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A huge online magazine just published a story about the “wireless power tools” homeowners should buy.
They recommended the Dewalt Tool Connect drill or impact driver because such are “commonly misplaced tools.”
The Milwaukee One-Key impact driver kit, which retails for $349, was described as “the most practical wireless tool” for “most home shops.”
This is completely wrong.
Tool tracking is mainly for inventory management, so you can see which tools are at which jobsite. The tech doesn’t seem to have the resolution needed for homeowners to figure out which corner of the basement or garage they left their drill or impact.
Let’s say there’s a red ball rolling around a dark shopping mall. There are 10 people at random locations, each with with a flashlight. Will one of them see the red ball? What if there are 100 people? 500? How many people with flashlights are needed to find a red ball placed in the mall?
Tool tracking networks are not – from what I have seen and heard – large enough to be very practical outside of inventory management and tracking.
How many people have Dewalt, Milwaukee, and other apps on their phones continuously looking for the Bluetooth beacons built into trackable tool and tags?
The article also had factual inaccuracies – no, you can’t automatically pair any Makita LXT tool to any Makita LXT vacuum for automatic dust collection. That’s AWS, and it requires compatible tools and add-on modules at ~$70 each.
Can’t find your worklight when working in the dark? Use your phone to turn it on.
Or – and forgive me for suggesting such a wild idea – can’t you just use your phone’s flashlight mode to find your work light, connected or not?
Connected tools and tracking tech have purpose. But to encourage tool tracking as a must-have for homeowners that tend to misplace their cordless power tools and gear? That seems very difficult to justify.
If you’re a homeowner or DIYer and don’t know why you might want connected tools with tool tracking capabilities, you probably don’t need them.
Sure, One-Key can alert you when connected tools need maintenance. But here’s the catch – the impact driver encouraged by the author as “the most practical” for home users doesn’t require regular maintenance, and certainly not the kind One-Key will alert users about.
I think this tool tracking tech can be very useful for many types of professional users, but it’s not well-suited to the needs of homeowners that misplaced their tools in between DIY projects.
That’s my opinion – tell me yours.
