Pin 7 on a cannon plug almost cost me a 4 hour delay in Phoenix
Was doing a pitot static check on a King Air at a ramp in Phoenix last month. Got a flaky airspeed indication on the left side during the leak test. Spent 20 minutes chasing the wrong thing, swapped the ADM, still flaky. Turned out pin 7 in the cannon plug had a hair of corrosion you could barely see under a light. I pulled the pin, cleaned it with contact cleaner, and re crimped a fresh one. Airspeed came back solid and we released the plane 40 minutes late instead of 4 hours. Now I keep a cheap USB microscope in my go bag for pins like that. What do you guys use to spot corrosion you can't see with the naked eye?
Twenty minutes of extra work sounds like a normal part of troubleshooting, not something a USB microscope would have saved you on. Chasing the wrong thing first is how you actually rule stuff out, and pulling every pin to stare at it just adds chances to break a good connection.