I’ve always been a hobbyist, tinkering with electronics for about 8 years by now, (I am 24). Also, I worked for non specified German engineering company as a “Associated engineer” for 2 years. Nevertheless, I am today building a new lab, for a startup I co-founded. And because I lost most of my equipment (details how or why are irrelevant for this post), I have an unique opportunity to get “tabula rasa” lab. To build it from scratch. I will list what I think of each instrument and why I decided to go with it.
The purpose of the lab — Our company is 95% software, but there is going to be need for a custom HW product to be developed, I don’t need to be afraid to be specific — Something that can host an NVIDIA Jetson SOM, maybe few connectors, powersupply is trough USB C, nothing too complex to develop, but certainly not easy to validate and prepare for certifications.
Budget is 5-7.5K$ that will expand further after we get trough prototype manufacturing. Nevertheless, this is not supposted to be completely standalone lab, I do have access to advanced measurement equipment in the a testing center, (paid hourly of course) if I need to verify some advanced highspeed
Soldering iron(s)
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175$ TS1C wireless soldering iron — for daily soldering tasks, with added convenience
26$ Pinecil — for heavy duty soldering or when it is necessary to use two soldering irons at once
~20$ spare tips for both
(Why?) I have tried it in person, and the convenience to just pick up a soldering iron and run around desolder some wire on a big prototype beyond the table is great. I did work with JBC most of the time when I was working in a corporation, they are the best, period. but I can’t justify the added value in my workshop.
200$ YIHUA 853aaa — cheap rework station
((fume extractor… Just a fan with a aluminium pipe right outside the office window, too expensive to filter, and the cheap aren’t worth it))
Soldering consumables
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18$ TF-V3-XXX-K Flux — apparently best flux known to man, yes I will buy from digikey and not ebay
11$ SMD291 ChipQuik Flux — also great, but cheaper, I want to have something to compare to.
(Might choose one or the other if audience suggests their favourite, and not buy both)
20$ superWick from MG Chemicals — more of an experiment, my friend swears by this strange piece of “luxury consumable” I want to try and have something to compare
1$ wick Aliexpress grade — of course…
~50$ SN100C AIM lead-free solder — worked with this personally
~50$ K100LD Kester lead-free solder — my friend preferst to SN100C
(Deciding between those two)
(Please do not suggest leaded solder, let that be history, I worked with leaded and unleaded, and yes, it is slightly more inconvenient, and the joints are more brittle, but I am not designing MIL grade, I don’t need to have a health hazard on the table)
30$ SMDLTLFP10T5 low melt point solder paste
color wires from adafruit (I already have)
Enameled Copper Wire adafruit (I already have)
general equipment
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30$ Hakko Depaneling tool — Might be bit too much of an luxury?
(Why?) Given the low quantity we want to manufacture, and that they are exclusively made for the Czech market, It makes sense to test, depanel, and assemble the products here in our offices, and this might speed up the process slightly
wire strippers (I already have)
wire cutters (I already have)
Utility cutter knife (I already have)
Tweezers (I already have) — ceramic tip tweezers to be specific, multiple pieces
Capton tape (I already have)
100$ sensepeek 6012 — mainly as PCB holder, with with the added multimeter probes for some very quick debuging
(Why) I am not buying the oscilloscope probes? I feel like they are bit too overpriced, and altrough I had this system at work, you can’t measure from both sides, making it somewhat redundant
20$ generic usb microscope from Aliexpress
10$ SMD mat + straps
((This might be a blind spot, does anyone want to suggest any other small hand tools they couldnt exist without?))
Power supply & Load
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640$ GPP-2323 — (or 3323) Programmable Power supply & Load
(Why?) I need to test load more than just occasionally, having a dual power supply that can also be switched into dual load, or single source, single load, is amazing
((What I don’t like is the resest connectors, the reverse engineering I found here is solid to me for that pricel))
((I still feel I am being too cheap here, is competition from Siglent or Rigol better?, even if it means having two machines, source, and load? Am I making the right choice with GWInstek?))
30$ banana cables, multiple lenghts
Oscilloscope
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I tested IN PERSON, MSO5074, SDS2104X and InfiniiVision1000X
I absolutely HATE the MSO, the user interface is so bad it would be in severe danger of being thrown out of a window.
InfiniiVision1000X is just ridicolously expensive ((and unhackable))
1200$ SDS2104X (with maybe slight fw modifications) — All the features I need for 95% of my measurements, good sample rate, good BW, signal generator
((Does anyone have a contender against the SDS2104X? Does anyone feel that I should go much higher in budget for osc?))
~10$ Bare BNC probes — I find probing with manual probes too unreliable, usually I just solder a coax directly to PCB and connect the BNC to oscil.
~10$ DIY near probes — if the need for them arrises
Multimeter(s)
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35$ UT210E — cheap “expendable” multimeter
700$ SDM3055-SC 5 1/2 — Scanner card capable multimeter bench multimeter
(Why?) this may come as surprise choice, but I find it remarkably useful to see multiple results of a voltage/current from a board I am debugging, or for longer tests. Also it is more of a future proofing for climatic chamber (in the future, and absolutely certainly DIY)
((Does anyone want to dispute this choice?))
VNA
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300$ NanoVNA V2 Plus — from official seller HCXQS group
(Why?) Maybe I am too paranoid about getting those extremely cheap from aliexpress and elsewhere? Should I just go with the 100$ clone? there are sighns that they are not as precise
organization
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I bought some SMD books (resistors, capacitors)
and a bunch of empty SMD books that I will make myself for common components
all of this being tracked in Excel by book, row, column numbers, and seachable by CTRL+F