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Shoutout to the tech in Springfield who showed me his new coax tester
I was on a job with him last month and he had this new Klein Tools VDV512-100. We tested the same line, first with my old punch-down tester and then with his. The old one showed a clean signal, but his unit flagged a 12 dB drop at 750 MHz that we couldn't see before. We traced it back to a bad connector under some insulation in the attic. Took us maybe 20 extra minutes to fix it, but saved a callback for sure. What other tools have you guys picked up lately that caught problems you'd normally miss?
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fiona_carr265mo ago
A cheap toner saved me from a nasty ground loop last week.
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emma965mo ago
Grabbed a thermal camera on a whim last year. Spotted a hot connection in a panel that felt fine to the touch. It was just starting to arc and would have failed in a month. That little tool pays for itself by finding what you can't see.
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corah755mo ago
Honestly that's wild it felt fine to the touch. Makes you wonder how many little problems are hiding in plain sight. What kind of thermal camera did you end up with? I've seen some cheaper phone-attachment ones, but I'm not sure if they're good enough to catch something that subtle.
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