Whats your Work-Bench/lab look like? Post some pictures of your Lab.

[Cubdriver]

I think the real trick is to get cats to like you; if that's even possible.

It's not that difficult...



-Pat

[bitseeker]

It depends on the dog or cat. Most that I've met in my lifetime have been amicable or down right clingy. Occasionally, though, you'll run into ones that have a bad attitude — just like people.

Cats do seem to like test equipment from the photos I've seen in this thread and elsewhere on the forum. I imagine the old boat anchors must be especially appealing with all the heat they generate.

[Mr. Scram]

I think the real trick is to get cats to like you; if that's even possible.

Be warm.
Provide food.
Provide cuddles.
Endure scratches.

[GreyWoolfe]

The prizes are not motivating me. If there was a Keysight logo on one I might consider it

The only thing vaguely interesting is the Milwaukee bit set and I can get that from Home Depot.  And I bet I can even get Mrs. GreyWoolfe to buy it for me.

You're a very lucky man. 


Now about your current signature...

I don't care what anyone thinks of me.  Except SWMBO and dogs.  I want her and dogs to like me.

Fixed it for you. 

Oh, she does and she even loves me, not sure why but I will take it.  You're right, I am a lucky man.  I don't even have to show a demonstrable need, just a perceived need and she be like, 'Just buy it already."

[JohnnyMalaria]

I think the real trick is to get cats to like you; if that's even possible.

Be warm.
Provide food.
Provide cuddles.
Endure scratches.

And know your place.

[BillB]

I think the real trick is to get cats to like you; if that's even possible.

Be warm.
Provide food.
Provide cuddles.
Endure scratches.

And know your place.

Which seems to be as a heated, upholstered scratching post with a built-in food dispenser.   

[JohnnyMalaria]

I think the real trick is to get cats to like you; if that's even possible.

Be warm.
Provide food.
Provide cuddles.
Endure scratches.

And know your place.

Which seems to be as a heated, upholstered scratching post with a built-in food dispenser.

And, as one of mine insists, I need to stand by the front door and let him out even though he'll come back in through the cat flap on the other side of the house.

[BillB]

And, as one of mine insists, I need to stand by the front door and let him out even though he'll come back in through the cat flap on the other side of the house.

Ok.  A heated, upholstered scratching post with a built-in food dispenser that buttles.

[med6753]

element14 is running a bench photo contest.  The prizes look kinda lame, but they have some interesting categories:

•      Where’s my Cat? (messiest bench)
•       Tony Stark’s Dream Bench (state of the art bench)
•      Fire Hazard Award (Worst cable management)
•       Pepped to the Post Award (Best coffee mug)
•      Totally Screwed Award (Worst organisation of screws, nuts and bolts)
•      Bat Cave Award (Award for wide range of tools)
•       Mom Would Be Proud (Neatest bench)
•       Man Cave Bench (Best use of personal space for a bench)
•      Jury Rigged Award (Most improvised or makeshift repair or bench)
•       Time Machine Award (Best piece of Retro Tech on display)

I'm pretty sure there are several strong contenders for all of those here!

I joined up and posted my bench.

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

My little work area is in the corner of the living room.  Why?  Well, because I'm generous enough to let my brother-in-law live in our basement.  Hence, my wife is "generous" enough to let me have a work space in the living room. LOL  Must keep the wife happy.

[JohnnyMalaria]

LOL  Must keep the wife happy.

No wonder it's so tidy 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

LOL  Must keep the wife happy.

No wonder it's so tidy 

That is so true.
Plus, I just got finished repairing that Fluke 5200A and I always try and clean up after a major project.
I should have taken the picture before the clean up.

[tautech]

Plus, I just got finished repairing that Fluke 5200A and I always try and clean up after a major project.

What was wrong with yours ?
Have you been watching Defpom trying to repair his on YT ?

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

Plus, I just got finished repairing that Fluke 5200A and I always try and clean up after a major project.

What was wrong with yours ?
Have you been watching Defpom trying to repair his on YT ?

Well, the major problem was due to poor packing when I bought if off the auction site.  The unit arrived with the inner covers bent which let the boards inside move around which caused two of the connectors on the main board to break.

I was able to fix one of the connectors but the other one was beyond repair.  Since I have no plans to use the remote board and did not come with one, I removed that connector and used it to replace the badly damaged one.

After that, the unit basically worked but I went through the troubleshooting procedure for each board and found one bad cap and 2 bad transistors.  I think one was on the oscillator board and the other was on the ac/dc converter board.

Oh, I almost forgot.  When I first powered it up, two tantalum caps blew up on the Reference Assembly board.  It was the two on the 15V rails.  Replaced them with new caps and have not had a problem with the 15V rails since.

Anyway, it all works great now.  Did most of the calibration procedures but I don't have all the equipment needed to complete the cal.  Mainly the differential meter and the quad meter.

I did see some of Defpom's videos but his problems were totally different.  I still enjoyed watching them though.

[richnormand]

@4thDoctorWhoFan


Nice set of instruments!
Is it an EICO 324 signal generator that is shy under the bench? Seen from the back.
Mine still works from the late 60s, assembled from a kit 

Cheers

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

@4thDoctorWhoFan


Nice set of instruments!
Is it an EICO 324 signal generator that is shy under the bench? Seen from the back.
Mine still works from the late 60s, assembled from a kit 

Cheers

Very close.
It's an EICO 147A Signal Tracer.  I'm sure they look very similar from the back.  Amazing that you picked up on it being an EICO.
Below the EICO is a PACO B-12 regulated power supply.

It's awesome that you actually built it from a kit and still have it.  NOS kits are now VERY expensive.
Does it still work?

[richnormand]

Perfectly!

[Beamin]

In the basement, I've got a separate workshop for the loud / dirty /chemical stuff:





The whole calibration equipment is located in another room in the basement, at naturally constant 20..22°C the whole year.



The time-nuts instruments: The 5335A displays its internal OCXO compared to the GPSDO, Trimble Thunderbolt.
About 1.2E-9 deviation @ 10sec Gate Time, even after at least 1 year of continuous operation of the OCXO.



The Efratom FRS-C Rb standard is fed as the 10MHz reference to the rear of the hp5370B, and the GPSDO to the input, so comparing both frequencies directly at about 10s Gate Time. That's about 1E-11 deviation.
This uncertainty of the Rb clock has to be determined by collecting data over a longer period of time, and creating the Allan Distribution Statistics, as the jitter of GPS, and of the 5370B (30ps typ.) are larger than 1E-10 at a small Gate Time.
From this chart, measured and created by TimeLab (from ke5fx), you can see, that at 0.1sec Gate Time, the jitter is in the 1E-9 range, so over 1000 sec of averaging is necessary to access the 1E-11 area. 1sec Gate Time needs at least 100sec averaging, and 10sec Gate Time is close enough to give below 1E-11 uncertainty.
The TimeLab contains other measurement modes to determine frequency deviations directly, or to use the Time Interval mode for 1pps outputs of the standards to be compared.



Then here are the volt-nuts instruments :



The DIY boxes consist of a Reference Divider (as 752A), 2 LTZ1000 references with 7 => 10V amplifier and a decade divider (as 720A), 5 further LTZ1000 references, 5 VHP202Z 10kOhm references, and a constant current source. Stability Level for the DC units is about 1ppm, for AC down below 10ppm.

How many years dollars did that take to get to that point? My ab went from a horrible radio shack soldering iron and some broken parts with two pairs of sire strippers. Now it fills 1/4 of the room with scope, Hakko soldering station, DMM's tones of modules from china for checking parts and a good assortment of parts rPi Arduino and RF stuff. I also have everything to make PCB's, less the laser copier. Still trying to find a cheap used one that doesn't take up too much space. I have all kinds of antennas 3 hams a real SDR scanners, and big VHF dipole antenna that's going to be cut/tuned to 2meters as well as tape measure antennas and some custom built yagi's for two meter and 470Cm.. The parts collection was the hardest to get as I had no idea what to buy and digikey is not your friend when you are just tryin to browse. I still have load of really cool radio transceiver chips that have 6/8 pins in 3X3mm packages. I'm trying to get break out boards for or make my own by scraping away or using masking tape and HCl/H2O2 to etch. What's interesting is HCl won't dissolve copper but if you add iron to the solution, the Cu will take the irons place etching the copper off. Thank you electronegativity! They looked much bigger in the picture. Best so far is getting four of six pins to solder to. Hard to find normal sized parts let alone dips.


My best toy is the CTV magnifier. Has hidef flat screen that sits over a table that moves around. It can optically zoon to where you can see the writing on the smallest of surface mount parts. Surface mount is impossible without it. you can adjust contrast color or do black and white for counting pins. You can see the inside of a insulin syringe and if it's harp or not. Also good for painting nails under it.

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

The time-nuts instruments:

Love the cal equipment.  Very nice setup.
Is that a Fluke 5442A calibrator?  I would love to have one of those.  They are still priced a little out of my budget.

[Beamin]

I forgot to mention it was Dave videos that totally resparked my interest in this hobby.

[david77]

I've relocated my electronics lab from the shed to the basement. This used to be my office and is now lab/office combined. The shed was too hot in summer and to cold in winter and the office was seriously underused anyway. The big and dirty tools are still in the shed.
There's a bench for small mechanical & chemical stuff, a sort of desk area and the main attraction the EE workbench.

[kkessler]

Novell Netware box, that brings back memories.

[david77]

I think its 3.12. Up until 2012 I used to maintain a small legacy Novell Network that we could noit get rid of  .

[richnormand]

@David77
What is the blueish box on the left of you first photo?

[kkessler]

Wow, Netware 3.12 in 2012.  I put in a corporate Netware 4.0 network in for my company in about '95 or '96. A CNE doesn't demand the respect that it used to.