Dropped $180 on a bench power supply for laptop board repair and it paid for itself in a month
Last year I was doing board-level repairs on laptops with a cheap multimeter and guessing at shorted rails, which cost me two customer boards and about $400 in replacements. I bought a used Korad bench supply for $180 off a guy in Grand Rapids, and being able to inject voltage and watch the current draw has let me find shorts in 10 minutes instead of an hour. Curious what tool you all bought that actually made you money back versus the ones that just sat on the shelf.