I thought those cheap thermal cameras from Harbor Freight were junk until one found a bad connector on a King Air's autopilot. | Avionics Technicians - Hub Chatter
Man, that's so true. It's like the world runs on cheap tools doing jobs they weren't meant for. I've seen a mechanic use a $20 borescope from Amazon to find a lost socket in an engine block. Or a buddy who fixed a weird electrical short in his car with a $5 circuit tester from the auto parts store. Sometimes the fancy gear just gets in the way, and the simple, cheap thing shows you the problem right away.