recommended tools and equipment

[drewmerc]

pin header's

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=pin+...le+-female
buy a big strip and cut to size

jumper wires

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=1+pin+jumper+wires
great for when you need a cable that's not Motorola standard

multimeters

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=digi...86.c0.m359
everything i read on the net says get a good one, but i have had the same shitty pound shop (dollar store for you yanks) one and honestly i have no idea what 99% of the crap it does as i only use the buzzer function to test if a connections good


dental picks/tweezers

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=anti+static+tweeze

test hooks

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p...s&_sacat=0

tubes i deleted your post, well because i want this post next to the other
i also left off, good optical magnifying equipment because i have never used it(i wear glasses and never needed to look that close) and enameled as wire i have a large roll of ethernet wire and so i use that (and old ide cables i love them i'll collect them when ever i see an old system that shit is great for making cables)
as for legacy stuff i have a buffered jtag cable but speed is no different from an unbuffered one so pointless, i did build a max 233 cable (max233 chip removes the need for caps, i loved that cable first proper cable i built only thing i did wrong was i should have used no clean flux as it rotted after a few years), i had a willem programmer for programming tsop's but i lost the tsop48 adaptor (if i need to program a tsop now i hotswap them)