Page 172 - Make Your Own PCBs with EAGLE from Schematic Designs to Finished Boards

FIGURE 7-2 Multimeter.

You do not need to spend a lot of money on a multimeter. A basic entry-level multimeter costing
just a few dollars will do just fine most of the time. The most important setting that you will use most
of the time is direct-current (dc) volts in a range of 0 to 20 V.

It is also useful to have a dc current setting of up to a few hundred milliamperes and a continuity
test that buzzes when the test leads are connected together. Everything else is just bells and whistles
that you might use once in a blue moon.

Most of the time, accuracy is pretty irrelevant too. When things go wrong, it is usually a matter of
orders of magnitude. Thus, if your multimeter indicates a current of 10 mA when the current is
actually 12 mA, that is usually good enough. It’s when the current is 100 mA and you were expecting
10 mA there is a real problem.

Soldering Station

Although you can get by with a soldering iron that plugs directly into an alternating-current (ac) outlet

and has no way of adjusting the temperature, it is worth spending a few extra dollars on something
that is thermostatically controlled and can accept fine-pointed tips (Figure 7-3). Make sure that you
avoid anything advertised as being suitable for plumbing use.