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Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

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Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#111

Post by georgeoliver »

myself248 wrote: post #38

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…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#112

Post by StingyJelly »

penguin_booze wrote: post #87

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 use…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#113

Post by jacquesm »

penguin_booze wrote: post #87

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 use…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#114

Post by jacquesm »

xattt wrote: post #107
jakewins wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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…

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.

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).

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#115

Post by tuatoru »

jakewins wrote: post #98
penguin_booze wrote: post #87

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 use…

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 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…

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

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#116

Post by jacquesm »

junon wrote: post #91

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 limit…

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!

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#117

Post by jacquesm »

markrages wrote: post #85
KaiserPro wrote: post #64

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…

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.

For 99% of the use cases a 4.5 digit one would be plenty. That gives you mV accuracy up to 10V.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#118

Post by georgeoliver »

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#119

Post by jacquesm »

gaudat wrote: post #61

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..…

A nice selection of jellybean components is a must though, but don't bother with all kinds of silicon that you may never use.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#120

Post by ftxbro »

ftxbro wrote: post #89

I wonder how much this entire setup costs is it like $20,000?

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.
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