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Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

badar.tech

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Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#151

Post by digitallyfree »

CarVac wrote: post #145

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 fi…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#152

Post by bananapub »

proee wrote: post #110
tomatocracy wrote: post #67

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 mad…

Can you expand on how you use low temperature solder?

review of a product of this type with a pretty good explanation and demo: https://youtu.be/UmD7F0--7Lc

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#153

Post by reaperman »

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…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#154

Post by Wherecombinator »

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’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...

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#156

Post by crote »

CarVac wrote: post #145

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 fi…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#157

Post by ftxbro »

riceart wrote: post #150
ftxbro wrote: post #89

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

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 wit…

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#158

Post by tomatsu »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #21
Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #18

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).

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.

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.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#159

Post by crote »

jleahy wrote: post #134
danaos wrote: post #48

> 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.

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).

A $2000 scope is going way beyond hobbyist, though. Heck, for most people a $350 DS1054Z is already hard to justify!

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#160

Post by crote »

danaos wrote: post #48

> 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.

They are close enough that it doesn't really matter, in my opinion. It might be marginally better, but I am not convinced it is "€400 vs €500" better.

The only real drawback of the Rigol is that both the host USB and LAN interface are buggy, so you might have trouble connecting it to a PC.

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