[HN Gopher] Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide
___________________________________________________________________
Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide
Author : stacktrust
Score : 363 points
Date : 2023-05-11 15:09 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (badar.tech)
(TXT) w3m dump (badar.tech)
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| I know this is probably the dumbest question but I hate mounting
| swivel arm monitors / TVs to stud wall / plasterboard. The stud
| is either in wrong place and all the clever expanding screw fix
| things just seem ... meh.
|
| I miss brick walls
| ablyveiled wrote:
| I wish I had the living situation to implement this.
| hommelix wrote:
| Is it me or it looks like an amazon affiliate links farm?
| rudedogg wrote:
| Yes, but it's all well researched and they obviously spent a
| lot of time finding a good setup. I think quality stuff like
| this deserves the affiliate revenue.
| inconceivable wrote:
| king hommelix decrees that people are not allowed to monetize
| recommendations lists on the internet.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| This is a very nice guide. Lots of good choices.
|
| One thing I would add is that having a solid bench with a
| replaceable surface to do dirty/cutting things on is really
| useful.
|
| I have a really solid desk I made out of scaffolding planks and
| recycled roof timbers. The surface is then made using either Ikea
| bamboo chopping boards (they were on offer) or some other
| replaceable work top.
|
| Another thing that might be useful for Beginners +1 is a second
| hand bench top multimeter. This is only useful if you are not
| going to be mobile. They have the advantage that they are always
| there, and aren't moved much. If you have a more fancy o-scope,
| this isn't probably needed as you can do most things on that
| (once you've learnt how to.)
|
| This is personal preference, so do take this as a personal
| opinion.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| Bench meters generally have higher precision that handheld
| units. For voltage and current that doesn't always add much
| value but this is particularly useful on the Ohmmeter where you
| can track down shorts by small changes in resistance that can't
| be detected with a low precision device.
| cellularmitosis wrote:
| they also typically have some sort of serial output, which
| opens up a whole world of data logging.
| rzzzt wrote:
| I see "self-healing" cutting mats all the time in tech videos,
| with the measurement grid and angles printed on top. I'd like
| to get one at some point.
| atoav wrote:
| As someone who runs an University electronics lab I'd
| recommend to instead get on or more silicone mats (they come
| with slots for small parts and such). They withstand heat
| better (curtting mats can deform permanently when heated
| wrongly), prooved to be more durable and are very easy to
| clean.
|
| If you need a cutting mat for actual precision cutting of
| paper, get one and treat it carefully.
| JohnFen wrote:
| I have both the silicone antistatic mat and a cutting mat.
| Different tools for different purposes. I would never
| solder anything on the cutting mat, nor cut anything on the
| silicone mat.
|
| If I could only have one of those two, it would be the
| silicone mat. The cutting mat is great, but really, you can
| use any expendable surface in its place.
| linker3000 wrote:
| I got some 7" x 7" silicone kitchen saucepan mats from a
| bargain store. 89p each.
| dekhn wrote:
| Agree 100%: all of my cutting mats are now warped, covered
| in dried whatever, and rough-surfaced. Silicone is awesome.
| OJFord wrote:
| I'm sure they're the kind of thing that can bw ludicrously
| expensive, in part because they _sound_ complicated /high-
| tech. Note that they can be really cheap, as in sub-PS10 for
| A4 maybe even A3.
|
| I just mean don't do much (or any) cutting thinking 'I should
| get one of those at some point' before getting one, as
| excuses for new tools/toys go that's a good & also cheap one!
| JohnFen wrote:
| I recommend them, they're great. When I got mine, it seemed
| like a bit of a luxury, but now it seems like essential
| equipment. Also, I recommend getting a rotary cutter (link to
| illustrate the tool type -- not a recommendation for that
| particular instance) to go along with it.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Olfa-Deluxe-Handle-Rotary-
| Cutter/dp/B...
| markrages wrote:
| A DMM is a precision tool. Especially a good 6.5 digit desktop
| one.
|
| An oscilloscope is fantastically useful, but it is not a
| precision tool. Calibration is just OK, and most use 8-bit
| converters.
| squarefoot wrote:
| Analog scopes are still a thing, especially when compared
| with cheap digital ones that often distort things or flatly
| don't show them. If one has only 150 bucks to allocate for a
| scope, unless the digital scope added functions (math,
| storage, etc) are needed, the best choice is often an used
| analog one. Digital scopes start to become interesting when
| they go up in features and price, 12/14 bit ADCs, much higher
| s/r, high res screens, etc.
| markrages wrote:
| I second this advice, and would add another reason: Buy an
| analog scope while you can still find them for cheap! They
| don't make good ones anymore. The analog scope is a
| lifetime purchase.
|
| But the calibration point still applies. On my Tek 454,
| there are calibration knobs built right into the UI. The
| user is expected to tweak and calibrate as they go, and
| depending on the measurement. (Often the shape of the
| waveform is all you are trying to see.)
| jacquesm wrote:
| For 99% of the use cases a 4.5 digit one would be plenty.
| That gives you mV accuracy up to 10V.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| This is great. My own setup would benefit a lot from some of
| these ideas. Glad to see the omnifixo in there! It's one of my
| favourite things I keep on hand.
|
| I've never found the need to keep heaps of components on hand,
| but I guess I'm not an electrical engineer or anything remotely
| like it. I just fix stuff and make junk when I'm inspired. What
| kind of situation would justify having so much stuff on hand?
| Maybe if you actually design and prototype PCBs and know which
| components you'll typically need?
| johnwalkr wrote:
| Yes, if you design and prototype PCBs you find pretty quickly
| that you don't need that many standard components. It's nice
| then to think about what you need again and again, and then
| organize it somehow. You can also just collect it over time,
| but then you end up with large digikey bags filled with smaller
| digikey bags of components, and it becomes easier to just order
| everything you need each time instead of sorting through it
| all.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| > large digikey bags filled with smaller digikey bags of
| components
|
| Ha, this is me. Maybe I should get some bins...
| ftxbro wrote:
| I wonder how much this entire setup costs is it like $20,000?
| riceart wrote:
| No, much much less. That o-scope is $349 and that's the most
| expensive item (well outside of the computer workstation), and
| everything is cheapish (which as pointed out elsewhere is only
| going to be used for a restricted set of hobbyist work).
|
| It is somewhat telling that there is more money paid on the
| computer - this is more a computer enthusiast who dabbles in
| electronics setup (not that there is anything wrong with it) -
| but if you're doing serious circuit design work you're going to
| find this setup lacking in many ways.
| ftxbro wrote:
| i dunno man, stuff adds up. He says he has "more than a
| thousand different electric components for PCBs" and that's
| just some random stuff not the big ones. How much do you
| think his more than a thousand _different_ electric
| components for PCBs would cost, just by itself? Do you think
| he buys each one in bags of 1? That 's not including any of
| the other random things.
| ftxbro wrote:
| Anyone who has access to a good LLM maybe you could use this as
| an example puzzle for it? I tried but my context window is too
| small and it's not allowed to browse the web, and I'm too lazy
| to break up into tiny parts.
| TheCleric wrote:
| Best bang for the buck here in my opinion: The Engineer SS-02.
|
| Before I bought this I thought all solder suckers were the same.
| I was wrong. Well worth the ~$20, built like a tank, and works
| very well.
| proee wrote:
| Love this article.
|
| Regarding bench design, if the budget allows, it's nice to make
| the desktop height adjustable via a motor drive. Depending on
| mood and project, I prefer to set a specific height for working.
|
| For additional test hardware, I like to have an IR thermometer
| handy to measure critical thermal components. Also nice to have a
| sound level meter available to calibrate any audio projects.
|
| For soldering, nice to have a diverse set of tweezers to hold SMD
| components and wires.
| tastyfreeze wrote:
| Wow! Not my kind of workbench but I appreciate a well organized
| workbench. The site looks like an excellent resource if I ever
| wanted to get into this hobby.
| oliverx0 wrote:
| This is truly an amazing write-up, thank you!! I would love it if
| someone with experience in the bio lab scene (PCR machines,
| electrophoresis, western blot, pipettes, cell incubator, and so
| on) could write something similar.
| uneekname wrote:
| I would also love to see something like that. It would be a fun
| premise for a blog, kind of like Uses This [0] but for
| workbenches
|
| https://usesthis.com/
| geocrasher wrote:
| That is _wonderfully_ thorough. And overkill for a large number
| of projects. But if you 're doing real EE work, this is excellent
| stuff.
| myself248 wrote:
| > real EE work
|
| Oof, we must have different concepts of what that means; I
| thought just the opposite. The dummy-load is awful and prone to
| oscillation on certain sources. The o'scope is entry-level,
| 50MHz (100 with hacks), and doesn't support any advanced
| analysis. There's no discussion of scope probes whatsoever.
| There's only one power supply, for cryin' out loud, and it's
| neither precise nor clean. The DMM is 31/2 digits and there's
| only one of it. There's no AC isolation transformer, variac, or
| current-limit box. No signal generator, frequency counter (no,
| the scope isn't very good at that), etc. An ESD mat but no
| strap or tester.
|
| Further, there's nothing of what you'd want to actually bring a
| product to market. No EMI/EMC precompliance setup. No hi-pot
| tester. No ESD gun.
|
| I mean, this is a very capable setup for someone poking at
| arduinos and stuff. But I wouldn't want it anywhere near
| analog, audio, radio, or power. It's a great start for a
| hobbyist with modest ambitions, but "real EE work" would be the
| last description I'd reach for.
| geocrasher wrote:
| You have a good point. I'm thinking of prototyping more
| generic "stuff" with that setup. For my own work (mostly
| amateur radio stuff) the setup is quite different.
|
| I also noticed that the scope was only 50 MHz and the power
| supply was... ungreat.
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| Good guide for getting started. I'd definitely recommend having
| more than one power supply channel.
|
| I use a logic analyzer (and PCBite probes) quite a bit, but
| that'll vary depending on what you do.
|
| Other tools tend to be more specialized. Function generators are
| useful if doing analog circuits, board pre-heaters are important
| for some rework operations, and of course RF circuits have their
| own set of tools needed.
| Scene_Cast2 wrote:
| I see a fume extractor under the desk. As someone who was in the
| market for one recently, I'd love some discussion (like loudness,
| price, performance, etc).
| foofoo55 wrote:
| Absolutely essential. Fumes from lead-free solder fluxes are
| nasty [1]. I find that bench-top "fume extractors", consisting
| of a fan and thin dust filter, are extremely noisy and
| essentially useless. I love my Hakko FA430-16. It's relatively
| quiet such that a regular conversation can be had in its
| presence, and it really works with the right hose & hood setup.
|
| 1: https://www.hse.gov.uk/lung-disease/electronics-
| soldering.ht...
| realharo wrote:
| I wouldn't call the simple fans useless - just the fact that
| the fumes are being blown away from your face is a huge
| improvement over not even having that.
|
| Of course there needs to be somewhere for them to go, but if
| you can have an open window close to your bench, that solves
| that problem quite nicely.
| prova_modena wrote:
| As someone who owns a FA430 and has a sensitivity to flux
| fumes causing headaches and drowsiness, I agree with
| everything in this comment. Keep in mind you can become
| sensitized to flux fumes after repeated exposure (happened to
| me) so IMO it's better to go overkill on fume extraction
| before it becomes a problem.
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| I use the simple fan+filter ones at work, I've always found
| them to work fine.
|
| Although the comparison is against normal lab air conditions,
| which aren't great, as opposed to something like a home lab. At
| home I just open the window.
| tomatsu wrote:
| The coarse carbon mats don't even filter half of the fumes.
|
| These super basic fan+mat fume extractors do get the fumes
| out of your face, which is the most important part, but the
| particulate and VOC levels in the room will quickly exceed
| acceptable levels.
|
| But even with a proper filter stack which filters over 99.9%,
| you can only filter what's actually captured. You still need
| some ventilation and it's also a good idea to run an air
| purifier in automatic mode to filter what wasn't captured at
| the source. What isn't filtered by filters is filtered by
| your lungs.
| bsder wrote:
| The only argument I have would be the soldering irons. You really
| want a Metcal or Thermaltronics station. They're just so much
| better that it's ridiculous.
|
| Yes, they are expensive. However, you will have them _forever_.
| And you will never have to worry about too much heat, too little
| heat, or calibration ever again.
|
| Your soldering will be so dramatically better that you will
| wonder how you ever did without them.
| scld wrote:
| This is a great writeup. I'd personally go with a binoc scope and
| some other personal preferences, but either way it's awesome to
| see a nice breakdown like this.
| tverbeure wrote:
| Something isn't right. You can see the bench surface.
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| Exactly!
|
| And, there are no burn marks on that desk or the mat, the trash
| bin is empty instead of full of Jolt or Rockstar cans, and
| those cables? Not a single knot.
|
| The bins are labeled _and_ the label matching items in the
| bins.
|
| Those stacked containers on the right middle shelf? Never would
| be put back in that fashion after labeling them.
|
| Look at the cute scre driver organizer on the bottom wall-
| shelf, right side! They are in order! How?!
|
| Those drawer bins on the middle wall shelf? It will fall on
| your face dumping all, specially with the sharp and pointy
| parts looking for soft spots in your eyes.
|
| I am calling shenanigans!
|
| (Seriously - Good job on the write-up!)
| rescbr wrote:
| You can see the bench surface; things are neatly arranged; no
| cardboard boxes storing half-done projects, etc.
|
| I have the theory our desks/workbenches reflect our own mind,
| but I digress... :)
| CarVac wrote:
| I urge people to ditch leaded solder in favor of lead-free.
|
| Most difficulties people have in using lead-free comes from one
| of three things:
|
| 1. a poor soldering iron
|
| 2. bad quality solder (the cheap stuff with bad flux is bad, duh)
|
| 3. poor technique (among other things, wipe your tip just before
| using, not before putting it away)
|
| I like the Chipquik SAC305 with no-clean flux and other people
| I've recommended it to find it no harder to work with than
| Sn63Pb37.
| digitallyfree wrote:
| I learned from the start on lead-free RoHS solder (doing SMT
| work) and had zero issues with it. Honestly I've never tried
| leaded solder as I just use lead-free all the time, though I
| know people who swear by it.
| crote wrote:
| The biggest difference is that an improperly soldered leaded
| joint looks _very_ obviously wrong, whereas a good lead-free
| joint can be pretty much indistinguishable from a bad one.
|
| If you are just starting out - and will therefore _by
| definition_ have a poor iron, cheap solder, and poor technique
| - leaded is definitely the way to go. Once your first spool of
| leaded runs out, it is probably time to switch to lead-free.
| deweywsu wrote:
| FAR too organized.
| rapjr9 wrote:
| The guide needs a section on safety with a notice that users of
| the bench can read. A cordless vacuum cleaner would be a useful
| addition to the tool list as well.
| anonymousiam wrote:
| Not directly related, but I'm curious how much revenue all the
| Amazon affiliate links will generate for the author.
| georgeoliver wrote:
| Given how much time it probably took to document the setup
| (never mind creating the setup), I'd say he deserves every
| penny.
| anonymousiam wrote:
| Probably, but most sites that use Amazon Affiliate tags
| usually disclose it somewhere on the page. I didn't see any
| disclosure on this one.
| zwieback wrote:
| Nice setup! In addition to a decent scope I like having a USB
| logic analyzer. There are lots of cheap ones but Saleae (no
| affiliation) makes really nice ones.
| Wafje wrote:
| I am interested in the airtable inventory system. Anyone else got
| good experience with airtable?
| phcreery wrote:
| Me too! I have never used airtable before but have heard of it.
| I needed an inventory system but I wasn't satisfied with the
| options I found so I created my own. Right now it is
| rudimentary but it can import BoM, export to CSV, "build" BoM's
| (auto-deduct from inventory), octopart API integration for
| grabbing component info/specs, and all of this compiled to
| single binary for lightweight selfhosting.
|
| https://github.com/phcreery/partman
| massaman_yams wrote:
| Mean Well has some constant current dimmable 24v power supplies
| with zero flicker. You'd need 2 if you want each strip to be
| independently controllable. They also can take a PWM signal if
| you're so inclined, but I bought them because I prefer flicker-
| free dimming. e.g.
| https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/709-HLG40H-24B
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| Mean Well's power supplies are by far the best I've used. Apart
| from working really well, they also seem to be constructed
| better than others I've used.
|
| My 3d printer, grow lights, hydroponic automation hardware, and
| a little CNC project are all run on Mean Well power supplies
| now.
| Washuu wrote:
| Mean Well has been around for a few decades. They are in a
| lot of pinball machines too.
| amluto wrote:
| You are unlikely to get amazing dimming performance using
| constant current with a 24V strip intended for constant voltage
| operation.
|
| For a bench application like this, get a constant current strip
| from Bridgelux. They're cheap and excellent. Digi-key sells
| them. The "thrive" series is a bit less efficient but has a
| very nice spectrum. The tiny drivers from Cuvee Systems work
| well, start quickly, and dim well, but any ordinary LED driver
| can drive them. Or the bench power supply :)
|
| For 24V tape, here are a few decent choices for drivers:
|
| The Meanwell PWM series. The frequency is below IEEE 1789
| recommendations but is okay.
|
| eldoLED LinearDRIVE. The best, but kind of expensive and
| annoying to use. Program it for a log curve. Here, for example:
|
| https://www.ll-sales.com/eldoled-lineardrive-212d-dmx-led-dr...
|
| These are convenient but massively overpriced:
|
| https://www.diodeled.com/switchex.html
| massaman_yams wrote:
| Yeah, with a CV strip the Mean Wells with CC dimming have an
| abrupt shutoff at low brightness - maybe 5% (I haven't
| measured it), and a brief flash upon increasing brightness
| just above that threshold. Otherwise they work reasonably
| well for my use case.
|
| Thanks for the additional recommendations.
| amluto wrote:
| I would also expect some degree of uneven output at lower
| currents, especially as it ages. But maybe LEDs are more
| consistently manufactured these days.
|
| You may also experience worse failure modes with the
| fancier strips that have current limiting ICs instead of
| resistors.
|
| (Pixel strips can be quite good, too. They seem to mostly
| have very high PWM frequencies. I assume this is because
| the electrical behavior is better that way rather than due
| to any particular care for the pleasantness of using them.)
| contingencies wrote:
| I would caution against taking the power supply recommendation
| for two reasons.
|
| (1) Don't buy equipment without LXI as IMHO once you get going
| you really need coherent and scriptable ethernet control of
| everything. Yes, you can work manually or use some oddball vendor
| tool over USB. Yes, it's slow, error prone, and frustrating. The
| difference between getting things done and getting burned out is
| largely down to choice of tools. Spend the money.
|
| (2) Multi-channel is important. Pretty much anything needs more
| than one voltage. It really sux having multiple PSUs because it
| doubles bench space, cable overheads, is a pain to synchronize. I
| would recommend a three channel supply with LXI at a minimum.
| InvisibleUp wrote:
| Regarding point 1, USB-TMC is just as good as LXI, really.
| Completely industry standard, just like LXI or GPIB. LXI is
| great _if you need it_ , but you probably don't if everything's
| on the same desk.
|
| And there's even more instruments that just create a virtual
| COM port over USB and allow SCPI commands over that, and that's
| perfectly fine. You just have to configure it via something
| like [Keysight's Connection Expert
| program](https://www.keysight.com/us/en/lib/software-
| detail/computer-...) first.
| jensenbox wrote:
| You should sell this page as a kit.
|
| Buy all this stuff, all in for $ + shipping.
| junon wrote:
| I also just started going through the EE lab setup from scratch
| after 20 years of programming. What a great little guide, and
| matches my experience thus far (though the author is _way_ more
| organized).
|
| I'm pretty proud of the little parts system I've made, albeit
| much more primitive. I use pretty exclusively Mouser at this
| point so I invested in a cheap barcode scanner and just keep the
| bags in a box since I have limited space. I have a parts database
| that wraps SQLite and has operations such as "inventory" (taking
| inventory of my existing parts, updating counts), "shipment"
| which is a quick way to increase counts of a new shipment of
| parts (I just have to scan the mouser ID and then the part
| quantity), and "populate" which decrements each part by one per
| scan as I'm populating a board.
|
| It's one of those quick-hack-and-slash setups that is really fun
| to build and is just another part of the yak shaving process.
| Overall getting into PCB design has been a _very, very_ fun
| hobby, and since I have real projects I need custom PCBs for, it
| 's been a great supplemental skill to have.
|
| Cool article!
| jacquesm wrote:
| Programmers tend to turn everything into a programming problem
| (guilty as charged). But I got into electronics before I got
| into programming and rather than spending time on parts
| inventory programs I would spend the time on fixing things and
| designing little circuits, then build them up on vero board. No
| software required!
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| This looks like a beautiful setup that isn't used too much. Or
| perhaps I am just jealous that I can't keep my active work spaces
| neat.
| mwbajor wrote:
| Do you buy alot of surplus components/equipment?
|
| 50% of my garage workshop is from bulk buys from hamfests and
| machine shop auctions. Its nearly impossible to keep organized
| because you always get extra stuff that you "can use later"
| which just adds to the clutter since there isn't always a place
| to put it.
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| Here's the worst part:
|
| When I spin up a new project I just buy everything new from
| digikey rather than deal with the hassle of picking out parts
| from the part pile.
| CapstanRoller wrote:
| >50% of my garage workshop is from bulk buys from hamfests
| and machine shop auctions
|
| Is there a cure for this disease?
| mwbajor wrote:
| Some sort of organizational method. I've thought about it
| alot, its more of an inventory system with an unknown
| amount of items and categories.
|
| Simple things become organizational nightmares forcing you
| to rethink you're bench layout for example: I put my LM317s
| in a small bin because I only had 3 but now I have a bag of
| 300, I guess I need to get a bigger bin, or do I just use
| the small bin and save some for later but where, but how
| many, how do I know how many I have in total?
| 83 wrote:
| I fight with this a lot. Best solution I've found is add
| a 'bulk' label to the bin so I know to refill from my
| 'warehouse' stockpile when something gets low.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Mine will only be cured by my death. Hopefully not
| prematurely under a tipped over pile of test equipment...
| dekhn wrote:
| That's exactly what I thought- no actively used bench would
| ever look this clean unless it had been setup/staged.
| georgeoliver wrote:
| Or the author is incredibly thorough and detail oriented, and
| cleaned it up for the photos. I agree, it's a great setup.
| georgeoliver wrote:
| A great write up and I think the author has a bright future ahead
| of him.
|
| However I can't help but think of something I read recently,
| https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/an-ontology-of-elect....
|
| I'm still trying to square my enthusiasm for electronics and
| micros with the counter points raised in that essay.
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| This is so good it'll have to be blocked in Utah.
| myself248 wrote:
| I was expecting to grouch all over this, but I really like it. A
| lot of thought went into this, and the choices are mostly very
| good. A few notes from someone who's been doing this 30+ years
| and 10 of those years as a volunteer in a community makerspace:
|
| * 10" shelves aren't nearly deep enough for vintage test
| equipment. If all you need is a DS1054Z, that's fine, but as you
| move up and your needs expand, you'll find that more advanced
| test equipment is astonishingly expensive new. Some older stuff
| is obsolete junk, but some is still relevant and performant, and
| wonderfully affordable, albeit bulky. A cart can be a good way to
| accommodate the larger infrequent-use items without corrupting
| the elegance of the shallow shelves.
|
| * The FX888D was indeed an inflection point in hobbyist-priced
| soldering stations, but the UI/UX is so terrible it's easier to
| blow away the calibration than to adjust the active temperature,
| and more than half the ones I've found in the wild have suffered
| exactly that. (I carry a calibrator.) The result is that someone
| either doesn't know why their solder behaves terribly when they
| set "the right temperature", or they've found a setting that
| works and the display is just showing a completely insane number
| that has nothing to do with anything. Either way it completely
| negates the benefit of a display in the first place! The old
| analog FX888 is a gem, but the D is so terrible I'd love to just
| yeet them all into the sun. As soon as the TS100 and Pinecil came
| out, it no longer made sense to buy any other soldering station,
| full stop. I keep one of each on my bench, with my two most
| commonly used tips in them, so I rarely find myself swapping
| tips, and I can dual-wield if the need arises. And all that is
| still cheaper than one FX888D.
|
| * The digital microscope is a pale shadow of the experience with
| a proper binocular view with true depth perception and zero lag
| and stuff. Worth having for portability alone, and ultra
| affordable, but recognize that it's a crutch and you should
| upgrade to genuine glass if you find yourself using it a lot.
| This is the only thing on the list that really made me cringe.
|
| * The Knipex side cutter is indeed great, if you don't need a
| true-flush end. I really like true flush, especially on zipties,
| because it doesn't leave a burr. (Ask anyone with ziptie scars
| down their forearms about sharp burrs!) The Fastcap Micro Flush
| Trimmer is the best I've found, and ridiculously durable. My
| first one is now 15+ years old, the edges have picked up a few
| dents and the jaw is slightly skew, but I keep it around because
| it still does better work than the Xcelite cheapies. New ones put
| in 5+ years of hard service before they start to show any age at
| all, and that's frankly incredible. It's roughly twice the price
| of the cheapies and does 100x the work.
|
| * For tweezers, look no further than the Electron Microscopy
| Sciences economy tweezers kit K5-ECO.SA, $26:
| https://www.emsdiasum.com/economy-tweezers-kit-00-2a-3c-5-7 These
| are an order of magnitude nicer than the Amazon cheapies, and
| within spitting distance of the same price. I've got hundreds of
| hours on mine at this point and I give sets as gifts to anyone
| getting into SMD. Friends don't let friends suffer with bad
| tweezers.
| georgeoliver wrote:
| Interesting you say that about the pinecil, I'm a little
| embarrassed to say I haven't touched mine since the day it
| arrived after impulse buying it. I guess I assumed it wasn't as
| capable as my Metcal. I'll have to give it an honest try.
| cschneid wrote:
| For shelves, he's using a track system from home depot that I
| was looking at for a different project - it has 16 and even 20"
| deep shelf options.
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| Agree that the new USB-C soldering pencils are sufficient,
| after using my Mini TS80P for a bit I sold my old station and
| never looked back.
| zackmorris wrote:
| This is just a fantastic page, why aren't more on the internet
| like this, with specific parts lists and sources? Very similar to
| the stations we had when I was doing computer repair a decade ago
| (no, I will not fix your computer.(tm)) and out of everything on
| there, be sure to get a good ESD mat, or else you'll never stop
| chasing random glitches.
|
| I just want to add that the best way to get over starting
| friction is to have everything ready to go like this. IMHO it's
| much easier to take care of the low-hanging fruit of arranging
| and cleaning, than it is to have to do that and THEN work. I
| struggle with organization though, so I treat that as an active
| exercise and devote 15 minutes at a time to the chore, rewarding
| myself with a cup of coffee or whatever afterwards.
| nunuvit wrote:
| > why aren't more on the internet like this, with specific
| parts lists and sources?
|
| There are forums where people post pictures of their benches,
| but it's a lot of work to document everything and you're going
| to use whichever distributor has sufficiently similar items in
| stock at your price point and can ship to your country.
| ssklash wrote:
| Got any links/suggestions for those forums? I'd love to get
| some inspiration, like the OP provides in spades.
| [deleted]
| linker3000 wrote:
| Reddit. r/electronics. Workbench Wednesdays.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/?f=flair_name%3A%22Wor
| k...
| analog31 wrote:
| I just start a new project on top of the pile of unfinished
| projects, coffee cups, home repairs, bike parts, etc.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| FWIW, I bet the guy has an ESD mat and it was just too ugly to
| show.
|
| The only other thing I would add is boxes or large bins. Not
| for tools or components, but for project work, so you can put
| it away and work on something else when you need to.
|
| Otherwise it ends up spread all over your desk, Jim Williams
| style: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/6926143499
| (which is now at the computer history museum, apparently!)
| aksss wrote:
| Now THAT looks more familiar!
| artogahr wrote:
| He has an ESD mat! And it's on the table already, as
| mentioned in the article. It's the gray surface.
| tempodox wrote:
| That's what I think of when I read "electronics lab bench".
| The one in the article is so clean and well organized, I'm
| getting jealous.
| dabluecaboose wrote:
| I definitely agree. As someone who is very tinker-minded, I've
| had various "workbench" setups on my desk. These range from
| watch repair, to gunsmithing, to electronics repair, to
| woodworking.
|
| I'd LOVE if all of those hobbies had a concise, illustrated
| guide to not only the tools I should get, but *how to organize
| them*. Organizing is a strength of mine on a computer, where
| every file fits in every folder and there's no limits of size
| or shape. But tell me to organize my office, and I'll end up
| with a perfect system that goes entirely out of whack as soon
| as one item is added or removed.
| runtime_blues wrote:
| I maintained page like this, only to have it penalized by
| Google when they started cracking down on a particular type of
| SEO spam.
|
| But another problem is that such pages are just really hard to
| maintain. In a year or two, half of the items you're liking to
| are going to be out of production. This is especially true for
| stuff like no-name test equipment, low-cost breadboards, etc.
| There's just no stable brand or URL to use.
| lanewinfield wrote:
| As a person who's been tinkering with hardware the past couple of
| years, I had been trying to search for exactly this kind of guide
| for MONTHS.
|
| This is so well documented and made. I love it!
| tpmx wrote:
| 24 inches (60 cm) is not deep enough, IMO. It's incredibly
| irritating that IKEA stopped selling reasonably priced 75+ cm
| deep bench tops (except for in a few markets, like Germany, maybe
| IKEA thinks they still use CRTs there?).
|
| Also: I see that your photos include a proper solder fume
| extractor, but the BOM doesn't. I think it makes sense to include
| one.
|
| I did some research a few months ago for a suitable model
| available in the EU. My research ended up with this one: Weller
| ZERO SMOG EL KIT 1. About 700 EUR + VAT. (Didn't pull the trigger
| yet - curious about thoughts on this one.)
| mwbajor wrote:
| I have about 40 linear feet of bench space in my garage. Its
| cheaper to make durable benches out of 4'x8' sheets of 3/4"
| plywood with another 3/4" sheet of mdf underneath. I cut them
| to 3'x8' sheets and use the extra 1' as a shelf. You need the
| 3' bench space for equipment.
|
| Ikea used to make things out of real wood but they haven't in
| years. Anything other than actual plywood will sag.
| philsnow wrote:
| What's the mdf underneath for? Would another sheet of plywood
| (offset from the one above, for strength at joints) work
| better, but is more expensive?
| tpmx wrote:
| I honestly prefer IKEA's lightweight honeycomb techique.
|
| They're crap at surface impacts (putting a sheet of plywood
| on top is a great idea) but really good at rigidity.
|
| If only they were available in decent depth dimensions,
| like they used to be.
| myself248 wrote:
| I cut 48x96 sheets into 48x32 benchtops, I find that ideal.
| Deep enough to hold a lot but shallow enough to still reach
| the shelves.
|
| Use Gorilla glue to laminate a piece of thin (1/4" or 3/8")
| ply to a piece of rigid pink foam board, with another piece
| of thin ply on the bottom. This foam-core sandwich is stiff
| but lightweight, acoustically dead, and very cheap. You can
| use a ton of random objects or just a vacuum-bag to apply the
| lamination pressure. Stick some one-by on the edge and radius
| it with a router, and you're done.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| What works surprisingly well are ordinary folding tables from
| Staples/OfficeMax, bolted together with brackets for stability.
| You can create a workbench of any desired shape, size, and
| depth that way. Once you keep them from swaying side-to-side by
| fastening them together, the effective load capacity goes _way_
| up. Best of all you don 't have to feel bad about drilling into
| them.
|
| Trouble is, I don't think they sell anything but the plastic
| ones now. Working with anything more ESD-sensitive than 6L6s is
| a bad idea with those.
| johnwalkr wrote:
| That series has a corner piece which is very deep. I got rid of
| it in all an international move, but I made a workbench with
| two of those desks one wall, a corner piece and then one more
| desk on the adjacent wall. It was nice to have enough space for
| keeping multiple projects out and felt deep enough in the
| corner for a PC and monitor. I like that it's very configurable
| too, you can put legs instead of storage units where you want
| more legroom.
| gaudat wrote:
| This is some unpopular opinion but please, do not buy extra
| components thinking that you will use it in some extrea projects.
| Only buy components that your current design needs. It's even
| better if you can get a board house to assemble them before it
| arrives at your desk. Otherwise it is the beginning of the fall
| to a hoarder life.
|
| Except if you are playing in RF or some black magic where
| simulation does not cut it...
| rescbr wrote:
| What? Nooooo, you must buy enough components for future
| projects to qualify for free shipping.
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| I prefer to buy components I need, but buy enough extras to
| deal with failures or losses easily. E.g. if I'm buying SMD
| resistors (of reasonably common value & package like 4k7 in
| 0402) I buy at least 100, even if I only need 10. That way when
| I inevitably drop one or send one flying by forgetting to turn
| down the hot air flow I can just grab another. And 100 costs
| $0.56, 10 costs $0.14, so there's not much point trying to save
| money. When I run out of a cut tape of 100, I know I've used
| enough of them and I just buy a reel of 10,000 for $15-20.
| Lifetime supply, easy tracking.
|
| That obviously doesn't apply to the more expensive components.
| nerpderp82 wrote:
| This is not good advice. If you are just doing paint-by-numbers
| projects, sure. But they usually come with the parts. Being
| blocked on a lack of parts is not a good use of your time.
| jacquesm wrote:
| A nice selection of jellybean components is a must though, but
| don't bother with all kinds of silicon that you may never use.
| runtime_blues wrote:
| This is often impractical when shipping costs more than the
| components.
|
| Yeah, there are things you shouldn't be buying "just in case" -
| for example, a stash of SoCs will age faster than you can use
| them - but definitely buy a hundred of common capacitors, such
| as 100 nF, 1 uF, or 10 uF, rather than buying them one-by-one.
|
| You generally don't need a complete set of all standard
| resistances or capacitances - there are precious few circuits
| where you need precisely 47 pF and 6.8 kO - but there's plenty
| of stuff that goes into almost every single project you build.
| Battery clips, 100 O / 1k / 10k resistors, 100 nF / 1 uF / 10
| uF decoupling caps, LEDs, PCB-mount switches...
| danaos wrote:
| > Rigol DS1054Z Digital Oscilloscope
|
| Interesting as I'm considering buying a scope. Does this still
| give the most bang for your buck in 2023? Many online commenters
| mention the Siglent SDS1104X-E as a more modern alternative.
| contingencies wrote:
| The key differences: the screen is a bit better on the Siglent,
| Rigol makes you go through a stupid unlock routine to get your
| features, but (and this is the killer) Rigol has LXI
| (scriptable ethernet control) whereas the Siglent only appears
| to have a web-based remote control mechanism - substantially
| inferior IMHO.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| Or you can buy an old crt one for PS10 and see if you have use
| for a scope before you commit. They do take up more room
| though!
| danaos wrote:
| No way I could find anything at PS10. Do you have any
| examples to share?
| jleahy wrote:
| It's not going to be a popular opinion due to the 10x
| difference in price, but I think the Rohde & Schwarz RTB2004 is
| one of the best hobbyist class scopes you can get (in terms of
| bang/buck).
| crote wrote:
| A $2000 scope is going _way_ beyond hobbyist, though. Heck,
| for most people a $350 DS1054Z is already hard to justify!
| penguin_booze wrote:
| I used be an ameteur electronics enthusiast. When I was young, I
| used to assemble trivial circuits (dancing lights etc.): I could
| go to an electronics shop. They used to sell hobby kits for
| simple, accessible, devices. The kit had circuit layout,
| component list, labels, what goes where and all. I then assembled
| them per the layout ("this leg of the transistor goes to the left
| leg of the capacitor"). It worked - I used to be quite pleased
| with myself, and used to show that off to other people. No
| mentors; no one to consult on my doubts. I was "self-made".
|
| But the thing is that I never had a clear idea of how it worked;
| or, if some parts were broken, how to identify _what_ was broken
| (other than, of course, sniffing for burned smell or charred look
| on the PCB). That condition is what I now realize as being unable
| to reason about the circuit at hand. As in, how would I arrive at
| that circuit by myself - being able to point at components and
| say, "this guy does this, and the other guy does this, and
| voila, we've dancing light".
|
| I can name individual components and stuff, and can wave my hands
| and say what it does individually. The fact that I can't compose
| a circuit from scratch still gets me. Does anyone have any
| suggestions as to how one can build an intuitive understanding
| and a mental model?
|
| EDIT: it just occurred to me "dancing lights" are called Astable
| Multivibrator! We were taught this at school, _after_ I built
| them. Oh, I still can remember how smug I felt!
| Animats wrote:
| > Does anyone have any suggestions as to how one can build an
| intuitive understanding and a mental model?
|
| LTSpice is useful for analog electronics. You can simulate and
| see all the waveforms at all the nodes. You can see what small
| capacitors are doing.
| bosunknows wrote:
| Have you seen Spintronics? I'm an EE by training (not
| professionally) and I've found it super useful to have a fresh
| mental model for circuits. Not perfect probably, but
| interesting.
|
| Good discussion from a while ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27222457
| dekhn wrote:
| I've spent some 40 years learning electronics. Started with the
| hydraulic analogy, but didn't really have any deep
| understanding. In college they made us do a physics lab with an
| ocope and RC circuits, and I was miserably. Who cares if you
| can use discrete components to make a curve when you have a
| 486?
|
| Years later I landed on a team of makers and started to work on
| ambitious projects- various high power LEDs, motion control
| systems, etc. This is where my gap in knowledge- especially wrt
| high power electronics, diodes, and any chip-based component-
| became a real problem. So I built ambitious stuff and when it
| didn't work, or was flaky, I'd show it to somebody who knew
| electronics deeply and they'd explain whatever the next thing
| on my list to learn was- pull-up resistors, constant current
| supplies, MOSFETs to control high power devices, connecting up
| an SPI bus between a microcontroller and sensor, schmitt
| triggers, bias, etc.
|
| I got really good at making small repros of larger projects,
| handing them to somebody, having them solve the basic problem,
| then taking the learnign from the repo and putting it into the
| real project.
|
| Eventually, after doing that a lot I was able to to read Art of
| Electronics and got a lot more out of it. most recently I was
| building a custom circuit to drive a vacuum tube and had some
| problems, and somebody mentioned Spice. So i got LTSpice and
| put my circuit in, and learned just enough to have it spit out
| what I was seeing in real-life on my oscope. OH MY GOD, it was
| a revelation. The simulation produced exactly what I saw and I
| quickly debugged the problems. This has always been true- if I
| have a simulation, I can learn to intuit how things work faster
| than if I have to assemble them manually.
|
| My mental model now is all about modularity- building the
| individual bits of a larger circuit, debugging those, then
| integrating them together. There are so many details in analog
| that you have to be aware of; if you're missing a pull-up
| resistor or a schmitt trigger or have too much EMI, you might
| get it to work 30% of the time or have to do bounce elimination
| in software.
|
| Another thing to be aware of is in the past 20-30 years, a lot
| of discrete components gained alternatives that were chip-based
| and move a lot of the smarts into the chip. Sure, you can build
| an H-bridge from components to make a bidirectional motor
| driver. But that motor driver from Pololu has decades of
| intelligence about driving motors- and reverse polarity
| protection (I plug things in backwards all the time) and self-
| limiting (if you push too much power, it shuts down, instead of
| frying). I've had problems with components that could have been
| solved by an EE.
|
| I don't know if I could actually design any non-trivial
| circuit, but then, what exactly do you need to design today?
| Most of the work is in identifying what your problem is, then
| finding the existing solutions.
| StingyJelly wrote:
| It's a bit like scripting in python vs C on limiting hardware.
| Even some people with fresh EE degree struggle with this.
| Modern design often heavily focuses on simulation and reusing
| the company's IP blocks. Companies try to push for this
| approach despite the inefficiencies exactly because they can
| then hire those fresh "unripe" engineers. Old-school engineers
| almost always come up with better ad-hoc circuit designs
| trough.
|
| If you live near a university, you can probably sit in on
| lectures (analog-design, analog circuits, microelectronics).
| There are also many videos on YouTube. (If you're not really
| interested in repairs, skip those as that is slightly different
| skillset.) One really good channel is Sam Ben Yaakov's
| https://www.youtube.com/@sambenyaakov
|
| Developing a mental model of circuits also takes practice. The
| practice can mean simulation or playing with an oscilloscope
| and components on a breadboard but you need the feedback loop:
| designing/tweaking the circuit, checking if the behavior
| matches your expectation, finding what you missed if there's
| something wrong. Start with simple circuits and gradually work
| your way up to more complex ones.
| penguin_booze wrote:
| I'm in two minds whether I should probably give electronics
| another go, and with that, investing in devices like a power
| supply and oscilloscope.
|
| Also, I had watched some videos from Behzad Razavi.
| ploxiln wrote:
| I think you just have to start: have an idea for something
| slightly different than any of your kits do, assemble it on a
| breadboard, go through the pain of troubleshooting it (and
| maybe working-around issues you can't quite solve directly).
| After that, blog posts and youtube videos about other people's
| little projects will be of more value, you'll be able to really
| think about the circuit they designed in a different way, it'll
| have some concrete ideas in your brain to make connections to.
|
| (This is how I think about software too fwiw. Start trying to
| write something on your own, then study the technical detail
| after, the technical detail will have something to relate to
| instead of just floating abstractly away. Then try to apply it
| yourself again, you'll probably be excited to use it at that
| point.)
| [deleted]
| jacquesm wrote:
| The way to overcome that is to start off with broken gear and
| to repair it. You'll be forced bit by bit to understand how the
| circuits work. It helps if there is a schematic and if there
| isn't then you'll have to trace the circuit yourself which will
| help even more in building up a mental model. Of course this
| all presumes that there is a circuit worth examining to begin
| with, more often than not these days you'd be looking at a
| bunch of custom made chips and a few external components too
| large to fit into the chip which itself contains a
| microprocessor and a bunch of software to do the heavy lifting.
|
| But pick up an 80's tape recorder or amplifier that's busted
| and you're going to have fun learning. Start on the simplest
| stuff you can find and work your way up from there.
| szundi wrote:
| I have learned electronics and now can design gps trackers and
| other equipments by myself after these: - eevblog (youtube),
| particularly the "fundamental fridays" episodes - Andreas
| Spiess (youtube) - different topics looked up mentioned on
| these
| georgeoliver wrote:
| Give the book Practical Electronics for Inventors a try.
| penguin_booze wrote:
| Will do. I had picked up that from a link from one of the
| earlier comments.
| nerpderp82 wrote:
| This book will get you farther faster than The Art of
| Electronics.
| reaperman wrote:
| As a hobbyist, the transformation for me came when I started
| using (and then purchased) an oscilloscope. My dad always made
| me think they were not helpful to hobbyists but nothing about
| electronics made sense until I could see the electricity.
|
| That and calculus-based Physics 2 in college.
| Wherecombinator wrote:
| I've built two RE 303s and 1 Dinsync Gilbert and not really
| have a clue how they worked. It's just been paint by numbers.
| Hoping to actually understand what's going on in the next few
| months.
|
| This guy Moritz Klein has a YouTube channel explaining the
| wizardry behind analog synths:
|
| https://youtube.com/@MoritzKlein0
|
| I've watched the VCO one and it helped in my understanding but
| I still need to breadboard it to fully grasp it.
|
| He has a collaboration with Erica synths that not only results
| in a cool euro rack synth but also provides a explanatory
| manual. This coupled with the YouTube videos I think will help
| in my understanding of circuitry.
|
| https://www.ericasynths.lv/shop/diy-kits-1/mki-x-esedu-diy-s...
| jakewins wrote:
| I have (had? getting better!) this same issue, and it really
| killed excitement of electronics for me for a long time.
|
| I asked @theacodes on here this same question, on a post they'd
| written that like.. actually got into "ok, I'm putting this
| capacitor here, because it's gonna do <x> for me, another way I
| could do the same thing is..", and their reply is here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33484848
|
| I do think there'd be a lot of value in blog or youtube series
| of experienced circuit designers showing how they approach
| things, why and how they pick components etc, it's a great way
| to learn. The blog post that HN thread is about is really good
| as an example.
|
| I've had several people recommend "The Art of Electronics" as a
| reference for circuits building as well, but haven't read it
| yet
| penguin_booze wrote:
| Are there any YT series that are worthy of mention?
|
| I think I've a PDF copy of The Art of Electronics. One day...
| szundi wrote:
| Eevblog
| tuatoru wrote:
| _The Art of Electronics_ is useful as a _reference_ ,
| certainly.
|
| Using it to learn circuit design (just at the schematic
| level, still) would take serious effort (hundreds of hours)
| and would be far more effective if done with a skilled
| instructor.
|
| There used to be simpler, smaller books that showed a
| simplified design process for circuit building blocks.
|
| Rod Elliott's website, sound-au.com, has an extensive section
| on "theory" at the hobbyist level[1]. If you use it, please
| donate to help Rod keep the site up.
|
| 1. https://sound-au.com/articles/index.htm
| saboot wrote:
| That is an amazing resource, thank you for sharing!
| penguin_booze wrote:
| Looks like an excellent resource - thanks!
| xattt wrote:
| Getting to a point of intuition means becoming a knowledge
| expert, which is why you have diploma and degree programs in
| various fields of electronics.
| jacquesm wrote:
| You can get there without a diploma and a degree using
| time, books (or youtube) and a modest quantity of tools
| (the setup in TFA would be overkill for establishing a
| basic knowledge about electronics).
| JohnFen wrote:
| > I've had several people recommend "The Art of Electronics"
| as a reference for circuits building as well, but haven't
| read it yet
|
| It's an excellent book and highly regarded for a reason. I
| have a pro-tip about it, though... don't feel as if you need
| the most recent edition. The older ones are still great and
| relevant, and buying it used will save you a few bucks.
| clumsysmurf wrote:
| I found the Inventory system interesting. I have lots of small
| items I would like to inventory, i need something like a ECC200
| sticker 5mm x 5mm that has a GUID. Anyone have ideas?
| tomatocracy wrote:
| This is a very comprehensive list (and the organisation is pretty
| inspiring) but missing a few things I have personally found very
| valuable in what I do (which involves a mixture of smallish new
| projects and retrocomputing repairs/upgrades/etc) - main one I'd
| mention is low melting point solder to use for desoldering larger
| components (both plated through hole and SMD) - it took me ages
| before I tried it and it's made a huge difference at least for
| me. Chip Quick is the well known brand but you can get cheap
| unbranded "bars" of it as well. I've also found desolder stations
| much easier to get on with than solder suckers - Hakko 808 is
| what I see recommended a lot though it's not what I have.
| Ultimately if it's temperature controlled I think there's not
| much to choose between them.
|
| Finally there are some great very cheap logic analyzers out there
| - modern oscilloscopes will do this too but you have to get
| pretty high up the price list before you can make do with just
| one device for both uses.
| proee wrote:
| Can you expand on how you use low temperature solder?
| bananapub wrote:
| review of a product of this type with a pretty good
| explanation and demo: https://youtu.be/UmD7F0--7Lc
| tomatocracy wrote:
| The idea is that you add it into the solder already in place.
| That in turn lowers the melting point of the mixture.
|
| With a low melting point it takes a lot longer to re-solidify
| after you heat it up which means (if you do it right) you
| have a lot more time to work - so you can get the solder
| mixture for all the connections on the entire component
| liquid at the same time and just pull the component out in
| one go without damaging the board or the component.
|
| You do then need to clean it up as its a bit messy but solder
| wick works fine for that.
| prova_modena wrote:
| Regarding desoldering tools, I also hate solder suckers and
| instead use a mix of desoldering stations and desoldering
| braid. I used to very heavily use desoldering tools in
| challenging situations, such as large traces/joints covered
| with a lot of flux residue or conformal coating. I ended up
| working my way up the Hakko desoldering line and developed some
| opinions.
|
| The Hakko 808 is discontinued and the FR-301 seems to be the
| current replacement. I used a FR-301 for a while and it was a
| fine tool. I've now switched over to a FM-2024 which connects
| to a FM-206 base station (among others). I found out that with
| heavy use I had many more issues with the FR-301 due to the
| longer tube between the nozzle tip and the solder capture
| chamber. The FM-2024 has a much shorter tube and the nozzle is
| integral with the tube. These factors make the FM-2024 more
| reliable and easy to clean under heavy use. The FM-2024 is also
| more lightweight and can be used with a gun or pencil grip. So
| if you do a lot of desoldering, desolder a lot of gunky/fluxy
| stuff, or have/want a compatible Hakko soldering station, I
| would suggest the FM-2024 over the FR-301.
| tomatocracy wrote:
| Interesting - though for nearly PS1900+VAT for the FM-206
| (including hot-air and soldering tools as well as desoldering
| to be fair but excluding tips and nozzles) I'd hope it
| performs a lot better indeed!
| no-dr-onboard wrote:
| Super clean personal site. No fluff, straight to the point. What
| a beautiful portfolio as well.
| ilyt wrote:
| IKEA had great workbench for that, sadly I think they stopped
| making it (I bought mine like 10+ years ago). It was bench + 2
| shelves above as one unit
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| I have one of the more basic UNI-T multimeters and can highly
| recommend it. It's always there when I need it (the single 9V
| battery keeps it going for years) and has great precision.
|
| One thing that I _don 't_ have - and really want to have - is a
| variable power supply with constant voltage/current. They can be
| used when you have an unusual battery you need to charge safely,
| for instance. Unfortunately, they always seem inordinately
| expensive considering that all they are inside is a few coils and
| some ICs. I've looked into building one myself, and found the
| very informative EEVBlog series on it[1]. However, there's one
| thing I don't understand: how do you compensate for the voltage
| drop over your current measuring resistor? Is it a simple linear
| equation and you just boost the voltage accordingly? I'd love an
| explanation!
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGjActDeoM
| dekhn wrote:
| Just buy this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FPU6G4E
| worth every penny
|
| the answer to your question is in Art of Electronics.
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| Yep I've had that Korad for years and it's great. I'm sure
| there are far better power supplies out there but this one is
| great for hacking on digital stuff and maker projects that
| aren't demanding or sensitive to the PSU quality (which is
| like 90% of projects).
| sersnth wrote:
| In a power supply you can sense your output voltage with a
| differential amplifier between the positive and negative
| outputs that way the voltage drop across your current sense
| resistor is not included in the measured differential voltage.
| Alternatively you can use high-side current sensing where your
| current sense resistor is before your positive output. You can
| also use a differential amplifier for that, but there are
| purpose made current sense amplifiers which are probably best.
| garbagecoder wrote:
| Beautiful. In another life long ago, I was a radio repairman at a
| truck stop. My bench did not look like that.
| johnwalkr wrote:
| Hakko FX-888D is great and appropriate with the other stuff
| mentioned (although I prefer the older version with an analogue
| knob for temperature control), but it's $115 and for most new
| hobbyists a $25 pinecil or a $25 knockoff Hakko T12 is perfectly
| adequate and miles ahead of anything you'd find in a home depot
| for the same price.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I find "SMD Sample Books" to be a more effective
| storage/retrieval system for SMD passives than the lidded parts
| enclosures. I've got some of the latter, but stopped using them
| for passives (and repurposed them for small 3-6 pin commonly used
| parts).
|
| But I have to admit that that setup is far cleaner and more
| organized overall than my disaster of a workbench...
| mwbajor wrote:
| Its a pain to restock the books though and they store alot
| less.
|
| Buying SMD box kits that are already populated is worth the
| cost. Like this.
|
| https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-technologi...
| OJFord wrote:
| $625?! I'm not saying it's not worth that, for the ... _510_
| values, _100_ of each, but who 's this advice for?
|
| To a newcomer, just get some common values, and perhaps not
| even 100 of them. Then you find out which ones you use most,
| or a slightly less common value you're missing but use/want,
| and restock those.
|
| To anyone else, you know what you do, what you use, get that
| - I'm not sure there's any point in generic advice.
| BobTheDestroyer wrote:
| I'm still searching for a solution to organise the hundreds
| (thousands?) of anti-static component bags I have from the likes
| of LCSC, Mouser, etc.
|
| It's so difficult to find something that is the right size and
| shape to hold them upright, allowing organising, sifting through
| them to find the one I need, etc. The repackaging shown here is
| nice, but I don't want them ultimately stuffed into a drawer, nor
| can I see myself going to the effort - especially the part where
| I'd need to enter them all into a database.
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