Workbench... Professionals know what they need. They make money on this and they have it to spend on quality stuff because it will pay off.
But what beginner can do? Limited budget is a big problem. Limited space and wife unhappy about every new "piece of junk you bought" is even more problematic
There is a lot of possible options to spend money. What equipment is worth buying. What is essential, useful and especially what is piece of useless crap (to get signal generator or not, second/third multimeter or save for scope). What can be easily replaced by DIY bench stuff (like esr meter, power supply, micro current, basic signal generator). Spend money or build yourself? Hunt for older units with (usually) one purpose or hunt for deals like multimeter with frequency measurement, capacitance, inductance (like UNI-T UT70A, about $60-70, probably a lot better than nothing) to replace bulky old stuff with one small unit. Old equipment is usually heavy, so you can spend on shipping big portion of budget and equipment with multiple purposes can save money.
Is it possible that by not saving every penny we can get a better stuff? Example? I can buy decent old scope for about $200. But... Or is old, maybe (or soon to be) broken, not too many useful features like automatic measurements, big, heavy (shipping charges). For digital I may need additional logic analyzer, another big box (or maybe small $100 usb unit, but then computer is required, you don't have one on your bench
).
Or maybe it is better to get new Rigol scope? DS1052E is about $400 right now. One compact unit, warranty, factory tested, new product smell, easy to move, easy to sell if I don't want to do this anymore or I saved for something better
Can digital scope like this be used as some channel limited logic analyzer? Serial buses are very common, so I probably won't need a lot of channels. Amateur without strict design requirement can replace parallel bus part with serial bus one. Rigol has deep memory, but how deep is it really in practical usage (debugging I2C or SPI or IR remote codes
)? Is scope with limited sample memory also capable capturing longer digital sequences or only deep memory unit? I can find ton of videos where they connect the probe to calibration output or signal generator, they put sine wave and play with some measurements. Unfortunately nothing helpful in terms of practical equipment usage. I believe that some samples of practical usage will be helpful to choose between different options on limited budget and to know what is useful and when. I can find pictures of amateur workbenches with many combinations of equipment, but do I need stuff they have? Maybe I can get something different. Can something be done simpler, nicer, cheaper or stick to old tested stuff... When I finally get the staff how to use it, how to use it in unusual way.
Workbench stuff is important
Mention workbench stuff as frequently as scope glitches
Your capacitor tutorial was great. More stuff like that as well. Mention places to get knowledge or project ideas/solutions. Books, datasheets, websites. Some interesting projects to make. Maybe spend few seconds to show some interesting parts, what they do, some common solutions for different applications.
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