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

[PlainName]

It's not so much the temperature but the CRI of whatever colour - you want the highest CRI you can find. However, ignoring that I go for 'daylight', which is about 5K. The 'cool' ones of 6K or higher are just too blue, particularly inside where there is no natural light, and the 'warm' ones of about 4K or lower are too yellow now. But it's very personal, and if you're not sure I'd suggest you grab a sample of each (warm, natural, cool) to try and see which you can put up with.

[Edison]

I completely agree with the CRI - below 80 is inappropriate - important for color perception, but what I disagree with is the light temperature, the so-called daylight white is in the range of 4000 - 5000K, this is the most optimal for the workspace - I personally use it manually produced light from industrial 24V LED strips 4000 K with an output of 2700 lm/m and a CRI of 95. The yellow light of the bulb is in the region of 2700 - 3000 K and the light of the halogen bulb is around 3000 - 3500 K. At my workplace I have one spotlight with a light temperature of 6000 K - absolutely luxurious light color for finding cold joints on PCB - if I illuminate a cold joint with this light, it is as if I traced a crack in the joint with a marker.

Edit: Somewhere there are photos of the lights - I think it's around page 141, I don't remember when I put it here, it can also be seen in the post about the production of soldering fume extraction - a mobile agegate in the rail next to the lights

Nice day  Tom

[chickenHeadKnob]

I had a personal epiphany 45 years ago whilst perusing books in an unfamiliar library. The library had stacks that were illuminated mostly with cold fluorescent long rod tubes and a central reading area that was flooded by natural light from an array of skylights. I would add it was an overcast day with medium to light thickness of cloud .

The transition of going from the stacks to the reading area was profound. Everything seemed sharper and higher definition in natural light, and the colors looked correct. Even stark contrast black print on bleached white paper was easy on the eyes. Back then I was a night owl and did most my electronics hobby or reading under relatively dim and yellowish incandescent bulbs and thought that is what I preferred. 

These days I go for recreating that diffuse natural skylight in my lab as much as possible. Both in intensity, diffuseness (even distribution -  important!) and color spectrum.

[Edison]

Light also has a huge effect on eye fatigue, sharp transitions between light and dark are not good at all. Fluorescent tubes were also made from different °K, and interesting results could be achieved by combining tubes. Today it is easier because WWW LED chips are produced and the color can be freely configured.

[Edison]

The suction nozzle light has 11W LED and 5500K 85CRI, a 3800K 70W  special halogen spot reflector and a difference with a 6000K 3W LED spot reflector for finding cold joints.

[Edison]

Magnifying glass 80 LED 5000K

[PlainName]

These days I go for recreating that diffuse natural skylight in my lab as much as possible.

That's also an important thing, yes - diffusion so there are no hard shadows. The old fluoro tubes were great for this, and nowadays LED batten are cool.

[Warhawk]

Magnifying glass 80 LED 5000K

Díky (thanks)

[soldar]

Could someone please comment on color temperature for the workshop? What is your best experience for the overhead lights (e.g. soldering, etc.).

My preference for lighting is

1- Overhead, no windows or horizontal light. All from above.

2- Diffuse.  Avoid shadows, spread the sources.

3- Lots of light. Very bright.

4- Color comes in last but I usually mix cold and warm tubes.

5- I also usually have a pantograph light right at the bench so I can put it right up to the work in whatever direction I need.

[Warhawk]

I am thinking about some of these ultra-flat panels. Additionally, I will have one or two adjustable lights (pantograph-type). I am building my tiny lab (first time in my own house) and want to make it nice and practical. That's why I ask.

Any recommended brands?

[PlainName]

My partner's mum is very old with poor eyesight, and needed a nice light for fixing jewellery and stuff. So I mounted one of those thin flat panels on a pantograph, from an actual Anglepoise, and she is very happy with it.

[Messtechniker]

Could someone please comment on color temperature for the workshop? What is your best experience for the overhead lights (e.g. soldering, etc.).

My preference for lighting is

1- Overhead, no windows or horizontal light. All from above.

2- Diffuse.  Avoid shadows, spread the sources.

3- Lots of light. Very bright.

4- Color comes in last but I usually mix cold and warm tubes.

5- I also usually have a pantograph light right at the bench so I can put it right up to the work in whatever direction I need.

I don't agree with 4.
Light which ist too bright for long periods wears out your eyesight over the decades.
Warning from a professor doing microscopy. So be careful here.

[soldar]

My preference for lighting is

1- Overhead, no windows or horizontal light. All from above.

2- Diffuse.  Avoid shadows, spread the sources.

3- Lots of light. Very bright.

4- Color comes in last but I usually mix cold and warm tubes.

5- I also usually have a pantograph light right at the bench so I can put it right up to the work in whatever direction I need.

I don't agree with 4.
Light which ist too bright for long periods wears out your eyesight over the decades.
Warning from a professor doing microscopy. So be careful here.

I take it when you say "4" you mean "3"? Inflation is reaching everywhere!

When I say "bright" I mean reasonably bright. I have never seen indoor lighting that was so excessively bright as to be damaging but I agree that excessive light, as in the sunny outdoors can be very damaging to the eyes.

I have sailed on boats a lot and I always covered my skin, eyes, etc. Always wore wide brimmed hat, sunglasses, a long sleeves and pants. The sun's rays are very damaging. I see young women sunbathing and I see them before age 40 with the wrinkly skin of an old person.

[Veteran68]

My lab/office is in the basement of our house built in 2020-2021. The basement was unfinished, and I hired a GC to finish it out after we moved in. I bought a dozen of these 2'x2' panels for the drop ceiling:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YZ9HJ69

I have them on dimmer switches because they're too bright for me at full power; however I'm a bit disappointed that the 0-10V LED dimmer switches I have don't really dim them that much. It feels like maybe they dim no more than 20-30% from full. So I leave them on the fully dimmed position and sometimes they're still too bright for me. Not sure if this is the fault of the lights themselves or the Leviton dimmer switches I bought.

They are selectable between 4000K/5000K/6000K temperature, though I'm not sure what setting the electrician installed them at. I'd have to get into the ceiling to check. I believe they came set to 5000K by default, which is about where I'd want them, and I assume where he left them. I'm good with the color temperature, I just wish I had more dimming range.

[three_jeeps]

I am redoing my lab in the basement from the ground up.  I like the use of the adjustable shelf system in Daves video here
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/whats-your-work-benchlab-look-like-post-some-pictures-of-your-lab/3375/

Does anyone know who makes the square verticle poles + floor brackets?
I've done a fair amount of searching and have come up empty.

Thanks!

[OneGeekGuy]

Hi,

I left here two pictures on my current setup! Unfortunately, I need to share my desk for both purposes PC and lab, so I incorporated as better as I could be lab with the table, now that new multimeter is incoming I might need to modify a bit the setup....but let's see, at the end the shelves are not that big 

I added into the structure a box with some USBs and Ethernet connected to the PC, so I can connect instruments, eval board.... really useful. Simple but happy with it for now...

Any suggestion, will be welcome 

[PlainName]

Does anyone know who makes the square verticle poles + floor brackets?
I've done a fair amount of searching and have come up empty.

Your search term should probably be "retail shelving"

[Bud]

I left here two pictures on my current setup!

I bet you curse every time you reach out to that soldering station's power switch 

[OneGeekGuy]

Remote would help  . I am still on the re-organization phase since I am not 100% convince of the placement....let see how it ends I am still thinking to give more height to the shelves to be a bit more flexible....

[6h8c]

I recommend this solution

https://www.hurt.com.pl/listwa-antyprzepieciowa-5g-2m-marki-belkin-p9087.html

[tooki]

This is the lab I just took over, my own little slice of the University of Zurich. (Pardon the shakiness in the panoramic photo, I was going too fast.) Still deciding what I’ll rearrange and how, since this lab was originally born from the merger of two labs, so there’s a lot of redundancy…

[nctnico]

It's not so much the temperature but the CRI of whatever colour - you want the highest CRI you can find. However, ignoring that I go for 'daylight', which is about 5K. The 'cool' ones of 6K or higher are just too blue, particularly inside where there is no natural light, and the 'warm' ones of about 4K or lower are too yellow now. But it's very personal, and if you're not sure I'd suggest you grab a sample of each (warm, natural, cool) to try and see which you can put up with.

I agree about the CRI. In my lab & shed I use CFLs from Philips with a color temperature of 5300K and a CRI >95%. I have not found LED panels to replace the CFLs with an equally high CRI.

[SiliconWizard]

This is the lab I just took over, my own little slice of the University of Zurich. (Pardon the shakiness in the panoramic photo, I was going too fast.) Still deciding what I’ll rearrange and how, since this lab was originally born from the merger of two labs, so there’s a lot of redundancy…

If you ever run into Niklaus Wirth, just say hi.

[tooki]

This is the lab I just took over, my own little slice of the University of Zurich. (Pardon the shakiness in the panoramic photo, I was going too fast.) Still deciding what I’ll rearrange and how, since this lab was originally born from the merger of two labs, so there’s a lot of redundancy…

If you ever run into Niklaus Wirth, just say hi.

Apparently he’s at the ETH (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich), a different university, so I’m unlikely to bump into him!

[Warhawk]

Pardon my ignorance but is there a special cabinet where you store all the famous Swiss chocolate?