Electronics > Beginners
Is this complete test bench too good to pass up for $800?
bd139:
I'd charge that to clear it.
coppercone2:
--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 17, 2019, 01:34:44 pm ---I don't really see $800 worth of gear there. Most of it is old and/or cheap.
--- End quote ---
your not factoring in the fact that he probably has standard stock components in those boxes, you get two storage boxes.
You get a can of wd40. That's like 5$ so your already absorbing 0.6% of the total cost. There is a bench magnifier (50$), what looks like a HP8904A (100-200$), two chinese low grade power supplies (say 60$ each), can of duster (another 0.6%), old scope (50-100$), probes (20$), basic hand tool set (say 30-40$, more new, much less at a garage sale), Skil?brand drill and battery (50$ value used IMO unless its harbor freight.. maybe I am wrong here), big logic analyzer (say 50-100$ since it looks like one of those dime a dozen ones off ebay), a hair dryer (5-10$), scope cart (100$ is reasonable IMO), various spools of electronics grade wire (say 50$, they would be like 10$ each).
So thats like 750$ reasonable. Add the frequency counter, work bench, soldering stuff and solder, flux, etc..
It's not like a super steal of a deal but for a noobie that wants to get started and not be a eBay hustler I think its a OK deal. Even considering normal eBay prices.
Would I buy it? No, I would nickle and dime every fucking thing there over the a year.
If your not poor its a decent deal. I think the lab infrastructure is important because you can end up with some nice equipment working out of a tupperware otherwise, and work flow is extremely unpleasant.
Also the chair he is sitting on is worth something. 25-75$
And its supposedly all working. It has been burned in by use and you can be more sure of the components in the old stuff, vs a Ebay item that may have been powered up once for the picture in 50 years before the shady caps blew! This can save you alot of time and money and it adds value coming from a hobbyist. Does not really look like the type of guy that put together a bench just to sell it.
And those radios are wroth something. You can jump strait into doing HAM type stuff with them to learn radio electronics since you have good receivers.
And having a BUNCH of different supplies allows you to tackle more advanced circuits with isolated rails, bipolar rails, etc. Accuracy will suffer BUT you get capabilities to work on more advanced topologies. You don't sound like a volt nut or something to me...
It sounds good for your lab too because you seem to have a interest in digital systems/control circuits but have no analog gear. Those supplies and stuff are suitable for driving motors, remote sensors, etc. If that's all you have, then it sounds like that test bench would greatly increase your capabilities.
coppercone2:
To play devils advocate though:
1) I hate those types of storage boxes even if their functional, I would build my own. They strike me as extremely annoying to clean and kinda flimsy. You get weird noises when you open the little plastic drawers and they rub and just generally ugh.
2) Scope cart may not be useful to you, I would weld my own that is slimmer etc. Their useful in a factory or something where you have one oscilloscope for a big area around advanced heavy equipment that needs trouble shooting that you don't want to work on with a hand held oscilloscope. Saving grace for a home owner might be you can work on your car in the yard with a regular DSO. It's an inefficient use of space otherwise IMO. And dusting it etc is annoying. Reminds me a bit of a wheel chair. Ew.
3) The clock on the wall is bad taste
4) I would want higher quality hand tools. No Skil or Irwin (i think those pliers are) for me
5) that power supply would make me paranoid to own even if its useful for high current brute devices. They like to burn.
6) I'd want hakko soldering stuff
7) the other cart has a medical/surgical/dental vibe to it that I really don't want in my house. Why the chrome? Their a bitch when they rust too. If you want that I would make it out of 2by4's and it would look more pleasant and be nice and heavy. It looks like something for a lazy nurse to cart around. brrrrr Makes more sense in like a machine shop if you are going to be throwing greasy shit on it all day. No need for those surfaces in a electronics lab. That would be a treat in a small engine repair shop, not a electronics lab. Yea throw some greasy lawn mower engines on that thing :palm:. That's like the intended use. Bring tools outside, work on greasy rusty seized up lawn mower, generator, etc (curse alot, get covered in sweat and rusty blood), then bring it inside to your work shop without leaving a trail of oil behind you so you can take apart the important bits without a sledge hammer).
It just does not fit my 'theme'.
CZroe:
Well, the pic is probably old since it was one of those situations where he was going to lose it all in a storage unit if he doesn’t sell. Told me “you won’t be disappointed” but someone bought it before I could arrange to see it. Guess it did go fast!
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on March 16, 2019, 09:01:26 pm ---If everything in the picture is included it is worth $800, though you "might" get under that by finding good buys on everything. Are you ready to have that much invested?
--- End quote ---
Definitely. I just spent the night hunched over my existing bench, unable to see what I was doing thanks to my crappy lighting (doing about
--- End quote ---
). At my old place I’d have a few floor lamps behind me but this unfinished basement only has one outlet, and it’s GFCI, so ~1,500 watts. Lightning took out our HVAC last month (and the car!) so I really could’ve used a floor heater. Those are universally 1,500 watts, so no capacity left for auxiliary lights and a soldering station. The landlord really needs to get on it! Not that this $800 setup would’ve helped with the heat situation, but an articulating magnifier light and a workbench that doesn’t box in the overhead light to create unwanted shadows would’ve done wonders while I shivered my way through the workload.
I need an analog scope for getting the right eye pattern for adjusting CD lasers and I recently needed a current-limiting power supply to hunt for a short in a malfunctioning Hi-Def NES kit. Removed the “hot” component only to find another getting hot... and another, and another. :(
Those are just the most immediate needs but I’ve got projects in the works where I might need the function gen and logic analyzer (reverse-engineering a PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 5-player multitap).
--- Quote from: Neomys Sapiens on March 17, 2019, 03:36:30 am ---The generator on the scope cart is a HP8904, the scope is Tek (2213?) and the logicanalyser HP.
The powersupplies and multimeter/counter look like, well, flush and be gone.
--- End quote ---
He said it was a Tektronix 2235, complete with original cart. Also said it was 50mhz but the 2235 seems to be a 100mhz scope. “Dual trace, 50mhz. Several 10-1 probes.”
--- Quote from: Shock on March 17, 2019, 09:08:05 am ---Even though it looks like a lot of gear it's all quite cheap, I don't think anywhere near $800, but I don't place any value on someones used table, you can start with any old table with electronics.
--- End quote ---
...and I have started that way. I’m more than ready for an upgrade since I run into issues with this on a daily basis. My wobbly wood-topped thing from K-Mart is identical to one they sell at Harbor Freight.
Junk.
IMO, the guy’s bench was the best part. It’s certified ESD-safe for industrial electronics... like what you’d find in an ISO-certified rework lab or something.
--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 17, 2019, 01:34:44 pm ---I don't really see $800 worth of gear there. Most of it is old and/or cheap.
--- End quote ---
Thanks. I was specifically in the market for an “old” analog scope for adjusting CD lasers. Only the most expensive digital scopes can duplicate the eye pattern you need there. I was about to order some $42 eBay PSUs from the $330 lab video even though I really need current-limiting ones and I blew up my $10 meter just a day before seeing this (ByteBros BBT858L). I would’ve already pulled the trigger on a $100-$200 meter I was budgeting for if I didn’t see this. *shrug* I’ll put it this way: Everything old and cheap there is still a world better than what I have (usually nothing). Yes, I lack even basic stock components other than LEDs and quarter-watt resistors.
TheUnnamedNewbie:
When I was younger, I have made the mistake more than once going for big auction lots that seemed crazy cheap and an amazing deal. But in the end, they really weren't. I think of one of them, which had thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of components, I have used almost none of the components. They are old, hard to look for, hard to use, can't find reliable data. I think apart from some power transistors, that might have cost 2 euros new each, I have used none of the components in a practical way. What I am stuck with, however, is a car-full of components that I don't know what to do with, and that I need to move out of my old place into the new one. I think the most valuable part in this car-full of components were some crazy matched transistors that I will use at some point, and a bunch of precision opamps from analog devices, which even today would cost you a few bucks each.
So in my opinion, components are pretty much worthless, unless they are
a) very specific components that you actually need
b) easy to resell and you are willing to put time into that(EG, some NOS film capacitors sell for a lot on ebay)
c) have a lot of space.
I think these components have cost me more in stress and time to clean and actually figure out what the hell it is I bought, than I will ever get out of them.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version