Fellow college student here, just about to finish my undergraduate degree and have built up quite a lab throughout my studies. My home lab have allowed me to build projects for school, my robotics club, start a tech company (now defunct
) and got a EE part time job working from home. I'd say it is well worth investing in a good home lab, it allows you to hone your skill as an engineer and brings you so many opportunities.
My advice is to start with a modest set of equipment and slowly build your collection out. You will know what gear you NEED when you actually need it, and when you don't know what you need, just spend the money on the basics to get you going, and keep the money for later when you need to spend the big bucks for specific equipment. For example, if you later go the embedded route, you'll probably need to spend on a J-Link, a logic analyser, power profiler, high speed probes etc. If you go for RF stuff, you'll need a spectrum analyser, vector network analyser, precision hot tweezers for tweaking 0201 passives etc. Go power electronics? You will need current probes, diff probes, high power supplies, fire extinguishers
etc. Point is, it is hard to tell what route you'll end up going, so it is harder still to say how to spend your money right now.
Also allocate a chunk of budget for a good collection of components, having parts handy allows you to build out prototypes and test ideas much faster! I think 30% to 40% of my lab's worth is in components. Have a collection of opamps (fast ones, low noise ones, high power ones, low drift ones...
), have a collection of passive components from through hole to SMD, have a collection of BJTs and MOSFETs for signal and power stuff, the list goes on and on.
Can't tell you exactly what gear to buy, as it is your money not mine, and different people have different priorities and quality standards, but I can tell you my journey.
For oscilloscopes I started with a DS1052E I think 8 years ago, sold it and swapped it for a DS1054Z and swapped it again for a SDS2074x Plus hacked to 500MHz, paid a bit over 1k USD for it. If you are entering the market now, I really suggest you look for a scope that can do bode plots, you'll learn a hell lot from it (power supply stability analysis, filter response, component characterisation etc.). Bandwidth is not as important as one think, rarely do I measure stuff up to 100 MHz, and for the rare case I need high bandwidth (high speed digital, RF etc.), even 500 MHz on my current scope won't cut it.
Function generator is something I don't use too often, and for years I was happy with a 20 MHz second hand Rigol DG1022 I got for less than 100 USD. It is until recently I wanted to do bode plots up to 100 MHz, that I ordered a SGD2042x that I plan to hack to 120 MHz. A function gen is not something I use daily, unlike my scope, soldering gear etc.
Soldering station really depends on what you can tolerate I think. Personally I love soldering and I sometimes just solder for the sake of doing it to enjoy a zen moment. I have around 5kg of the best quality silver loaded, leaded, multicore solder on hand in case they ban the sales of the leaded stuff. Like most people I started with a crappy non adjustable plug in iron, upgraded a few times and in the process have tried crappy chinese stations, Hakko Fx-950, Goot Rx-802, chinese JBC knock-off, built my own Weller RT station. What I finally settled on is the Metcal mx-5200 with the standard and ultrafine hand pieces, and a second hand Metcal mx-500 with the Hakko fx-1003 precision hot tweezers. IMO the Metcal induction system is the best performer, period. The heat recovery is second to none, the tip to grip distance and ergonomics is simply the best. I consider it to be my endgame. Could I have settled on the Hakko Fx-950? Of course, but I'll admit I am a snob when it comes to soldering, and I have probably spent to much on soldering gear, but no regrets so far.
For hot air stations I found the stations with the fan built into the stationary unit performs the best, as opposed to having the fan in the handpiece. I owned the Quick 957DW, loved the simplicity and performance. Later upgraded to the classic 861DW when I had a project involving copper core PCBs. I still miss the UI (knobs) of the 957DW.
I grew up with asthma so fume extraction is a must for me. I have a Quick 6101 fume extractor and it does the job. Also stole my mum's dyson air purifier fan and placed it on my work bench, it works well.
Bench DMM is something nice to have, but not really necessary. I think universities prefer them as it is harder for students to steal them
. I have a 2nd hand Keithley 2000 but it does not get used as often as my Brymen 869s by far. You rarely need the extra digits.
For logic analysers I have a DS lab logic analyser, it is the best bang per buck till this day I think. But once again, I rarely use it. If you have a software issue, a debugger (e.g. J-Link) is way way more useful. If I suspect there's some issue in hardware, I use my scope to check for SI issues at the same time. I'd say a logic analyser is not essential for most work. A 4 channel scope and a suitable debugger (depending on what architecture of chips you work with) should be your priority.
Electronic load I have a used 150W unit made by Array, it draws current, it does it's job, but I don't use it often not because it does not perform well, but a electronic load is not always the right load for the job. If I want to test a DUT under load for EMC, I don't use my mains connected load as it messes up the reading. For testing transient response of power supplies, most electronic loads are not fast enough, and you'll probably roll your own dynamic load. What I often fall back to a just a big old 200W pot, it does not oscillate, it does not inject noise into your circuit, it is floating, it is simple and it works.
Hope I have helped a bit in your purchasing decisions, I can talk about this stuff all day ahaha.