drool, the tool kit on the ISS

[mickpah]

Via Tim Peake @astro_timpeake.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timpeake/sets/72157634315750824/

betting mostly titanium too, had small titanium working MRI, light and strong best kit I ever had

[pickle9000]

No multimeter or scope?

[GeoffS]

What! no woodworking tools?

[G7PSK]

More likely to be off the shelf these days as with the Russians doing all the shifting and humping there is not so much weight problems and once up there it really dose not matter what a spanner weighs. certainly all those sockets looked like chrome plated. Nice tool box though but I don't see how they drain the sump in zero gravity after undoing the sump plug with one of those sump keys in the bottom right of the socket draw

[free_electron]

Needs a bigger hammer....

Can you imagine how the station would 'twang' if you hit it ?

[mickpah]

Needs a bigger hammer....

Can you imagine how the station would 'twang' if you hit it ?

"in space no one can hear your scream" - old favorite

[EEVblog]

No multimeter or scope?

That raises the question - what test gear do they use on the ISS?
If any?
I can't imagine they would even have a need for circuit level repair or soldering?

[mickpah]

P.S. I mentioned non magnetic MRI safe tools - check the prices !

http://www.universalmedicalinc.com/Non-Magnetic-Tools-s/171.htm

[dr.diesel]

No multimeter or scope?

Not having a basic multimeter would be a huge fail IMO.  You just never know and being able to test for power, voltage across a switch etc would be priceless if SHTF.

[mikeselectricstuff]

No multimeter or scope?

That raises the question - what test gear do they use on the ISS?
If any?
I can't imagine they would even have a need for circuit level repair or soldering?

Why? carrying spare assemblies would be a lot of weight, so the ability to diagnose and repair at component level would be essential.

[WBB]

Needs a bigger hammer....

Can you imagine how the station would 'twang' if you hit it ?

I can't imagine the procedure one would have to go through in order to get permission to use a hammer on the thing.

[madires]

Why? carrying spare assemblies would be a lot of weight, so the ability to diagnose and repair at component level would be essential.

I'm not sure, but that would require spare parts, tools, some chemicals (conformal coating), a way of dealing with fumes (from soldering and the chemicals) and someone with the knowdledge how to fix those electronics. That adds weight too and requires storage space. Does soldering work without gravity? Your drop of flux went that way :-) (ok, gel type flux fixes that) My best guess would be that they got tools for wiring, wire, connectors and a DMM, more like a sparky than an electronics repair shop.

BTW: Where's the duct tape?

[EEVblog]

Why? carrying spare assemblies would be a lot of weight, so the ability to diagnose and repair at component level would be essential.

Yeah, but who's got the skill to do it?
I suspect everything up there would be a redundant system anyway, and spares would be the only option. I doubt they would have the tools, talent, or time to dick around troubleshooting any product to component level.
Does soldering in zero g even work? I think they might have some problems...

Checking Google...
It seems it does strange stuff:
http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/16aug_solder/
Given that they only decided to seriously experiment with soldering in space in 2004 (some done before that mixed results), I'd say it's safe to assume that soldering and hence electronic component level troubleshooting and repair is not even contemplated on the ISS.

I would be surprised if they don't have a multimeter to measure system level stuff though.
A scope would be unlikely I think.

[EEVblog]

Fluke claim to have flown on the shuttle:
http://www.fluke.com/fluke/usen/community/fluke-news-plus/articlecategories/rd/25-years+of+dmms.htm

These multimeter pressure modules are used on the space shuttle and ISS they claim:
http://www.transcat.com/PDF/crystal.pdf

[N TYPE]

Imagine if they socketed every component to get around the problem of soldering...
Board needs re-capping? No Worries! O0

[calmtron]

They seem to have had an Rohde & Schwarz FSH3 speccy onboard as well:
Glossy marketing brochure with pictures from ISS

[ftransform]

historical nasa footage of component level trouble shooting in space:

[mikeselectricstuff]

Why? carrying spare assemblies would be a lot of weight, so the ability to diagnose and repair at component level would be essential.

Yeah, but who's got the skill to do it?

Repair is easy - diagnosis is the hard part, and that can be done with remote expertise on the ground.

I suspect everything up there would be a redundant system anyway, and spares would be the only option.

Bear in mind there will be a lot of stuff there that is not mission or safety critical, like all the experiments etc. that the whole thing was actually built for.

[peter.mitchell]

Holly shit, i'd actually bu some of these!
http://www.universalmedicalinc.com/Titanium-Phillips-Screwdriver-p/71726-umi.htm

[ftransform]

Holly shit, i'd actually bu some of these!
http://www.universalmedicalinc.com/Titanium-Phillips-Screwdriver-p/71726-umi.htm

mail some to dave and he will do a magnetic mine teardown tuesday

[SeanB]

They have a soldering iron, seen it on the videos being used. Must have a DMM as well, most likely a Fluke as well, and the duct tape is not an optional extra either, leak sealer, hold downs, getting space suits to fit, fixing worn gloves, emergency hole fix kit and such. AFAIK the emergency hole kit is a set of  adhesive rubber patches and a lot of training on doing it fast. If it is so big it does not fit then you are dead anyway. Remember a lot of the walls are not much thicker than 1.2mm alloy.

[nctnico]

Needs a bigger hammer....
Can you imagine how the station would 'twang' if you hit it ?

Don't ever let me near the ISS! 

However I doubt a soldering iron will do much good. Most of the critical circuits are build using ultrasonic bonding:

Further they seem to use consumer grade laptops and guitars:

[Dave]

I think you'd have a hard time finding an outer space grade guitar.
The laptops are probably high-reliability business grade.

[pickle9000]

Looks like they have a scopemeter, and they had trouble charging the one belonging to the Russians.

http://search.nasa.gov/search/search.jsp?nasaInclude=scopemeter&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=nasa_collection&client=nasa_production&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&simple_start=&news_start=&images_start=&videos_start=&podcasts_start=&baynoteOrGSA=baynote

[pickle9000]

Here is an interesting snippet.

From http://www.sae.org/aeromag/features/spacestation/ interesting bit below.

Diagnostic tools will be primarily used to perform fault isolation. Crew members will remove a defective ORU, carry it to the MWA, open it up, and use the diagnostic equipment to pinpoint the faulty component. Once identified, the component will be replaced, and the diagnostic equipment is again used to determine if the repair was successful. For situations in which the ORU cannot be removed, the diagnostic tools can be carried to the unit for maintenance.

EVAs are performed outside the station using special tools, tethers, and aids.

One such diagnostic tool is a scopemeter, which is a combination of a multimeter and oscilloscope manufactured by the Fluke Co. It can be used to measure voltage, current, and resistance to detect, digitize, store, and display waveforms with frequencies up to 100 MHz. Using special probes, it can also measure temperature and pressure. The scopemeter features a liquid crystal display and is powered by a rechargeable power pack. This tool was shipped to ISS during flight 2R in October 2000. Another one will be sent up on assembly flight 6A in April.

Another piece of equipment to be hauled on flight 6A is a pin kit, which is housed in a Nomex pouch and has some of the same components as the one used by the Space Shuttle crew. Items unique to the ISS pin kit include prefabricated jumper/test cables, materials for manufacturing custom jumper cables, alligator clips, and assorted fuses.

ISS crews also use a logic analyzer, which consists of a portable computer, a portable computer memory card international adapter (PCMCIA), and LabVIEW software. The PCMCIA card has numerous probes to allow the computer to monitor several different points in a circuit or several circuits simultaneously. The logic analyzer application software is designed to monitor the logical state ("1" or "0"; high or low, etc.) of particular points within a circuit or electronic component.

A function/sweep generator produces standard waveforms - sine, saw-tooth, and square - to diagnose electronic circuits and perform fault isolation. Generally, this tool is used to inject a known reference signal (wave) into a circuit; the output of the circuit is monitored with the scopemeter or the logic analyzer. The function/sweep generator used onboard the ISS is an off-the-shelf unit that has been repackaged in a new cabinet and adapted to operate from 120 V dc power.

A power strip is also employed. It plugs into a standard UOP and provides four UOP type sockets, each of which can be switched on and off independently. The four sockets can be used to provide data connections. The unit also features a removable fuse.