Electronics Lab Setup

[Lunat1c]

Hi everyone,

I have recently come across this vlog and I must say I enjoy every minute of your videos Dave! After going through many of the videos I thought I'd ask for help here to set up my very own electronics lab. I am an electronic engineering college student and I think it's about time I do this. My budget is about $1000 and so far, I got obsessed with buying the Rigol DS1052E and I plan to apply the 100Mhz hack to it. Other things I thought I'd need are a variable power supply and most certainly a function generator. The only problem is I don't know where to start looking. Perhaps some of you can guide me in the right direction or even name some brands I could look into. Apart from the above mentioned equipment, what else do you think is a necessity in an electronics lab?

Note: I already have stuff like multimeters, soldering iron, a bunch of components and all that.

Thank you for any help you could offer.

[MTron]

Shafri's advice defiantly has a certain logic to it, if you don't need it don't buy it...

But at the same time, if you run into a need waiting a couple or more weeks for delivery (if u cant get it locally) can be a pain. Now granted, i am about as far removed from the electrical engineering profession as possible, but i would imagine a decent scope, variable power supply and a function generator to be pretty standard kit. I mean, even with my basic hobby stuff i have found a need for a half decent analog scope (Tek 2235). I would imagine that a function generator would also be helpful for me when testing amplifiers, but not necessary as there are other options.

I would say jump on the scope and the adjustable power supply (at least 1A) and leave the function generator for now, or until you forsee a need.


There are a few posts floating about regarding adjustable power supplies, ill try to link em here for you.

**edit** check out this thread https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=973.0

[Lunat1c]

I perfectly know what you mean. However I'm pretty sure I'll be using this stuff for quite a long time and well, lets face it, why do many people assemble an electronics workbench when they have one at work which they can use for free (at university in my case)? I guess the answer is quite simple, it's because having your own equipment means you can do whatever you like whenever you like to. When working on certain projects on my own time it would be nice to have my own equipment. Having to wait till the next day to test it out is a pain if you ask me hehe

I already converted a computer power supply into a regular DC power supply but that one is a bit limited since its not exactly variable and has no current limiter. Are there any particular power supplies I should look for? and regarding a simple function generator, how much would a medium-end one cost approximately?

Edit: Thanks for the link MTron. I'll check it out.

[Simon]

as for the power supply you can make your own, essentially get yourself the most powerful transformer you can at 15-18 V or 30 if you plan on 24V stuff. Try and pick up and old power supply second hand, I got an old 13.8V supply from the car boot sale for £3 it is capable of 5-7 A and i plan on stripping it and rebuilding my own regulator circuit. For a function generator you may be able to make stuff up for the odd time you need one unless of course you need the full flexibility of a professional one.

[Lunat1c]

for some reason I always hesitate when I'm about to buy something 2nd hand. For example I saw a couple of Wavetek/HP/Protek FGs on ebay which were selling for quite a good price (they've been previously used) however the seller most of the time says that there was no formal accuracy test or measurement performed.  does it happen too often that such FGs are not properly calibrated or something? what does the calibration process actually involve?

[DJPhil]

for some reason I always hesitate when I'm about to buy something 2nd hand. For example I saw a couple of Wavetek/HP/Protek FGs on ebay which were selling for quite a good price (they've been previously used) however the seller most of the time says that there was no formal accuracy test or measurement performed.  does it happen too often that such FGs are not properly calibrated or something? what does the calibration process actually involve?

It depends on the generator really. There's a variety of methods to make a wideband oscillator, and each will require some tweaking. Usually it's as simple as a few trimpots on the board, but it can get involved. The difficult part for someone starting is having reliable equipment to calibrate against, but you may be able to use equipment in your university. The best way to be sure is to try to find the service manual online and see what you're getting into.

As for ebay, I've got my own problems with them, but that's for another thread. 

[alm]

You can probably find service manuals for some HP and Wavetek function generators (eg. at Bama or the Agilent website for HP manuals), check them for adjustment procedures. Since (analog) function generators are not precision instruments, you can probably do a pretty good performance verification with just a scope with enough bandwidth. As long as you don't expect the frequency to exactly match the dials, or the distortion to exactly match the spec, I wouldn't expect any issues. Most of the used brand-name equipment I got without defects was either in spec or quite close.

[Simon]

ebay is 50/50 chance and you need to look deeply into your buyers reputation. I've been caught as both a buyer and seller

[wayneft]

The question you should ask yourself first is what kind of projects are you going to be doing in your free time? If you're going to working with, let's say, amplifiers and communications then it might be advisable to look into a function generator, maybe a frequency counter and such.  If you like working with digital systems then you might want to purchase a logic analyzer or other digital analysis related equipment.

My only advice is whenever you're buying components (IC's, transistors, sensors, etc...) always buy a lot more than what you really need.  It's always good to have extra in case you blow it up or more likely you'll find that that you need the exact same part for a different project later on. 

[Simon]

I always buy in bulk because I get price breaks and I know I'll always use them, so I have a set of "jelly bean" parts as Dave calls them. of course many also end up here: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/sparkylabs-co-uk/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

[Lunat1c]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll be looking around the forum a bit and see what I can find.