My Brand New Laboratory

[olsenn]

Just thought I'd share with you some photos of my new lab setup. Some of the more notable pieces of equipment I have purchased for it include:
         
        * Oscilloscope: Rigol DS1052E (Hacked to DS1102E)
        * Multimeter: Rigol DM3058
        * Function Generator: Instek SFG-1003
        * Arbitrary Signal Generator: Rigol DG2041A
        * Power Supply: Instek GPS-4303
        * Logic Analyser: OpenBench Logic Sniffer + Laser cut case
        * LCR Meter: B&K Precision 879B
        * Soldering Iron: Hakko FX-888
        * 4-Wire Kelvin Leads: PMK TKL-065

And some additional development tools:
         
        * FPGA Development Board: Digilent Atlys (Xilinx Spartan-6)
        * FPGA Development Board: Terasic DE0 Nano (Alterra Cyclone IV)
        * Microcontroller: Atmel AtMega32 General Purpose Board (Something I put together quickly)
        * AVR Programmer: AVR Dragon
        * PIC Programmer: PICKit 2

Plus of course all the bins of passive components I have had for quite a while now. If anyone is considering purchasing one of these devices and wants my opinion of them from my use thus far, just reply to this thread and I'll get in contact with you.


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[olsenn]

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[saturation]

Very nice!  So new and clean, ready for work.

[sacherjj]

Looks like the same plastic folding tables I'm using.  Not totally sure, because I haven't seen them in two months with my messy bench. 

Been just stacking things on the bench, rather than working, with relatives sick in the hospital. 

[Kibi]

That's a nice setup to start with.
I am in the process of setting up my new lab again. I had loads of equipment and stock components back home in Zimbabwe, but I lost the whole lot except my multimeters that I managed to hang on to.
I'd highly recommend the Ikea Jerker desk. They don't make it anymore for reasons that I just can't fathom, but they can be found on Ebay from time to time for very sensible money. I have got two such desks and on the lookout for another for good measure.

[elCap]

Nice lab! Quite similar to mine; same Power Supply, Arb func gen, solder station, LCR, Pickit 2, and even the small fan is same.

[EEVblog]

That's disgustingly clean, mess it up a bit! 

Dave.

[slburris]

Any comments on the  Rigol DM3058,  Instek SFG-1003, and Rigol DG2041A?
Maybe a mini-review of them? :-)

I don't suppose you feel like opening them up and posting photos of the insides?

Where do you get the Rigol equipment?  The DS1052E is available everywhere, even
amazon.com, but few places actually seem to stock anything else of Rigol's line.

Scott

[gregariz]

you can come and clean mine... I dont want to enter

(...crap pic... standing on one leg with cell.. hanging onto racks)

[dimlow]

you can come and clean mine... I dont want to enter

(...crap pic... standing on one leg with cell.. hanging onto racks)

What ya mean.. Thats pretty tidy. i cant see the desk, have trouble finding the keyboard at times.

@olsenn you got some nice kit there, envious

[pablo]

I would like to hear about your Instek function generator.
Any comments?

[Psi]

ok, just cos we needed more messy desks.

Pic taken

[hacklordsniper]

Oh my... that's really some messy desks. I have some kind of psychical distress and cant be calm if everything is not perfectly clean all the time in house. Every weekend i remove all my electronic equipment from benches and clean them, remove dust, apply caring chemicals to lcd-s, polish my bench with wax and i even clean power cables from dust. Then i align all back with digital caliper because everything needs to be in perfect position and distance. Yeah I'm sick 

[Psi]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

[olsenn]

Thanks for all the comments. Trust me, the only reason my workroom is clean right now is because I just moved all my junk down into my basement and spent two days cleaning it all out to have a fresh start.

@slburris: Most of the more expensive equipment, including all three Rigol machines, I purchased at "tequipment.net". They can be slow to ship at times but I find them to be a fairly reputable company to deal with. When spending $4000 CAD on test equipment, it's nice to know they're not going to steal your money. Besides that, they all are new and come with a certificate of calibration. I believe there is a link on Dave's website here to it... if you use it you'll probably be helping him out too. Use the coupon code "CHATFIVE" for 5% off and if you order Rigol products, sometimes you can get an additional 10% off (educational pricing).

I'm not going to take them apart just yet because if I do, I immediately void the warranty, but eventually I'll do a full teardown on them.

[gregariz]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

Someone once said there are 2 types of labs, messy ones and those where nothing ever happens....

[Mechatrommer]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

Someone once said there are 2 types of labs, messy ones and those where nothing ever happens....

that is a very strange comparison. i usually heard like... messy ones compared to not messy one, or not so messy, or 80% messy, and.... happening everytime, not ever happen, sometime happen sometime not, 78.5% happening etc.
messy one doesnt means something is going on (happening) my 2cnts

[Alex]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

Someone once said there are 2 types of labs, messy ones and those where nothing ever happens....

I would bet that was you that said that. 

There are those odd times you really should be working with a clean bench, like when dealing with high voltage/power circuits (are you reading this Psi?) but meh...can't continue swimming against the river forever.

[gregariz]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

Someone once said there are 2 types of labs, messy ones and those where nothing ever happens....

I would bet that was you that said that. 

There are those odd times you really should be working with a clean bench, like when dealing with high voltage/power circuits (are you reading this Psi?) but meh...can't continue swimming against the river forever.

No it was a ham operator I knew when I was a kid... it was an exercise in danger going in there

[Alex]

No it was a ham operator I knew when I was a kid... it was an exercise in danger going in there

Role-model of yours? I can tell! 

I am glad you dont have your benches like some promotional videos where you have the huge white bench, a tiny development board connected to a tiny laptop, and a happy engineer with a corporal T-shirt. But finding screwdrivers dissolved in the etching tank is probably a good sign you need to tidy up, I would argue.

[gregariz]

No it was a ham operator I knew when I was a kid... it was an exercise in danger going in there

Role-model of yours? I can tell! 

I am glad you dont have your benches like some promotional videos where you have the huge white bench, a tiny development board connected to a tiny laptop, and a happy engineer with a corporal T-shirt. But finding screwdrivers dissolved in the etching tank is probably a good sign you need to tidy up, I would argue.

I must admit my bench is particularly bad at the moment... too much going on

[johnboxall]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

Ditto. Though recently I bought a cheapo trestle table from officeworks ... makes doing two things at once much easier.

[Psi]

I only clean my desk when i'm starting a new project.

Someone once said there are 2 types of labs, messy ones and those where nothing ever happens....

There are those odd times you really should be working with a clean bench, like when dealing with high voltage/power circuits (are you reading this Psi?)

haha, i was wondering if anyone would notice that in the pic 

[olsenn]

I agree, finding (what's left) of a screwdriver in ferric chloride is a pretty good indicator that your lab is too messy