What kind of hobbyist electronic testing gear would you recommend for these hardware Arduino projects? Can you be specific as I have old analog gear but hoping for some guidance on new digital gear?
Thank you
Analog DMM and o'scope seem adequate.
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I have used USB logic analyzers. The most reliable and best supported, but rather pricey, is the Digilent.
There are many very inexpensive units as well. I used one several years back, and it did a nice job for the price. Here is an example.
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99% of the time all that’s needed is an inexpensive DMM.
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Very seldomly, a digital oscilloscope (ex. Rigol) might be useful.
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Suggest you put some effort into learning how to properly solder SMD devices (if you haven’t already mastered the skills).
One possible DIY method:
There are other posts in the thread that might be of interest.
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Thank you for all the tips...soldering is not an issue, but I am a bit "old school" so will review latest trends. Thanks for the video clips and gear suggestions everyone
Just a +1 on the inexpensive logic analyser linked and all the ones that look like they come out the same factory somewhere.
I got one thinking I'd prolly be wasting money, big surprise… my "real" instrument gets much less use.
But beyond gear is just developing some skillz using simple instant available things like serial printing and strategic LED blinking and such like.
Beyond not writing errors into you code in the first place (!), you can go quite a ways with carefully designed theories and simple proofs thereof.
And while I do use hardware occasionally, I've gotten in the habit of making the software as close as possible to both complete and perfect using regular command line C programs and more lately the wokwi simulator.
Anything you've heard that amounts to "divide and conquer" is good advice. We see ppl with the entire remote control internets capable flying robot battle cat feeder all wired up and coded and totally not working at all here alla time.
a7
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Another vote for the inexpensive logic analyzer. I was also skeptical, but I use it much more than my expensive (4 channel 1Gsp) scope. The only time I use the scope is if I need to see the actual waveform or more speed than the 24 MHz max sample rate on the inexpensive logic analyzer.
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On the topic of DMMs - most of the time the cheap ones will be sufficient, most of the time the 1% - 5% accuracy is enough. Things like is the voltage about 5V vs 3.3V vs 0? Is the circuit drawing 10 or 50 ma?
Most of the time with digital circuits just knowing the ball park is enough. If you get into checking analog converters you will need a better meter but you can do a lot inexpensive ones.
I have one expensive meter and several inexpensive ones. With multiple meters you can monitor multiple voltages and currents at the same time. You can use the expensive meter to see how good the inexpensive ones are. Also if you loan someone a meter the inexpensive ones are less of a worry.
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Just an excuse to get a better one today at the same price. 
One of my cheap ones is so good I'd buy it again if I could find it, I am surprised at how useful I have found its frequency meter with duty cycle readout.
I can't say it would work for a wide range of input amplitudes, but it will def you you the skinny on what you've decided to put out on a spare pin.
a7
- A simple DIY LED logic probe can be useful too.
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Thank you for this video. Man has things changed on the surface mount side of soldering!
Good quality DMM. I use Southwire 11060S and I haven't electrocuted myself with it yet.
With all these +1s on the logic analyzer I may have to treat myself!
Army of full scale humanoid robots to do almost anything a human can do? Someone's working on it...good luck is all I have to offer at this point.
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The most used piece of "test gear" that I own is a "lab style" constant-current, constant-voltage power supply.
Not mentioned but a useful simulator before the breadboard stage: https://wokwi.com
Except it was!
but it bears repeating. And linking to, THX.
This simulator has been a real game changer, it makes my own work easier and has provided a means for working with problems ppl bring here that is much faster than lashing up real circuits.
The wokwi has many of the commonly used parts, and for missing ones proxies are fairly easy to construct.
I've variously hacked away stuff I just don't want to deal with, like MIDI, sometimes to the extent of making my own objects with the same functions, or others just using print statements.
I have to remind myself to stand up, usually fetching real parts means I'm never parked on my arm for very long.
a7
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Okay, since this has been brought up, I’ll give a shout out to real hardware prototyping.
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Won’t participate in quality of the hardware, however, you get what you pay for.
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Servo driven parts tumbler? Very Lazy Susan?
I gots to know.
a7
Ouch! I scanned the thread and didn't see it.