Wasted $300 on a "universal" avionics tester that was anything but

Tbh I saw this ad for a generic avionics tester online that claimed it could handle everything from old King radios to modern Garmin stuff. Pulled the trigger for $300 and was hyped when it showed up last month. Hooked it up to a KX 155 to check some static and the thing gave me readings that made zero sense. Spent a whole afternoon trying to calibrate it and even emailed the seller who just sent me a PDF in broken English. Ended up borrowing a buddy's Fluke meter and found the issue in 10 minutes. That tester now sits in the back of my van collecting dust. Has anyone else fallen for one of these cheap all-in-one gadgets from some random website?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey1623d ago

That $300 tester sounds like the same Chinese rebrand I got burned on two years ago. The PDF they sent me was a manual for a COMPLETELY different model with wiring diagrams that didn't match anything. I tried it on a old Narco radio and got voltage spikes that would have fried the board if I hadn't unplugged it fast. Your best bet is to cut your losses and use it as a paperweight or tear it apart for the case and connectors, some of those can be repurposed. Real avionics troubleshooting just takes a solid DMM and a known good signal source, not some mystery box.

miamitchell23d ago

Kind of depends on what you're trying to fix though...

alexw7523d ago

Did you ever figure out if the Chinese brand actually rebranded it to something safer or just kept selling the same junk under different names? I remember tearing one of those apart and finding a generic TI chip with no heatsink, which explained the random spikes. Honestly, if you need a signal source, just build a simple 400 Hz oscillator for less than fifty bucks and skip the nightmare.