[HN Gopher] Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide ___________________________________________________________________ Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide Author : stacktrust Score : 363 points Date : 2023-05-11 15:09 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (badar.tech) (TXT) w3m dump (badar.tech) | lifeisstillgood wrote: | I know this is probably the dumbest question but I hate mounting | swivel arm monitors / TVs to stud wall / plasterboard. The stud | is either in wrong place and all the clever expanding screw fix | things just seem ... meh. | | I miss brick walls | ablyveiled wrote: | I wish I had the living situation to implement this. | hommelix wrote: | Is it me or it looks like an amazon affiliate links farm? | rudedogg wrote: | Yes, but it's all well researched and they obviously spent a | lot of time finding a good setup. I think quality stuff like | this deserves the affiliate revenue. | inconceivable wrote: | king hommelix decrees that people are not allowed to monetize | recommendations lists on the internet. | KaiserPro wrote: | 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 for Beginners +1 is a second | hand bench top multimeter. This is only useful if you are not | going to be mobile. They have the advantage that they are always | there, and aren't moved much. If you have a more fancy o-scope, | this isn't probably needed as you can do most things on that | (once you've learnt how to.) | | This is personal preference, so do take this as a personal | opinion. | kevin_thibedeau wrote: | Bench meters generally have higher precision that handheld | units. For voltage and current that doesn't always add much | value but this is particularly useful on the Ohmmeter where you | can track down shorts by small changes in resistance that can't | be detected with a low precision device. | cellularmitosis wrote: | they also typically have some sort of serial output, which | opens up a whole world of data logging. | rzzzt wrote: | 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. | atoav wrote: | As someone who runs an University electronics lab I'd | recommend to instead get on or more silicone mats (they come | with slots for small parts and such). They withstand heat | better (curtting mats can deform permanently when heated | wrongly), prooved to be more durable and are very easy to | clean. | | If you need a cutting mat for actual precision cutting of | paper, get one and treat it carefully. | JohnFen wrote: | I have both the silicone antistatic mat and a cutting mat. | Different tools for different purposes. I would never | solder anything on the cutting mat, nor cut anything on the | silicone mat. | | If I could only have one of those two, it would be the | silicone mat. The cutting mat is great, but really, you can | use any expendable surface in its place. | linker3000 wrote: | I got some 7" x 7" silicone kitchen saucepan mats from a | bargain store. 89p each. | dekhn wrote: | Agree 100%: all of my cutting mats are now warped, covered | in dried whatever, and rough-surfaced. Silicone is awesome. | OJFord wrote: | 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-PS10 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! | JohnFen wrote: | I recommend them, they're great. When I got mine, it seemed | like a bit of a luxury, but now it seems like essential | equipment. Also, I recommend getting a rotary cutter (link to | illustrate the tool type -- not a recommendation for that | particular instance) to go along with it. | | https://www.amazon.com/Olfa-Deluxe-Handle-Rotary- | Cutter/dp/B... | markrages wrote: | 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. | squarefoot wrote: | Analog scopes are still a thing, especially when compared | with cheap digital ones that often distort things or flatly | don't show them. If one has only 150 bucks to allocate for a | scope, unless the digital scope added functions (math, | storage, etc) are needed, the best choice is often an used | analog one. Digital scopes start to become interesting when | they go up in features and price, 12/14 bit ADCs, much higher | s/r, high res screens, etc. | markrages wrote: | I second this advice, and would add another reason: Buy an | analog scope while you can still find them for cheap! They | don't make good ones anymore. The analog scope is a | lifetime purchase. | | But the calibration point still applies. On my Tek 454, | there are calibration knobs built right into the UI. The | user is expected to tweak and calibrate as they go, and | depending on the measurement. (Often the shape of the | waveform is all you are trying to see.) | jacquesm wrote: | For 99% of the use cases a 4.5 digit one would be plenty. | That gives you mV accuracy up to 10V. | steve_adams_86 wrote: | This is great. My own setup would benefit a lot from some of | these ideas. Glad to see the omnifixo in there! It's one of my | favourite things I keep on hand. | | I've never found the need to keep heaps of components on hand, | but I guess I'm not an electrical engineer or anything remotely | like it. I just fix stuff and make junk when I'm inspired. What | kind of situation would justify having so much stuff on hand? | Maybe if you actually design and prototype PCBs and know which | components you'll typically need? | johnwalkr wrote: | Yes, if you design and prototype PCBs you find pretty quickly | that you don't need that many standard components. It's nice | then to think about what you need again and again, and then | organize it somehow. You can also just collect it over time, | but then you end up with large digikey bags filled with smaller | digikey bags of components, and it becomes easier to just order | everything you need each time instead of sorting through it | all. | steve_adams_86 wrote: | > large digikey bags filled with smaller digikey bags of | components | | Ha, this is me. Maybe I should get some bins... | ftxbro wrote: | I wonder how much this entire setup costs is it like $20,000? | riceart wrote: | 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 with it) - | but if you're doing serious circuit design work you're going to | find this setup lacking in many ways. | ftxbro wrote: | 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. | ftxbro wrote: | 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. | TheCleric wrote: | Best bang for the buck here in my opinion: The Engineer SS-02. | | Before I bought this I thought all solder suckers were the same. | I was wrong. Well worth the ~$20, built like a tank, and works | very well. | proee wrote: | Love this article. | | Regarding bench design, if the budget allows, it's nice to make | the desktop height adjustable via a motor drive. Depending on | mood and project, I prefer to set a specific height for working. | | For additional test hardware, I like to have an IR thermometer | handy to measure critical thermal components. Also nice to have a | sound level meter available to calibrate any audio projects. | | For soldering, nice to have a diverse set of tweezers to hold SMD | components and wires. | tastyfreeze wrote: | Wow! Not my kind of workbench but I appreciate a well organized | workbench. The site looks like an excellent resource if I ever | wanted to get into this hobby. | oliverx0 wrote: | This is truly an amazing write-up, thank you!! I would love it if | someone with experience in the bio lab scene (PCR machines, | electrophoresis, western blot, pipettes, cell incubator, and so | on) could write something similar. | uneekname wrote: | I would also love to see something like that. It would be a fun | premise for a blog, kind of like Uses This [0] but for | workbenches | | https://usesthis.com/ | geocrasher wrote: | That is _wonderfully_ thorough. And overkill for a large number | of projects. But if you 're doing real EE work, this is excellent | stuff. | myself248 wrote: | > real EE work | | Oof, we must have different concepts of what that means; I | thought just the opposite. The dummy-load is awful and prone to | oscillation on certain sources. The o'scope is entry-level, | 50MHz (100 with hacks), and doesn't support any advanced | analysis. There's no discussion of scope probes whatsoever. | There's only one power supply, for cryin' out loud, and it's | neither precise nor clean. The DMM is 31/2 digits and there's | only one of it. There's no AC isolation transformer, variac, or | current-limit box. No signal generator, frequency counter (no, | the scope isn't very good at that), etc. An ESD mat but no | strap or tester. | | Further, there's nothing of what you'd want to actually bring a | product to market. No EMI/EMC precompliance setup. No hi-pot | tester. No ESD gun. | | I mean, this is a very capable setup for someone poking at | arduinos and stuff. But I wouldn't want it anywhere near | analog, audio, radio, or power. It's a great start for a | hobbyist with modest ambitions, but "real EE work" would be the | last description I'd reach for. | geocrasher wrote: | You have a good point. I'm thinking of prototyping more | generic "stuff" with that setup. For my own work (mostly | amateur radio stuff) the setup is quite different. | | I also noticed that the scope was only 50 MHz and the power | supply was... ungreat. | SAI_Peregrinus wrote: | Good guide for getting started. I'd definitely recommend having | more than one power supply channel. | | I use a logic analyzer (and PCBite probes) quite a bit, but | that'll vary depending on what you do. | | Other tools tend to be more specialized. Function generators are | useful if doing analog circuits, board pre-heaters are important | for some rework operations, and of course RF circuits have their | own set of tools needed. | Scene_Cast2 wrote: | 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). | foofoo55 wrote: | 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- | soldering.ht... | realharo wrote: | I wouldn't call the simple fans useless - just the fact that | the fumes are being blown away from your face is a huge | improvement over not even having that. | | Of course there needs to be somewhere for them to go, but if | you can have an open window close to your bench, that solves | that problem quite nicely. | prova_modena wrote: | As someone who owns a FA430 and has a sensitivity to flux | fumes causing headaches and drowsiness, I agree with | everything in this comment. Keep in mind you can become | sensitized to flux fumes after repeated exposure (happened to | me) so IMO it's better to go overkill on fume extraction | before it becomes a problem. | Workaccount2 wrote: | 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. | tomatsu wrote: | 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. | bsder wrote: | The only argument I have would be the soldering irons. You really | want a Metcal or Thermaltronics station. They're just so much | better that it's ridiculous. | | Yes, they are expensive. However, you will have them _forever_. | And you will never have to worry about too much heat, too little | heat, or calibration ever again. | | Your soldering will be so dramatically better that you will | wonder how you ever did without them. | scld wrote: | This is a great writeup. I'd personally go with a binoc scope and | some other personal preferences, but either way it's awesome to | see a nice breakdown like this. | tverbeure wrote: | Something isn't right. You can see the bench surface. | WaitWaitWha wrote: | 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! They are in order! How?! | | Those drawer bins on the middle wall shelf? It will fall on | your face dumping all, specially with the sharp and pointy | parts looking for soft spots in your eyes. | | I am calling shenanigans! | | (Seriously - Good job on the write-up!) | rescbr wrote: | You can see the bench surface; things are neatly arranged; no | cardboard boxes storing half-done projects, etc. | | I have the theory our desks/workbenches reflect our own mind, | but I digress... :) | CarVac wrote: | 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 find it no harder to work with than | Sn63Pb37. | digitallyfree wrote: | 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. | crote wrote: | 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. | deweywsu wrote: | FAR too organized. | rapjr9 wrote: | The guide needs a section on safety with a notice that users of | the bench can read. A cordless vacuum cleaner would be a useful | addition to the tool list as well. | anonymousiam wrote: | Not directly related, but I'm curious how much revenue all the | Amazon affiliate links will generate for the author. | georgeoliver wrote: | Given how much time it probably took to document the setup | (never mind creating the setup), I'd say he deserves every | penny. | anonymousiam wrote: | Probably, but most sites that use Amazon Affiliate tags | usually disclose it somewhere on the page. I didn't see any | disclosure on this one. | zwieback wrote: | 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. | Wafje wrote: | I am interested in the airtable inventory system. Anyone else got | good experience with airtable? | phcreery wrote: | Me too! I have never used airtable before but have heard of it. | I needed an inventory system but I wasn't satisfied with the | options I found so I created my own. Right now it is | rudimentary but it can import BoM, export to CSV, "build" BoM's | (auto-deduct from inventory), octopart API integration for | grabbing component info/specs, and all of this compiled to | single binary for lightweight selfhosting. | | https://github.com/phcreery/partman | massaman_yams wrote: | Mean Well has some constant current dimmable 24v power supplies | with zero flicker. You'd need 2 if you want each strip to be | independently controllable. They also can take a PWM signal if | you're so inclined, but I bought them because I prefer flicker- | free dimming. e.g. | https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/709-HLG40H-24B | steve_adams_86 wrote: | Mean Well's power supplies are by far the best I've used. Apart | from working really well, they also seem to be constructed | better than others I've used. | | My 3d printer, grow lights, hydroponic automation hardware, and | a little CNC project are all run on Mean Well power supplies | now. | Washuu wrote: | Mean Well has been around for a few decades. They are in a | lot of pinball machines too. | amluto wrote: | You are unlikely to get amazing dimming performance using | constant current with a 24V strip intended for constant voltage | operation. | | For a bench application like this, get a constant current strip | from Bridgelux. They're cheap and excellent. Digi-key sells | them. The "thrive" series is a bit less efficient but has a | very nice spectrum. The tiny drivers from Cuvee Systems work | well, start quickly, and dim well, but any ordinary LED driver | can drive them. Or the bench power supply :) | | For 24V tape, here are a few decent choices for drivers: | | The Meanwell PWM series. The frequency is below IEEE 1789 | recommendations but is okay. | | eldoLED LinearDRIVE. The best, but kind of expensive and | annoying to use. Program it for a log curve. Here, for example: | | https://www.ll-sales.com/eldoled-lineardrive-212d-dmx-led-dr... | | These are convenient but massively overpriced: | | https://www.diodeled.com/switchex.html | massaman_yams wrote: | Yeah, with a CV strip the Mean Wells with CC dimming have an | abrupt shutoff at low brightness - maybe 5% (I haven't | measured it), and a brief flash upon increasing brightness | just above that threshold. Otherwise they work reasonably | well for my use case. | | Thanks for the additional recommendations. | amluto wrote: | I would also expect some degree of uneven output at lower | currents, especially as it ages. But maybe LEDs are more | consistently manufactured these days. | | You may also experience worse failure modes with the | fancier strips that have current limiting ICs instead of | resistors. | | (Pixel strips can be quite good, too. They seem to mostly | have very high PWM frequencies. I assume this is because | the electrical behavior is better that way rather than due | to any particular care for the pleasantness of using them.) | contingencies wrote: | I would caution against taking the power supply recommendation | for two reasons. | | (1) Don't buy equipment without LXI as IMHO once you get going | you really need coherent and scriptable ethernet control of | everything. Yes, you can work manually or use some oddball vendor | tool over USB. Yes, it's slow, error prone, and frustrating. The | difference between getting things done and getting burned out is | largely down to choice of tools. Spend the money. | | (2) Multi-channel is important. Pretty much anything needs more | than one voltage. It really sux having multiple PSUs because it | doubles bench space, cable overheads, is a pain to synchronize. I | would recommend a three channel supply with LXI at a minimum. | InvisibleUp wrote: | Regarding point 1, USB-TMC is just as good as LXI, really. | Completely industry standard, just like LXI or GPIB. LXI is | great _if you need it_ , but you probably don't if everything's | on the same desk. | | And there's even more instruments that just create a virtual | COM port over USB and allow SCPI commands over that, and that's | perfectly fine. You just have to configure it via something | like [Keysight's Connection Expert | program](https://www.keysight.com/us/en/lib/software- | detail/computer-...) first. | jensenbox wrote: | You should sell this page as a kit. | | Buy all this stuff, all in for $ + shipping. | junon wrote: | 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 limited space. I have a parts database | that wraps SQLite and has operations such as "inventory" (taking | inventory of my existing parts, updating counts), "shipment" | which is a quick way to increase counts of a new shipment of | parts (I just have to scan the mouser ID and then the part | quantity), and "populate" which decrements each part by one per | scan as I'm populating a board. | | It's one of those quick-hack-and-slash setups that is really fun | to build and is just another part of the yak shaving process. | Overall getting into PCB design has been a _very, very_ fun | hobby, and since I have real projects I need custom PCBs for, it | 's been a great supplemental skill to have. | | Cool article! | jacquesm wrote: | 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! | Workaccount2 wrote: | This looks like a beautiful setup that isn't used too much. Or | perhaps I am just jealous that I can't keep my active work spaces | neat. | mwbajor wrote: | Do you buy alot of surplus components/equipment? | | 50% of my garage workshop is from bulk buys from hamfests and | machine shop auctions. Its nearly impossible to keep organized | because you always get extra stuff that you "can use later" | which just adds to the clutter since there isn't always a place | to put it. | Workaccount2 wrote: | Here's the worst part: | | When I spin up a new project I just buy everything new from | digikey rather than deal with the hassle of picking out parts | from the part pile. | CapstanRoller wrote: | >50% of my garage workshop is from bulk buys from hamfests | and machine shop auctions | | Is there a cure for this disease? | mwbajor wrote: | Some sort of organizational method. I've thought about it | alot, its more of an inventory system with an unknown | amount of items and categories. | | Simple things become organizational nightmares forcing you | to rethink you're bench layout for example: I put my LM317s | in a small bin because I only had 3 but now I have a bag of | 300, I guess I need to get a bigger bin, or do I just use | the small bin and save some for later but where, but how | many, how do I know how many I have in total? | 83 wrote: | I fight with this a lot. Best solution I've found is add | a 'bulk' label to the bin so I know to refill from my | 'warehouse' stockpile when something gets low. | sokoloff wrote: | Mine will only be cured by my death. Hopefully not | prematurely under a tipped over pile of test equipment... | dekhn wrote: | That's exactly what I thought- no actively used bench would | ever look this clean unless it had been setup/staged. | georgeoliver wrote: | Or the author is incredibly thorough and detail oriented, and | cleaned it up for the photos. I agree, it's a great setup. | georgeoliver wrote: | 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. | fnordpiglet wrote: | This is so good it'll have to be blocked in Utah. | myself248 wrote: | 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 that more advanced | test equipment is astonishingly expensive new. Some older stuff | is obsolete junk, but some is still relevant and performant, and | wonderfully affordable, albeit bulky. A cart can be a good way to | accommodate the larger infrequent-use items without corrupting | the elegance of the shallow shelves. | | * The FX888D was indeed an inflection point in hobbyist-priced | soldering stations, but the UI/UX is so terrible it's easier to | blow away the calibration than to adjust the active temperature, | and more than half the ones I've found in the wild have suffered | exactly that. (I carry a calibrator.) The result is that someone | either doesn't know why their solder behaves terribly when they | set "the right temperature", or they've found a setting that | works and the display is just showing a completely insane number | that has nothing to do with anything. Either way it completely | negates the benefit of a display in the first place! The old | analog FX888 is a gem, but the D is so terrible I'd love to just | yeet them all into the sun. As soon as the TS100 and Pinecil came | out, it no longer made sense to buy any other soldering station, | full stop. I keep one of each on my bench, with my two most | commonly used tips in them, so I rarely find myself swapping | tips, and I can dual-wield if the need arises. And all that is | still cheaper than one FX888D. | | * The digital microscope is a pale shadow of the experience with | a proper binocular view with true depth perception and zero lag | and stuff. Worth having for portability alone, and ultra | affordable, but recognize that it's a crutch and you should | upgrade to genuine glass if you find yourself using it a lot. | This is the only thing on the list that really made me cringe. | | * The Knipex side cutter is indeed great, if you don't need a | true-flush end. I really like true flush, especially on zipties, | because it doesn't leave a burr. (Ask anyone with ziptie scars | down their forearms about sharp burrs!) The Fastcap Micro Flush | Trimmer is the best I've found, and ridiculously durable. My | first one is now 15+ years old, the edges have picked up a few | dents and the jaw is slightly skew, but I keep it around because | it still does better work than the Xcelite cheapies. New ones put | in 5+ years of hard service before they start to show any age at | all, and that's frankly incredible. It's roughly twice the price | of the cheapies and does 100x the work. | | * For tweezers, look no further than the Electron Microscopy | Sciences economy tweezers kit K5-ECO.SA, $26: | https://www.emsdiasum.com/economy-tweezers-kit-00-2a-3c-5-7 These | are an order of magnitude nicer than the Amazon cheapies, and | within spitting distance of the same price. I've got hundreds of | hours on mine at this point and I give sets as gifts to anyone | getting into SMD. Friends don't let friends suffer with bad | tweezers. | georgeoliver wrote: | 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. | cschneid wrote: | For shelves, he's using a track system from home depot that I | was looking at for a different project - it has 16 and even 20" | deep shelf options. | MrBuddyCasino wrote: | Agree that the new USB-C soldering pencils are sufficient, | after using my Mini TS80P for a bit I sold my old station and | never looked back. | zackmorris wrote: | This is just a fantastic page, why aren't more on the internet | like this, with specific parts lists and sources? Very similar to | the stations we had when I was doing computer repair a decade ago | (no, I will not fix your computer.(tm)) and out of everything on | there, be sure to get a good ESD mat, or else you'll never stop | chasing random glitches. | | I just want to add that the best way to get over starting | friction is to have everything ready to go like this. IMHO it's | much easier to take care of the low-hanging fruit of arranging | and cleaning, than it is to have to do that and THEN work. I | struggle with organization though, so I treat that as an active | exercise and devote 15 minutes at a time to the chore, rewarding | myself with a cup of coffee or whatever afterwards. | nunuvit wrote: | > 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. | ssklash wrote: | Got any links/suggestions for those forums? I'd love to get | some inspiration, like the OP provides in spades. | [deleted] | linker3000 wrote: | Reddit. r/electronics. Workbench Wednesdays. | | https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/?f=flair_name%3A%22Wor | k... | analog31 wrote: | I just start a new project on top of the pile of unfinished | projects, coffee cups, home repairs, bike parts, etc. | crispyambulance wrote: | FWIW, I bet the guy has an ESD mat and it was just too ugly to | show. | | The only other thing I would add is boxes or large bins. Not | for tools or components, but for project work, so you can put | it away and work on something else when you need to. | | Otherwise it ends up spread all over your desk, Jim Williams | style: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/6926143499 | (which is now at the computer history museum, apparently!) | aksss wrote: | Now THAT looks more familiar! | artogahr wrote: | He has an ESD mat! And it's on the table already, as | mentioned in the article. It's the gray surface. | tempodox wrote: | That's what I think of when I read "electronics lab bench". | The one in the article is so clean and well organized, I'm | getting jealous. | dabluecaboose wrote: | I definitely agree. As someone who is very tinker-minded, I've | had various "workbench" setups on my desk. These range from | watch repair, to gunsmithing, to electronics repair, to | woodworking. | | I'd LOVE if all of those hobbies had a concise, illustrated | guide to not only the tools I should get, but *how to organize | them*. Organizing is a strength of mine on a computer, where | every file fits in every folder and there's no limits of size | or shape. But tell me to organize my office, and I'll end up | with a perfect system that goes entirely out of whack as soon | as one item is added or removed. | runtime_blues wrote: | I maintained page like this, only to have it penalized by | Google when they started cracking down on a particular type of | SEO spam. | | But another problem is that such pages are just really hard to | maintain. In a year or two, half of the items you're liking to | are going to be out of production. This is especially true for | stuff like no-name test equipment, low-cost breadboards, etc. | There's just no stable brand or URL to use. | lanewinfield wrote: | As a person who's been tinkering with hardware the past couple of | years, I had been trying to search for exactly this kind of guide | for MONTHS. | | This is so well documented and made. I love it! | tpmx wrote: | 24 inches (60 cm) is not deep enough, IMO. It's incredibly | irritating that IKEA stopped selling reasonably priced 75+ cm | deep bench tops (except for in a few markets, like Germany, maybe | IKEA thinks they still use CRTs there?). | | Also: I see that your photos include a proper solder fume | extractor, but the BOM doesn't. I think it makes sense to include | one. | | I did some research a few months ago for a suitable model | available in the EU. My research ended up with this one: Weller | ZERO SMOG EL KIT 1. About 700 EUR + VAT. (Didn't pull the trigger | yet - curious about thoughts on this one.) | mwbajor wrote: | I have about 40 linear feet of bench space in my garage. Its | cheaper to make durable benches out of 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" | plywood with another 3/4" sheet of mdf underneath. I cut them | to 3'x8' sheets and use the extra 1' as a shelf. You need the | 3' bench space for equipment. | | Ikea used to make things out of real wood but they haven't in | years. Anything other than actual plywood will sag. | philsnow wrote: | What's the mdf underneath for? Would another sheet of plywood | (offset from the one above, for strength at joints) work | better, but is more expensive? | tpmx wrote: | I honestly prefer IKEA's lightweight honeycomb techique. | | They're crap at surface impacts (putting a sheet of plywood | on top is a great idea) but really good at rigidity. | | If only they were available in decent depth dimensions, | like they used to be. | myself248 wrote: | I cut 48x96 sheets into 48x32 benchtops, I find that ideal. | Deep enough to hold a lot but shallow enough to still reach | the shelves. | | Use Gorilla glue to laminate a piece of thin (1/4" or 3/8") | ply to a piece of rigid pink foam board, with another piece | of thin ply on the bottom. This foam-core sandwich is stiff | but lightweight, acoustically dead, and very cheap. You can | use a ton of random objects or just a vacuum-bag to apply the | lamination pressure. Stick some one-by on the edge and radius | it with a router, and you're done. | CamperBob2 wrote: | What works surprisingly well are ordinary folding tables from | Staples/OfficeMax, bolted together with brackets for stability. | You can create a workbench of any desired shape, size, and | depth that way. Once you keep them from swaying side-to-side by | fastening them together, the effective load capacity goes _way_ | up. Best of all you don 't have to feel bad about drilling into | them. | | Trouble is, I don't think they sell anything but the plastic | ones now. Working with anything more ESD-sensitive than 6L6s is | a bad idea with those. | johnwalkr wrote: | That series has a corner piece which is very deep. I got rid of | it in all an international move, but I made a workbench with | two of those desks one wall, a corner piece and then one more | desk on the adjacent wall. It was nice to have enough space for | keeping multiple projects out and felt deep enough in the | corner for a PC and monitor. I like that it's very configurable | too, you can put legs instead of storage units where you want | more legroom. | gaudat wrote: | 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... | rescbr wrote: | What? Nooooo, you must buy enough components for future | projects to qualify for free shipping. | SAI_Peregrinus wrote: | I prefer to buy components I need, but buy enough extras to | deal with failures or losses easily. E.g. if I'm buying SMD | resistors (of reasonably common value & package like 4k7 in | 0402) I buy at least 100, even if I only need 10. That way when | I inevitably drop one or send one flying by forgetting to turn | down the hot air flow I can just grab another. And 100 costs | $0.56, 10 costs $0.14, so there's not much point trying to save | money. When I run out of a cut tape of 100, I know I've used | enough of them and I just buy a reel of 10,000 for $15-20. | Lifetime supply, easy tracking. | | That obviously doesn't apply to the more expensive components. | nerpderp82 wrote: | This is not good advice. If you are just doing paint-by-numbers | projects, sure. But they usually come with the parts. Being | blocked on a lack of parts is not a good use of your time. | jacquesm wrote: | A nice selection of jellybean components is a must though, but | don't bother with all kinds of silicon that you may never use. | runtime_blues wrote: | This is often impractical when shipping costs more than the | components. | | Yeah, there are things you shouldn't be buying "just in case" - | for example, a stash of SoCs will age faster than you can use | them - but definitely buy a hundred of common capacitors, such | as 100 nF, 1 uF, or 10 uF, rather than buying them one-by-one. | | You generally don't need a complete set of all standard | resistances or capacitances - there are precious few circuits | where you need precisely 47 pF and 6.8 kO - but there's plenty | of stuff that goes into almost every single project you build. | Battery clips, 100 O / 1k / 10k resistors, 100 nF / 1 uF / 10 | uF decoupling caps, LEDs, PCB-mount switches... | danaos wrote: | > 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. | contingencies wrote: | The key differences: the screen is a bit better on the Siglent, | Rigol makes you go through a stupid unlock routine to get your | features, but (and this is the killer) Rigol has LXI | (scriptable ethernet control) whereas the Siglent only appears | to have a web-based remote control mechanism - substantially | inferior IMHO. | jimnotgym wrote: | Or you can buy an old crt one for PS10 and see if you have use | for a scope before you commit. They do take up more room | though! | danaos wrote: | No way I could find anything at PS10. Do you have any | examples to share? | jleahy wrote: | 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). | crote wrote: | A $2000 scope is going _way_ beyond hobbyist, though. Heck, | for most people a $350 DS1054Z is already hard to justify! | penguin_booze wrote: | 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 used to be quite pleased | with myself, and used to show that off to other people. No | mentors; no one to consult on my doubts. I was "self-made". | | But the thing is that I never had a clear idea of how it worked; | or, 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). That condition is what I now realize as being unable | to reason about the circuit at hand. As in, how would I arrive at | that circuit by myself - being able to point at components and | say, "this guy does this, and the other guy does this, and | voila, we've dancing light". | | I can name individual components and stuff, and can wave my hands | and say what it does individually. The fact that I can't compose | a circuit from scratch still gets me. Does anyone have any | suggestions as to how one can build an intuitive understanding | and a mental model? | | EDIT: it just occurred to me "dancing lights" are called Astable | Multivibrator! We were taught this at school, _after_ I built | them. Oh, I still can remember how smug I felt! | Animats wrote: | > Does anyone have any suggestions as to how one can build an | intuitive understanding and a mental model? | | LTSpice is useful for analog electronics. You can simulate and | see all the waveforms at all the nodes. You can see what small | capacitors are doing. | bosunknows wrote: | Have you seen Spintronics? I'm an EE by training (not | professionally) and I've found it super useful to have a fresh | mental model for circuits. Not perfect probably, but | interesting. | | Good discussion from a while ago: | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27222457 | dekhn wrote: | 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 control | systems, etc. This is where my gap in knowledge- especially wrt | high power electronics, diodes, and any chip-based component- | became a real problem. So I built ambitious stuff and when it | didn't work, or was flaky, I'd show it to somebody who knew | electronics deeply and they'd explain whatever the next thing | on my list to learn was- pull-up resistors, constant current | supplies, MOSFETs to control high power devices, connecting up | an SPI bus between a microcontroller and sensor, schmitt | triggers, bias, etc. | | I got really good at making small repros of larger projects, | handing them to somebody, having them solve the basic problem, | then taking the learnign from the repo and putting it into the | real project. | | Eventually, after doing that a lot I was able to to read Art of | Electronics and got a lot more out of it. most recently I was | building a custom circuit to drive a vacuum tube and had some | problems, and somebody mentioned Spice. So i got LTSpice and | put my circuit in, and learned just enough to have it spit out | what I was seeing in real-life on my oscope. OH MY GOD, it was | a revelation. The simulation produced exactly what I saw and I | quickly debugged the problems. This has always been true- if I | have a simulation, I can learn to intuit how things work faster | than if I have to assemble them manually. | | My mental model now is all about modularity- building the | individual bits of a larger circuit, debugging those, then | integrating them together. There are so many details in analog | that you have to be aware of; if you're missing a pull-up | resistor or a schmitt trigger or have too much EMI, you might | get it to work 30% of the time or have to do bounce elimination | in software. | | Another thing to be aware of is in the past 20-30 years, a lot | of discrete components gained alternatives that were chip-based | and move a lot of the smarts into the chip. Sure, you can build | an H-bridge from components to make a bidirectional motor | driver. But that motor driver from Pololu has decades of | intelligence about driving motors- and reverse polarity | protection (I plug things in backwards all the time) and self- | limiting (if you push too much power, it shuts down, instead of | frying). I've had problems with components that could have been | solved by an EE. | | I don't know if I could actually design any non-trivial | circuit, but then, what exactly do you need to design today? | Most of the work is in identifying what your problem is, then | finding the existing solutions. | StingyJelly wrote: | 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. | penguin_booze wrote: | 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. | ploxiln wrote: | I think you just have to start: have an idea for something | slightly different than any of your kits do, assemble it on a | breadboard, go through the pain of troubleshooting it (and | maybe working-around issues you can't quite solve directly). | After that, blog posts and youtube videos about other people's | little projects will be of more value, you'll be able to really | think about the circuit they designed in a different way, it'll | have some concrete ideas in your brain to make connections to. | | (This is how I think about software too fwiw. Start trying to | write something on your own, then study the technical detail | after, the technical detail will have something to relate to | instead of just floating abstractly away. Then try to apply it | yourself again, you'll probably be excited to use it at that | point.) | [deleted] | jacquesm wrote: | 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. | szundi wrote: | I have learned electronics and now can design gps trackers and | other equipments by myself after these: - eevblog (youtube), | particularly the "fundamental fridays" episodes - Andreas | Spiess (youtube) - different topics looked up mentioned on | these | georgeoliver wrote: | Give the book Practical Electronics for Inventors a try. | penguin_booze wrote: | Will do. I had picked up that from a link from one of the | earlier comments. | nerpderp82 wrote: | This book will get you farther faster than The Art of | Electronics. | reaperman wrote: | 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. | Wherecombinator wrote: | 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... | jakewins wrote: | 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 <x> 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'd be a lot of value in blog or youtube series | of experienced circuit designers showing how they approach | things, why and how they pick components etc, it's a great way | to learn. The blog post that HN thread is about is really good | as an example. | | I've had several people recommend "The Art of Electronics" as a | reference for circuits building as well, but haven't read it | yet | penguin_booze wrote: | Are there any YT series that are worthy of mention? | | I think I've a PDF copy of The Art of Electronics. One day... | szundi wrote: | Eevblog | tuatoru wrote: | _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 | saboot wrote: | That is an amazing resource, thank you for sharing! | penguin_booze wrote: | Looks like an excellent resource - thanks! | xattt wrote: | 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. | jacquesm wrote: | 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). | JohnFen wrote: | > I've had several people recommend "The Art of Electronics" | as a reference for circuits building as well, but haven't | read it yet | | It's an excellent book and highly regarded for a reason. I | have a pro-tip about it, though... don't feel as if you need | the most recent edition. The older ones are still great and | relevant, and buying it used will save you a few bucks. | clumsysmurf wrote: | I found the Inventory system interesting. I have lots of small | items I would like to inventory, i need something like a ECC200 | sticker 5mm x 5mm that has a GUID. Anyone have ideas? | tomatocracy wrote: | 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 made a huge difference at least for | me. Chip Quick is the well known brand but you can get cheap | unbranded "bars" of it as well. I've also found desolder stations | much easier to get on with than solder suckers - Hakko 808 is | what I see recommended a lot though it's not what I have. | Ultimately if it's temperature controlled I think there's not | much to choose between them. | | Finally there are some great very cheap logic analyzers out there | - modern oscilloscopes will do this too but you have to get | pretty high up the price list before you can make do with just | one device for both uses. | proee wrote: | Can you expand on how you use low temperature solder? | bananapub wrote: | review of a product of this type with a pretty good | explanation and demo: https://youtu.be/UmD7F0--7Lc | tomatocracy wrote: | The idea is that you add it into the solder already in place. | That in turn lowers the melting point of the mixture. | | With a low melting point it takes a lot longer to re-solidify | after you heat it up which means (if you do it right) you | have a lot more time to work - so you can get the solder | mixture for all the connections on the entire component | liquid at the same time and just pull the component out in | one go without damaging the board or the component. | | You do then need to clean it up as its a bit messy but solder | wick works fine for that. | prova_modena wrote: | Regarding desoldering tools, I also hate solder suckers and | instead use a mix of desoldering stations and desoldering | braid. I used to very heavily use desoldering tools in | challenging situations, such as large traces/joints covered | with a lot of flux residue or conformal coating. I ended up | working my way up the Hakko desoldering line and developed some | opinions. | | The Hakko 808 is discontinued and the FR-301 seems to be the | current replacement. I used a FR-301 for a while and it was a | fine tool. I've now switched over to a FM-2024 which connects | to a FM-206 base station (among others). I found out that with | heavy use I had many more issues with the FR-301 due to the | longer tube between the nozzle tip and the solder capture | chamber. The FM-2024 has a much shorter tube and the nozzle is | integral with the tube. These factors make the FM-2024 more | reliable and easy to clean under heavy use. The FM-2024 is also | more lightweight and can be used with a gun or pencil grip. So | if you do a lot of desoldering, desolder a lot of gunky/fluxy | stuff, or have/want a compatible Hakko soldering station, I | would suggest the FM-2024 over the FR-301. | tomatocracy wrote: | Interesting - though for nearly PS1900+VAT for the FM-206 | (including hot-air and soldering tools as well as desoldering | to be fair but excluding tips and nozzles) I'd hope it | performs a lot better indeed! | no-dr-onboard wrote: | Super clean personal site. No fluff, straight to the point. What | a beautiful portfolio as well. | ilyt wrote: | IKEA had great workbench for that, sadly I think they stopped | making it (I bought mine like 10+ years ago). It was bench + 2 | shelves above as one unit | seabass-labrax wrote: | I have one of the more basic UNI-T multimeters and can highly | recommend it. It's always there when I need it (the single 9V | battery keeps it going for years) and has great precision. | | One thing that I _don 't_ have - and really want to have - is a | variable power supply with constant voltage/current. They can be | used when you have an unusual battery you need to charge safely, | for instance. Unfortunately, they always seem inordinately | expensive considering that all they are inside is a few coils and | some ICs. I've looked into building one myself, and found the | very informative EEVBlog series on it[1]. However, there's one | thing I don't understand: how do you compensate for the voltage | drop over your current measuring resistor? Is it a simple linear | equation and you just boost the voltage accordingly? I'd love an | explanation! | | [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGjActDeoM | dekhn wrote: | Just buy this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FPU6G4E | worth every penny | | the answer to your question is in Art of Electronics. | qbasic_forever wrote: | Yep I've had that Korad for years and it's great. I'm sure | there are far better power supplies out there but this one is | great for hacking on digital stuff and maker projects that | aren't demanding or sensitive to the PSU quality (which is | like 90% of projects). | sersnth wrote: | In a power supply you can sense your output voltage with a | differential amplifier between the positive and negative | outputs that way the voltage drop across your current sense | resistor is not included in the measured differential voltage. | Alternatively you can use high-side current sensing where your | current sense resistor is before your positive output. You can | also use a differential amplifier for that, but there are | purpose made current sense amplifiers which are probably best. | garbagecoder wrote: | Beautiful. In another life long ago, I was a radio repairman at a | truck stop. My bench did not look like that. | johnwalkr wrote: | 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. | sokoloff wrote: | I find "SMD Sample Books" to be a more effective | storage/retrieval system for SMD passives than the lidded parts | enclosures. I've got some of the latter, but stopped using them | for passives (and repurposed them for small 3-6 pin commonly used | parts). | | But I have to admit that that setup is far cleaner and more | organized overall than my disaster of a workbench... | mwbajor wrote: | Its a pain to restock the books though and they store alot | less. | | Buying SMD box kits that are already populated is worth the | cost. Like this. | | https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-technologi... | OJFord wrote: | $625?! I'm not saying it's not worth that, for the ... _510_ | values, _100_ of each, but who 's this advice for? | | To a newcomer, just get some common values, and perhaps not | even 100 of them. Then you find out which ones you use most, | or a slightly less common value you're missing but use/want, | and restock those. | | To anyone else, you know what you do, what you use, get that | - I'm not sure there's any point in generic advice. | BobTheDestroyer wrote: | 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 myself going to the effort - especially the part where | I'd need to enter them all into a database. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-05-11 23:00 UTC)