Tools of the Trade

Being in the field again for the past week has been a good reminder that every AV programmer should equip themselves with some essential tools. I foolishly cleaned out my backpack last week because I wanted to have an easier time passing through security at the airport. Normally I take everything out of my backpack, dump it into my checked bag, then when I get where I’m going, transfer everything back into my backpack. Oh well, lesson learned.

Essentials

Here are the things you really need to bring.

Laptop with necessary USB dongles

You can’t program from a tablet or your phone. Bring a full-size laptop. And because laptops don’t have all the necessary ports on them anymore, make sure to bring USB dongles that allow you to talk to Ethernet and RS-232. And make sure you have a charger! I once forgot to pack my charger but that was in the days of Radio Shack where you could still run out and find one the same day.

Wireless router

Sometimes the equipment rack will be hiding somewhere in the room, but usually it’s going in the IDF closet. And if you need to plug into equipment in the closet, you won’t be able to see or hear what’s happening in the room. There’s just no way you can commission audio without you (or someone on the phone) being in the room.

On this trip, I left my router at home. So today I went to Best Buy to pick up a new one. Everything they sell in store is Wi-Fi 6 mesh network, smartphone-configured, absolutely refuses to do anything unless it can phone home to the Internet. I had to purchase one and hope for the best. It finally let me bypass having an Internet connection, but I felt like I went around in circles in the setup app until it felt sorry for me.

This also means you should have a couple 6 foot patch cables so you can connect devices to your private network. Bring at least 2!

Extron Tweaker

An Extron tweaker is indispensable. You’ll need one to flip pin-outs if they’re wrong, set hard to access switches or rotary encoders on devices, use to release stubborn RJ45 tabs, etc. They come free in every Extron box so there’s no reason not to have several just in case you misplace it (or someone “borrows” it).

The Extron ones are the best because you can flip the driver bit to get + or – heads.

Smartphone

This one is probably a given now, but having a camera on your person at all times is immensely valuable. Take pictures of jack numbers, IP addresses, MAC addresses, serial numbers, names, maps, etc. I wish I would remember to delete all these pictures before they get uploaded to Dropbox, but sometimes they end up being backup documentation when somebody asks after I’ve left the job site.

And if you need Internet access, you can use it as a personal hotspot. Don’t forget to bring a charger though! Buildings with poor signal will make your phone deplete its battery much faster.

Wireless Mouse

If you’re stuck doing GUI design on the job site, you’re really going to want to have a wireless mouse. There’s no way anybody can keep their sanity trying to do touchpanel layouts using a track pad with all the click-and-drag, right clicking, etc. that is done using that type of software. Of course, you’ll have to find somewhere you can actually use a table surface.

Nice-to-Haves

If I know I’m going to be the only technician at a job site, I’ll give these tools more importance. But usually these can be left at home.

Flush Cutters

It never fails: installers leave and something just isn’t working. But they left their rack nicely dressed with a 1000 zip ties. If you need to trace a wire that goes into a big bundle, sometimes you’re just going to have to cut those ties.

I might end up cutting out 10 zip ties and replacing them with only 3 once I’ve got things working again, and it looks almost as clean as it did before.

Or better, if they’ve used Velcro strips, that’s a much easier way to fix things you’re forced to pull apart.

Cable Tester

90% of AV terminations now are RJ45. It pays to have a cable tester so you can verify that connectivity is good before you start chasing other problems like wondering if you have the right control protocol.

And sometimes you find out that a cable was marked differently at both ends and what’s plugged in actually goes nowhere…

Level

Oops, you had to get behind the TV to check something and you bumped the camera as well. If you’ve got a level, no worries, it’s easy to get everything looking good again.

And sometimes installers don’t leave things level either…

HDMI to USB Capture

These can be handy to turn your laptop into a display. Sometimes you need to see what’s on-screen but you’re stuck in the rack, plugged directly into the equipment. You can use the Camera app in Windows to select the HDMI Capture device and turn your laptop into a monitor.

Leave It at Home

Here are some things that seem like they’d be good to carry around, but really you’re just weighing yourself down.

Portable Monitor

Unless you’re in a finished space, there’s not going to be a surface where you can plonk down a portable monitor. These can be handy when you need to reference drawings while programming, or see the touchpanel layout and the code at the same time, but they take up so much space.

Summary

This post was largely sparked by me forgetting to pack some essentials on this trip, so I figured I’d leave myself a note so it doesn’t happen again next year!