractive "push button - get answer" types of interfaces for the end users.

But under the hood we also need to design in incredibly detailed diagnostic interfaces to convince the electrical, mechanical, chemical, software and regulatory types that things are working as advertised and to diagnose problems as they arise. The ergonomics of the end user are not the same as the engineers that work on it. We need to make it easy to get at the information they need to see. That includes access to raw sensor data, precising event timings, calibration history etc. The resulting interface may not look pretty to you, but it is exactly what is needed.

Considering that the target market for electronics tools consists mainly of "show me the raw data" types who tend to eye 'slick' interfaces with distrust, the products are generally going to favor functionality over form.

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by Franklin97355 »

And here is your next car? http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/0 ... r-designs/

Sorry, not enough sleep.....

zburhop
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by zburhop »

And here is your next multi meter....... :lol:
single-brick.jpg
single-brick.jpg (12.04 KiB) Viewed 1388 times
sorry couldn't resist.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Do you have a spec sheet for that?

zburhop
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by zburhop »

So back to the topic..... I understand what everyone is saying. But i feel I am being misunderstood. There is no such thing as a rubbish product stuck into a good looking shell. A failure on either side of the coin means a rubbish product. Im just looking for some stuff that covers all the angles. Good function, good looks, good materials, and good quality = Good products. But it seems that this recent apple inspired trend of good design has not trickled into this market yet.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

But it seems that this recent apple inspired trend of good design has not trickled into this market yet.
You mean the 'good design' that hides things I need to see and doesn't let me run the software I need to run? What is 'good design' for the common consumer is not necessarily the computer "for the rest of us". Good design needs to serve needs of the market - not the ego of the designer.

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by Franklin97355 »

But it seems that this recent apple inspired trend of good design has not trickled into this market yet.
I hear you but I don't think the market for high quality tools cares enough about aesthetics to prompt most manufacturers to spend money on design. You could always design your own and have them 3D printed or mold them with sugru.

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brucef
 
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Re: Cool electronics tools

Post by brucef »

I'd say that the MacBook line demonstrates that 'good design' vs 'don't hide the things' is a false dichotomy, but I'll let someone else die on that battlefield if they really care one way or the other.

What I think tools may benefit from more than improved aesthetics is better human factors engineering, of the sort that was done to improve air safety starting a few decades back. Hakko was mentioned earlier; I like the aesthetic of my FX-888 well enough, but the fact that you can't tell at a glance whether it is on or off is a glaring design flaw. Also, they really should have auto-shutoff like (some?) Weller stations do. You can probably go through every tool on your bench that is more complicated than a pair of tweezers and find ways that they could be improved from a human factors perspective.

That said, I bet there is a market for attractively designed electronics tools, particularly in the hobbyist market. Companies like Saleae probably do better sales than they otherwise would thanks to their attention to detail in product design.

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