It is handy for partners to have a few tools available to assist with provisioning and debugging devices. They are detailed below.
Bench Top Power Supply
Extremely useful for powering on our powered devices, setting their ignition on etc.
0-24V is more than enough range. (Our powered devices will work fine on 8V)
It can be handy to have a model which has 2 supplies. Then one can power the device and one can provide an ignition source. Doesn't need to be expensive or high spec.
Variable supplies are useful as then features such as run detect can be tested.
Example (not tested by DM)
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/sra-soldering-products/KA3005D/2260-KA3005D-ND/10708362
Multimeter
Handy for testing a variety of things such as
- Whether a switched ground output is functioning
- What voltage is being supplied to an input
Battery Tester
The open circuit voltage of a battery is usually not a very reliable way to determine the charge of the battery. A bit of load needs to be applied to determine if the battery is dead or not.
A battery tester is a worthwhile investment when provisioning devices.
All batteries degrade over time, or you could just have a bad batch. If a particular few batteries have been on the shelf on the store for a long time, or exposed to high temperatures, they may not perform well and lead to early device failure.
A battery tester will apply some load to the battery and then return an indication as to the level of charge it contains.
This tester is one we have used and found it works well - there are others on the market.
ZTS MBT-1
https://www.ztsinc.com/mbt1.html