Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

badar.tech

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 274 posts

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#171

Post by mindcrime »

ssklash wrote: post #50
nunuvit wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Got any links/suggestions for those forums? I'd love to get some inspiration, like the OP provides in spades.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Workbenches/ --> not all "electronics" workbenches of course. But there are some.

https://www.reddit.com/r/electronicslab/ --> more specifically about electronics, but pretty low volume.

And if you're interested, here are a bunch of "couple of year old" pictures of where I re-worked my lab-bench.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPgDAGeRSqI5KVcqioLAAcI...

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNwJR3k2BWbG7UTuYxwD7iU...

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#172

Post by nunuvit »

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…

Like you said, you first have to learn to reason about a circuit. You'll need some broadly applicable skills that give you insight, not more connect-the-dots recipes or brute-force math. There are many insightful graphical techniques that enthusiasts can use with at most basic arithmetic and special graph paper.

Probably the best skill investment you can make is learning to sketch on impedance paper. It will demystify passive networks, and it's a gateway to so many other techniques like Bode plots. Eventually you won't even need the special paper most of the time. I recommend getting one printed and laminated to use with a dry-erase marker.

It's best to learn the analysis along with how to simulate it and take the measurement. The discrepancies will reveal problems with the circuit, measurement errors, and limitations of the models. Your sketches will show how it works, you'll visually see what needs to be done even before you know how to do it, and you can play with design ideas right on the sketch.

There are of course many other techniques for different situations. If you use discrete transistors, maybe learn to sketch a load line and check if a resistor is bad using a multimeter. If you do radio, learn to do impedance matching with a Smith chart.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#173

Post by joemi »

johnwalkr wrote: post #14

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.

I had tried my hand with hobbyist electronics a few times over the years, and had a few different cheap pencil style soldering irons from Radio Shack and always found soldering so hard to do well. I had no idea how people were getting the kind of joints that all the "this is how it should look" pictures showed. On a whim a few years ago I got a Hakko FX-888D, and it was like night and day! All of a sudden soldering was _easy_. I spent a couple decades convinced that I was really bad at soldering or that it was incredibly hard to do, but all that time, I had just never had a decent soldering iron.

I'm sure there are probably cheaper soldering irons that would work essentially as well as my FX-888D compared to the Radio Shack irons I had, but I don't know which ones specifically they are and recommending a $25 knockoff Hakko T12 sounds like advice that'll send someone down the same difficult path I had. (Unless the floor for all soldering irons has been permanently raised, and no one makes any as bad as those Radio Shack ones anymore?)

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#174

Post by joemi »

foofoo55 wrote: post #26
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).

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-solder…

> I find that bench-top "fume extractors", consisting of a fan and thin dust filter, are extremely noisy and essentially useless.

Compared to no fan/filter, they're A LOT better, I'd say. And a relatively small price to pay for such an improvement.

But yeah, they're not nearly as good as a real fume extractor.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#175

Post by ted_dunning »

penguin_booze wrote: post #126
StingyJelly wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

Before you invest in hardware, grab a free simulator and start without hardware.

My favorite is LinSpice because it runs well for free on a mac, but the UI is very quirky. There are web sims available as well.

This will let you get started immediately and will let you see what's happening visually.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#176

Post by dghlsakjg »

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…

For digital electronics I recommend Ben eater’s series and kits. Basically starts with an assumption that you understand very basic direct current (as in you know that current flows from a voltage source to ground), and takes you all the way through building a vary basic computer.

I would also recommend building your own project, and having it made at one of the Chinese fab houses. Even something as simple as replicating an Arduino will teach you A LOT.

I productized an arduino prototype by self teaching, and it’s all really not that hard once you get a grasp of the basics.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#177

Post by dghlsakjg »

penguin_booze wrote: post #104
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…

Are there any YT series that are worthy of mention? I think I've a PDF copy of The Art of Electronics. One day...

Ben Eater for digital electronics and computers at a 1s and 0s level.

He works for Kahn academy as well and is an incredibly talented educator

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#178

Post by dghlsakjg »

reaperman wrote: post #153
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.

Oscilloscopes are insanely attainable now too.

You can get a decent basic model for under $100.

When I was a teenager, I couldn’t have imagined having access to the level of hobbyist affordable equipment that exists now.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#179

Post by dghlsakjg »

ssklash wrote: post #50
nunuvit wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Got any links/suggestions for those forums? I'd love to get some inspiration, like the OP provides in spades.

Honestly, YouTube is a good source of hobbyist level gear recommendations.

Check out eevblog, Great Scott, Andrias Spies

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#180

Post by wholinator2 »

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…

Highly relieved to see this as I've just bought a copy of the art of electronics (2nd edition, 3rd is too expensive for me) and plan to build some things at the university lab this summer
Post reply on HN