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

221–230 of 274 posts

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#221

Post by keithnz »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #42
tverbeure wrote: post #34

Something isn’t right. You can see the bench surface.

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! Th…

and the part opened packages of new stuff that you will get around to using "shortly" :)

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#222

Post by CraigJPerry »

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…

>> 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)

To be fair, that’s probably the correct first step in most cases. You might move on to tracing powers and grounds in the search for basic catastrophic faults, you might wipe IPA over the board and look for the bit that evaporates first (or if you’re fancy then an IR camera looking for suspect hot spots sinking excess current), but the first step on an unknown failure is probably always going to be a look and a sniff.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#223

Post by midoridensha »

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.

The iron itself works great. The UI is insane, though: you'll want to keep the instructions next to the station in case you need to make any changes. However, in practice you probably won't need to make changes much.

I think the UI of the FX-888D was really designed for production environments, where managers set them for a certain setting and leave it there, and then prevent the operators from changing it.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#224

Post by Quequau »

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).

So what's going on with the RTB2004 that is providing so much bang for that 10x price difference... and why do you claim that such a machine is "hobbyist class"?

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#225

Post by samtho »

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…

Great Scott has a fantastic channel and does a lot to explain the theory in a practical way. Check out his electronics basics videos first if you need a refresher but he does a lot of designs from scratch that are very insightful.

https://www.youtube.com/@greatscottlab

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#226

Post by SignificantDuck »

Wafje wrote: post #8

I am interested in the airtable inventory system. Anyone else got good experience with airtable?

I don't have any experience with Airtable, but I do have experience with Retable. If you're looking for an inventory management system, Retable offers customizable templates for various types of inventory management, including product inventory, asset management, and more. Let me know what your specific needs are, and I can help you find the best solution with Retable.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#227

Post by jtwaleson »

dekhn wrote: post #138
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 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…

Thanks, I've been doubting whether to buy a oscilloscope or not for about two years and your comment pushed me over the edge. I just ordered a Siglent SDS1104X-E. I have the same lack of intuition for electronics and I hope seeing the behavior will help me build a better mental model.

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#228

Post by exmadscientist »

OJFord wrote: post #69
rzzzt wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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-£10 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!

The thing about cutting mats in an electronics lab is that you're never going to be cutting anything big. You're going to be cutting a lot of small things. So the small, dirt cheap, easy to move around ones are perfect. A rare example of cheaper being better!

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#229

Post by lukego »

quailfarmer wrote: post #207
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…

I really love my Hakko FR-830 hot air preheater for lead-free rework.

Took some effort with rollers to be able to pan/rotate the board while it's on the heater but does make lead-free feel like leaded for me (on dense but relatively small boards anyway.)

Re: Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

#230

Post by nunuvit »

nunuvit wrote: post #172
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 demystif…

* resistor --> transistor
Post reply on HN