WTB: electronics lab equipment for student

[Joshuamcd22]

Hi,

I am a 16 year old student that it getting into EE...  If you want to know a little more about my background, you can read the first post on this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/student-getting-into-ee-any-advice/

Anyways, I have a great soldering iron (Weller Soldering Station - WESD51), and thats about it.... I also have a $20 multimeter that works, but its not great.

To continue my education in electrical engineering, I want to get as much experience building some more advanced EE projects, to do that I need some more advanced equipment, but my funds are limited...  I am hoping someone has some used equipment that they could send my way (to Canada) at a decent price.

I am looking for an:


Oscilloscope

Function Generator

Variable Power Supply

DMM

Thanks!
Josh

NOTE: I have posted this before (a few months ago) but the deal I got from that thread fell through

[XpsikotiX]

Hello,

If you want to get some experience,  make your own adjustable power supply . You will learn a lot from this -of course one that goes from 0 to 25 or something with a 2A or more current not just a LM317 with a resistor, a pot and 2 caps. It would probably cost you less (if you already have some of the components) and you can make it exactly how you want it. This is a great opportunity to get into more advanced electronics

[Napalm2002]

Any good schematics on a home built power supply?

[shailesh3t]

try to look at the datasheet for lm 317
you will have the schematic and description
else if u want to use fixed voltage u can use the 78XX series like 7805 for 5 volts , 7812 for 12 volts and so on
regards
shailesh

[nanofrog]

Glad you mentioned where you are, but it would be a lot easier if you set your country in your User Profile, which will display your country's flag.

Some questions for you that could help give you some usable answers....
What's your budget?
What do you need out of each piece of gear?
If you're not sure of the above, what will you be doing with it (i.e. mains on a DMM or just low voltage DC types of things)?
Are you willing to purchase used gear (you can get a lot more for your money this way IMHO)?
Are you willing to salvage parts (useful in keeping say a PSU build cost down) and build?
Are you willing to try some of the project type gear found on eBay, should it come to that?

[Dongulus]

I would suggest an Analog Discovery from Digilent. I don't know that, as a Canadian student, you can qualify for the $100 USD student pricing. If you're interested, you can contact Digilent to find out for sure. I bought one recently at the student price even though I'm not enrolled in school anymore through an online Edx course I'm taking on embedded systems. The course professors have struck a deal with Digilent for student pricing for anyone enrolled. I would recommend this course anyway if you're at all interested in embedded systems, but you could enroll to get the discount.

For a beginner, the Analog Discovery is hard to beat. You get a 2 channel oscilloscope, 2 channel function generator, a 16 channel logic analyzer, +/- 5V voltage supply, and other functions. The DACs and ADCs run at 100MSPS which provides a usable bandwidth of probably around 10 MHz, which is fine if your goal is learning basic general electronics circuits. It also comes with some free software which have found no problems with so far.

[Kappes Buur]

Any good schematics on a home built power supply?

Simple but effective
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/neewbee-wants-a-power-supply/msg349346/#msg349346

[Shock]

That Analog Discovery multifunction scope will do the trick, so much packed into one box.
You should be able to design, build and troubleshoot all sorts of projects with that.

The cheap multimeter you have should be enough to build your own power supply, just check it's (and your) safety rating for working on mains power work.
Also for $60 you can pickup a really solid multimeter way better than anything I or 90% of the people reading this forum are using.
And you can never have enough power supplies, you can upgrade and refine your design or build more when you need them.
They are dirt cheap to build and if you are resourceful you can make them without spending more than a few dollars.