What do I need for my electric workshop?

[Stiganator]

I a tool bench in my garage with free space.

I have a crappy soldering iron from the shack.

What all do I need to be able to do some semi serious electrical work?

Cost estimates if you can.

 

[f95toli]

Of what kind? Analog or digital?
Regardless, a multimeter, a simple function generator and an oscilloscope will be a good start. You also need a bunch of cables and some tools (screwdrivers etc)

Note however that it really depends on what you want to do. I have a about $1M worth of measurement equipment available in my lab at work and I still need to borrow things from time to time. E.g. a really good oscilloscope suitable for e.g. high-speed digital electronics can easily cost $100 000 or more.
But if you are only interested in e.g. building a simple chipamp you hardly need any equipment at all.

 

[Aluvus]

As above, the kind of work you want to do will make a large difference.

At the baseline: as good a soldering iron as you can manage, ditto for a digital multimeter, general tools (misc. screwdrivers, some sandpaper, tweezers), soldering supplies (solder, desoldering braid, preferably some not-horrible-residue flux and if needed flux cleaner). If you're fixing doorbells or something, you could manage adequate quality supplies of all these things for probably under $100. If you want to do a lot of surface mount work, or otherwise more challenging stuff, a better iron, nicer solder, and more feature-full multimeter might become necessary.

Lead solder is environmentally unfriendly but easier to work with. It's gradually being pushed off the market, though All Electronics appear to still have some.

 

[Stiganator]

Well mostly building some circuits for like adapting CompactFlash to SATA jazz like that where I'd be using pre made ICs or maybe FPGAs. Check out my other post in this thread on the FPGA. High end hobby stuff mostly.

 

[f95toli]

How much do you know about practical electronics.?
The thing is, considering how complicated your FPGA project is I would expect anyone who even considers trying it to know what kind of tools you need in a workshop.

IF you get it right the first time you might be able to manage with only a good soldering iron (you will need to buy the PCB). However, if you want equipment that lets you debug prototypes you probably need to spend some serious money (a car or two). This is NOT what I would consider "normal" DIY.
It might be possible if you know what you are doing and you have access to a real lab at e.g. a university.

 

[Stiganator]

Yeah, I'm hardcore like that. I like to jump into hard projects and just learn it all on the way.

 

[Lord Banshee]

I would almost say your insane lol But if your able to teach all this Digital EE stuff to yourself with no prior EE studies i am jealous. Serious, props for such a bold move.. i hope to hear about your hard work.

I am not sure what you will get in tools with only 200-300 dollars. A good soldering Iron will got you 200 dollar alone.

 

[TTM77]

DMM and a computer next to your work desk so you can search online on how to do whatever it is you are trying to do.

 

[herm0016]

hopefully you already know this. but. i would sugest a fluke or a GB multimeter with as many features as you can get, at least with capacitance and transistor testing. if you have the money an O scope is really nice. other than that, get a soldering station, something you can vary the voltage/temp on. you dont need awsome stuff to do most things. i have build many boards and projects with a simple soldering pencil and some small solder. just make sure you have some spare tips for your iron.

 

[Stiganator]

can you get needle sized tips for really small work, I've never seen any but it seems like you should.

 

[HVAC]

1) Anti-static mat and wristband.
2) De-soldering tools. (solder sucker and/or metal braid)
3) Positionable magnifying glass
4) Light and plenty of it.
5) Electrical tape
6) Wire (smaller gauges) and also jumper wires with alligator clips...useful
7) Resistor assortment (1/4 watt is sufficient)
8) Capacitor assortment (small ones...mostly decoupling caps)
9) Tie wraps
10) Soldering aids - stands with little alligator clips on 'em.
11) Power supply - could even be homemade (transformer, rectifiers, and capacitor) or a wall wart type.
12) Multimeter - even a cheap one is better than none.
13) Shrink tubing (and a really hot hair dryer....or just wave your soldering iron near it)
14) Decent soldering iron - it takes more skill to solder things with a low mass iron so heavy is good (heavy in the heat retetion parts such as the tip, that is...)
15) More stuff....like with cars or carpentry, it is always the little fiddly bits that grind your projects to a screeching halt and make you run to the store AGAIN.

You may say, "But some of those things are parts." Well, strictly speaking, yes, but I stock them anyway and treat them as consumables.

 

[Stiganator]

Good List HVAC

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: Stiganator
can you get needle sized tips for really small work, I've never seen any but it seems like you should.

You can find some pretty small tips. However, you should try to "optimize" the size of the tip. The problem with small tips is that the contact area is very small meaning there is a bigger risk tha you will end up with bad joints.

Note that many SMD components are ALMOST impossible to solder by hand and some ARE impossible to solder using normal tools since they have contacts UNDER the chip. DSP chips, processors, FPGAs etc are often made that way. Most modern ICs are not very "DIY-friendly" and also require multi-layer PCBs.

 

[Stiganator]

I was looking at an old 3com nic and also came to this conclusion. Anyone have an idea how much some company might charge to do the surface mounting for me if I get all the design worked out?

 

[tex1138]

Go get yourself a copy of Nuts and Volts magazine and take a look through the various ads for PCB vendors. Several of the companies which will manufacture PCBs in prototype quantities have partnered up with assembly houses to provide just the kind of services you are talking about. There is one in particular that stands out in my mind, but unfortunately I can't seem to find it at the moment... I'll post again if I can find it.

Alternately, if you're willing to invest a little bit of sweat equity, go get yourself a copy of the June 2003 Nuts & Volts. There's an article in there about how to do your own SMT boards at home using a toaster oven as a reflow oven (really!) I think that info might be available on teh intarweb also if you search hard enough.

 

[tex1138]

Found it:

http://www.screamingcircuits.com/services/how-it-works.aspx

I've never done business with these folks so I can't say if they're any good. However, you at least can get a quote online.

 

[darthsidious]

Originally posted by: HVAC
1) Anti-static mat and wristband.
2) De-soldering tools. (solder sucker and/or metal braid)
3) Positionable magnifying glass
4) Light and plenty of it.
5) Electrical tape
6) Wire (smaller gauges) and also jumper wires with alligator clips...useful
7) Resistor assortment (1/4 watt is sufficient)
8) Capacitor assortment (small ones...mostly decoupling caps)
9) Tie wraps
10) Soldering aids - stands with little alligator clips on 'em.
11) Power supply - could even be homemade (transformer, rectifiers, and capacitor) or a wall wart type.
12) Multimeter - even a cheap one is better than none.
13) Shrink tubing (and a really hot hair dryer....or just wave your soldering iron near it)
14) Decent soldering iron - it takes more skill to solder things with a low mass iron so heavy is good (heavy in the heat retetion parts such as the tip, that is...)
15) More stuff....like with cars or carpentry, it is always the little fiddly bits that grind your projects to a screeching halt and make you run to the store AGAIN.

You may say, "But some of those things are parts." Well, strictly speaking, yes, but I stock them anyway and treat them as consumables.

Nice List. Just a couple of comments. I wouldn't scrimp on test equipment. IMO, it's better to buy less stuff, of better quality, especially when it comes to test equipment. You don't want to be debugging stuff with a faulty multimeter and not be sure whether your circuit is going whacko or it's your equipment.....

Buy a nice multimeter, even if that means it's the only piece of test equipment you buy.....Fluke is a standard brand you can't go wrong with. With good test equipment, there's nothing wrong in buying stuff used from a reputable source. Also, try to make friends with other electronic hobbyists.... most of them will be more than happy to give you access to their equipment, and you'll get a lot of advice (sometimes very useful) for free.

Also, if you're in/affiliated to a university, try to get access to their EE lab facilities, it'll generally be much nicer than anything you could afford now.