ISO: diagnostics tools

[Andrei Kogan <abk@phy.duke.edu>]

Friends,
I was looking to get a timing light to do some diagnostics. I was very
surprised by how primitive the lights available at places like Parts
America are. None of the ones I saw even had a frequency indicator, which
to me appears to be the most natural trivial electronic gadget to put on a
strobe light. Seems like $70 is too much to pay for what one can accomplish
with a modified $10  photo flash. Are there any affordable combination
tools on the market which you guys like? Ideally, I would like to see a
timing light with a frequency display  and an electronic phase angle
ajustment, with an embedded arrow-type meter which would complement a
typical multimeter with some exotic capabilities such as  duty-cycle
measurements. Also, since I have no garage and hence no available 110V AC ,
I was wondering if one can find an inexpensive battery-operated
oscilloscope. I have  a couple of high tech $10,000 scopes in my lab, but,
unfortunately,  low temp labs don't have car bays, god knows why.