Hosted by David L. Jones
And presented in Dave's unique non-scripted overly enthusiastic style!
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EEVblog #51 – A tour of the EEVblog Electronics Lab
Posted on December 28th, 2009 41 commentsAfter countless requests, Dave finally takes you on a guided behind the scenes tour of the EEVblog lab.
41 responses to “EEVblog #51 – A tour of the EEVblog Electronics Lab”
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Thanks for your tour, very interesting indeed. All that in a one shot video – i like it
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Deyanuz December 29th, 2009 at 04:38
Great blog! As a EE student I find your post very interesting and informative. Keep up the good work.
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Thanks for the tour. I notice you mention SMD but you don’t have a hot air gun for rework. The guys at Sparkfun figured out you don’t need one, a basic electric skillet works great for rework/reflow.
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Armandas December 29th, 2009 at 07:20
Dave, what do you do when you’re in the lab and need a quick look at the datasheet of some part, or find something on the web, or anything? Do you never miss a computer in the lab? :O
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Andrew December 29th, 2009 at 09:50
DIY current source
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6566536.html
I build one to get rid of some surplus BCD pushwheel switches that were fetching dust for some time. But it works quite well, and the switches give the whole thing a nice retro look.
Soldering the 48 resistors is a little bit boring, but might be a good soldering practice for beginners.
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Oh fun. I could solder those resistors in no time. Every time they do a kit build at Providence Geeks or DC401 I’m usually the first one done.
I use the additional time to help out people that are new to soldering electronic components on circuit boards.
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Does anyone have suggestions for inexpensive low value (up to 1000 nH) SMD inductor kits for RF? eBay is great for resistors and capacitors, but I’ve really only seen single values of inductors and kits of power inductors. The Farnell ones are about $125, which is a lot to pay to get out of winding a few coils.
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Andrew December 29th, 2009 at 23:32
http://www.coilcraft.com/kitssm.cfm
They used to be very generous with samples, but got abused by amateurs and *ssh*l*s reselling the samples on eBay. So it’s “pay to play” now.
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Andrew December 30th, 2009 at 09:39
I wrote some longer reply with URL earlier this day, but it disappeared. So the short form is google for coilcraft designer’s kits.
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Thanks Andrew. It’s not eBay cheap, but I think I’ll have to get one anyway!
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Thanks Dave,
In shorts and t-shirt in the garage round Christmas.
Here in Europe its now winter, snow and temperature around 0 deg C.
I like the elbow hight table you have.
Stuff gets smaller and you have to put it closer in front of you nose.
I like the HP multimeter.
It has a fet input up til the 20 Volt range.
You can measure on the input of an opamp virtually without loading. -
Its quite remarkable how viewing the blogs through the webcam you get the impression of the lab being much larger then it actually is.
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Kelvin December 30th, 2009 at 23:18
Thanks for the tour Dave. I am impressed by how well organised and neat your lab is.
I am wondering if others would like to share a picture of thier labs too? I would like to slowly buidup one myself.
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Armandas December 31st, 2009 at 07:33
Here is a great article on setting up a lab: http://www.duntemann.com/12vtubes/shoptips.htm
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Sofian December 31st, 2009 at 03:58
Hey Dave, nice lab. i am a little amazed and jealous at the same time, at the age of 8 you had a multimeter, WOW, i am more amazed by the fact that you knew what electric current and electric voltage meant! never seen a guy like you. Keep up the good work.
And yeah, the lab looks much bigger on your previous blogs.
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John McVirgo December 31st, 2009 at 15:06
Interesting that the previous videos gave the impression of it being a large lab, whereas in reality it’s put together in a very basic, but functional sort of way. In fact, this is the same as any TV studio where the basic setup is very basic.
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Hey Dave,
Great tour, funny how I envisioned your lab in a room in your basement. I would have never guessed it was in your garage. I also had the feeling that it was 3 or 4 times larger.
Alan
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Dave,
I keep a fire extinguisher in my lab. Rarely used but essential when needed.
Mark
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george graves January 3rd, 2010 at 19:08
I’d love more details on your resistor box. I really can see where that would come in handy. More info please? Or how about you build a couple, and walk us through it as an installment for the next eev blog!
Keep up the good work – I don’t miss an episode!
George Graves
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Brodieman January 3rd, 2010 at 23:57
great stuff as usual dave!
Slightly unrelated but when you need a prototype board built (1 or 2 only) that requires a lot of components in multiple layers – have you got any sources for us?
found a few that will make the PCB but none really state whether they are populated aswell… (i have very shakey hands)
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Dave
Love your blog. I bought the same Tandy meter at 12 years old!
Keep up the good work.
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Hi Dave
your setup reminds me quite a bit of mine, I do have a hot-air source, apart from smd rework it gets a lot of use with heatshrink sleeving. And surely there’s a lab-book for scribbling pinouts, tweaking logic and jotting down memo’s to yourself as you go? -
signal7 January 11th, 2010 at 23:47
I like the solution you came up with for the SSD connections. For the longest time, I’ve only had a ground wire snaked up to the bench and clipped to a wrist strap. A banana plug terminal permanently mounted to the bench would be a big improvement.
For datasheets, I’ve been using a Kindle or a laptop. I think I’d find it very difficult/inconvenient to be disconnected from the internet while at the bench, imho.
I recognize those R$ analog meters you have. My dad had one for many years until I came along and tried changing the mode dial while it was hooked up. Let’s just say it doesn’t have very good input protection.
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I can’t imagine soldering SMD components with 2 soldering irons
I have a Circuit Specialists SMD Tweezer (~$20-$30) that has been really handy in my projects. -
Thanks for the tour Dave!
I have a small workshop and building it slowly. maybe it will give a few people ideas
http://www.machinegrid.com/2009/12/the-jerker-geek-desk-workbench/ -
your bench is very tidy and organized.
but most things are very old and outdated. cannot figure out how to do a serious project with these tools.
where are your agilent instruments? -
chuck June 6th, 2011 at 09:23
Is there a reason why a little pot wouldn’t be better than the decade box?
Are hot tweezers for stripping or rework worth it?
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7488 -
For you is the best time of the lecture. You’re well-equipped facilities in the garage.
Good JOb!!!
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Organizing tip for your plastic storage containers. Take a container of stuff and spread it out on a table then take a picture of it. Label the container something like 1A or whatever and put all the pics into a folder on you desktop. You can then just browse through pics on your PC and find what you are looking for much quicker. You can also glue the picture to the front of the plastic containers also.
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Joe December 29th, 2009 at 01:17