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

201–210 of 274 posts

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#201

Post by akiselev »

georgeoliver wrote: post #111
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.

Pinecil is a great soldering iron, especially the 88W v2, but it definitely doesn't compare with a fixed temperature inductive Metcal. I haven't found any soldering iron with a PID loop that does, simply because there is zero delay in the Metcal between the time the tip makes contact and the RF reheating it.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#202

Post by tpmoney »

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...

I've found "Big Clive" to be very informative. Lots of small devices torn down and reverse engineered, complete with a circuit diagram and a fairly in depth explanation of what is going on and what any given part is doing. Helps to have some basic circuits knowledge, but otherwise very good.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#203

Post by [deleted] »

BobTheDestroyer wrote: post #88

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 mysel…

[deleted]

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#205

Post by nunuvit »

BobTheDestroyer wrote: post #88

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 mysel…

I use assorted long boxes roughly the dimensions for storing CDs. Then I wedge stuff like cardboard and packaging foam periodically so the bags don't all tip over and pile up on each other. It's literally garbage, but it works well enough for being free.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#206

Post by k_sze »

Just a quick note that you DON'T want the Hakko FX-888D soldering station. It has a push button UI that doesn't make sense. Louis Rossmann had complained about it on YouTube a loooong time ago.

If you still want a simple Hakko soldering station, pay a bit more and get a Hakko FX-950, which has an analog turn-knob UI; the old FX-888 (without the "D") had been discontinued a loooong time ago.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#207

Post by quailfarmer »

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…

Under good conditions lead-free solder works fine, but the difference in melting point really starts to hurt when you're working on large belly-pad ICs. The intended rework procedure for that kind of part involves several minutes of hot air from above and below, which is more patience than I have when I'm prototyping.

When I take production (lead-free) hardware off the line for dev work, the first step to removing a large part is to flood it with leaded solder to reduce the melting point.

Has there ever been an occupational study of lead levels among hardware engineers? I'd be interested to see it.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#208

Post by iz_zi »

k_sze wrote: post #206

Just a quick note that you DON'T want the Hakko FX-888D soldering station. It has a push button UI that doesn't make sense. Louis Rossmann had complained about it on YouTube a loooong time ago. If you still want a simple Hakko soldering station, pay a bit more and get a Hakko FX-950, which has an analog turn-knob UI; the old FX-888 (without the "D") had been discontinued a loooong time ago.

Pinecil ftw

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#209

Post by quailfarmer »

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…

Pictured in the post but not listed as a recommendation is an Analog Discovery Pro. It's a headless oscilloscope/power supply/logic analyzer/SMU/more.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#210

Post by quailfarmer »

zwieback wrote: post #2

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.

The Analog Discovery Pro on the middle shelf is a USB/Ethernet Osciliscope/Logic Analyzer/more.
Post reply on HN