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

[HighVoltage]

some people enjoy a good glass of beer or wine, i enjoy a good soldering session or repair. plus the money invested isn't pissed down the drain afterward

Well, I am just playing with a new 33522B Series Generator and using BenchVue to copy waveforms from my scope to the generator.
And having a great glass of red California wine with it.
It can go together.

[Artlav]

It is, however, important not to get carried away.
On one hand, you might wake up and find something you made that works, but have no clue how the heck does it do that.
On the other hand, you might never ever wake up 'cause you found it funny to draw arcs from the mains with your fingers...

[RobertoLG]

some people enjoy a good glass of beer or wine, i enjoy a good soldering session or repair. plus the money invested isn't pissed down the drain afterward

Well, I am just playing with a new 33522B Series Generator and using BenchVue to copy waveforms from my scope to the generator.
And having a great glass of red California wine with it.
It can go together.

hehe that's true  http://youtu.be/U7ao3Ylew-Q

[d3javu]

My small little corner in the study room.

Awww, that'sa cute corner.

[krivx]

My start of humble beginnings.

the important part is starting 

Joey "The Lips" Fagan?

Indeed though, even giants start small.

I couldn't let that pass

[TSL]

Here's my home office/lab

Computers by day, RF by night.

cheers

Tim

[baoshi]

Here's my home office/lab

Computers by day, RF by night.

cheers

Tim

Oh that looks great!

[VK5RC]

What transverter do you use for 10GHz (?Kuhne, DEM), is that a homebrew TVx on the left side of the lab using the IC910 or perhaps a FT 817 hidden elsewhere?

[bookaboo]

Some really nice set ups here, currently trying to completely re-layout my own workshop using some of these as inspiration. 

[TSL]

What transverter do you use for 10GHz (?Kuhne, DEM), is that a homebrew TVx on the left side of the lab using the IC910 or perhaps a FT 817 hidden elsewhere?

For 10Ghz I have a home brew unit made out of Harris digital link parts, that gives me 1 watt !! -  QRO by Ghz standards, I also have a VK3XDK transverter, yet to be assembled. I also have a kit for 5 Ghz and a Thales 24/26Ghz unit ( 1 watt there too!) that needs an LO and some PIC to make work. Packed away I have a TVx for 2.4Ghz that does 60w, also built out of misc parts scoured from eBay and ham field days.

On the bench is a TVx for 475Khz ( modified VK3XDK design), the Bird on top of it currently checking power out and power reflected. I just finished a new antenna for 600m and was doing some WSPR tests when I took the pic. WSPRx is on the screens. The TVx is driven by my IC-7400.

There is an 817 in the pic, just up and to the right of the IC-910, it's not being used for anything right now. The Hp3586B I use for LF & VLF dx and for FMT. 

Al the radios I've modified to use a 10Mhz referenced LO as do the transverters and test gear. There is a Thunderbolt GPSDO in the pic that provides the reference source and its output is distributed by a distribution amp behind the HP3586.

The PC I use for radio also has a GPIB card and extra serial ports to interface to all the radios and the test gear and a 192k multichannel sound card for running SpectrumLab plugged into the 7400 and 3586. I also have the GPIB toolkit, LabView and other s/w to collect, collate and massage data from the test gear.

cheers

Tim

[VK5RC]

@TSL,
Nice set up. I 'cheated' re 10GHz using a Kuhne TVx with a DEM PA; MiniKIts sequencer
1W at 24GHz, wow !!!!!!
Interesting I also have a HP 3586 but I am never around for the FMT (work keeps getting in the way) I recall an article about how in those units the BFO is not locked to the frequency reference input, why would you not do that?!!   
EDIT Found the reference if you haven't seen it. http://ve2zaz.net/HP3586_AD5962/HP3586_AD5962.htm

I am slowly locking my transceivers with VK3HZ's X refs (IC910 and FT817) but have not touched my IC756 P3. HP Z3801 gpsdo.
Might catch up at Gipps Tech ?
73

[TSL]

@TSL,
Nice set up. I 'cheated' re 10GHz using a Kuhne TVx with a DEM PA; MiniKIts sequencer
1W at 24GHz, wow !!!!!!

Roger on the TVx, many people go that way - building stuff at these frequencies can be challenging enough, more so if you don't have test gear to verify operation.

Interesting I also have a HP 3586 but I am never around for the FMT (work keeps getting in the way) I recall an article about how in those units the BFO is not locked to the frequency reference input, why would you not do that?!!   
EDIT Found the reference if you haven't seen it. http://ve2zaz.net/HP3586_AD5962/HP3586_AD5962.htm

I had considered doing that, but now I'm doing it differently .
I take the IF out from the HP3586 and input that to the left channel of the sound card, I then take the output from the HP3336B, offset by 1Khz, and input that to the right channel of the sound card. I then have a macro in SpectrumLab that plots delta between the received signal in the IF and the reference signal thus eliminating any drift or offset introduced by the sound card. Given both instruments are synced to the same 10Mhz reference I can get milli Hz accuracy on extremely weak signals.

I am slowly locking my transceivers with VK3HZ's X refs (IC910 and FT817) but have not touched my IC756 P3. HP Z3801 gpsdo.
Might catch up at Gipps Tech ?
73

I'm using the Xrefs too for the radios, they work extremely well and have excellent stability and phase noise characteristics even when not locked to 10MHz.

As for GippsTech - I'd love to go but work is often at its busiest and I think last time it was on I was in the US for a meeting at head office.

cheers

Tim

[Electric flower]

This is corner of my bedroom, it's nothing fancy nor professional, but it's enough to get yourself lost in the rabbit hole of electronics.

On first image is workbench, it's fairly small for my needs, i also use it for homework and studying, since i use it for more than electronics that place is always covered in mess and there is never enough space. On the right hand side of table i have DIY powersupply and Weller PU81.

On second image there is tool box, mostly hand tools, dremmel and some other accessories.

On third image there are multimeters, 80% of time i use Protek 506, on UT61E voltage, micro and mili amps aren't working, and i use it mostly for capacitance/resistance measurements, cynical Fuke DT9205 powers up but every range is out of spec and it is crap, i have it because i like having bunch of DMMs around, i feel professional and sophisticated. 

I like calculators, and on forth picture there is Casio fx-991ES plus which i use in school, and HP48G is for my personal amusement.

5. 6. and 7th image is of my recent mod for workbench, i bought LED strip that was on discount, it's warm white 12V. Since i didn't have 12V adaptor, so i cut two stripes 80cm long and connected them in series so i can use 24V adaptor which i have. So in total those are two 80cm strips connected in series that are placed parallel to one another. 102 LEDs total, it gives bright light, but it's not blinding as the light i have had before (rotating lamp attached to desk). Light is even and it's ideal for technical drawing. I used some medical tape to tape up the cable to desk so it doesn't fall down and pull the stripes, it's only temporally untill i find transparent tape.

Future plans: definetly osciloscope, been looking for one atleast 7 months, prices of second hand scopes in Croatia are unbelievable. Hot air station might come soon, also looking for function generator.
Also i might build another bench so that it makes letter L with current bench, or if my budget gets low ill get rolling chart where i will have powersupply, function generator and osciloscope. I'm teen and i need more space (on the bench).

[lewis]

some people enjoy a good glass of beer or wine, i enjoy a good soldering session or repair. plus the money invested isn't pissed down the drain afterward

The two can go quite well together.

I find all three go well together: beer, wine and beer. I mean soldering.

[Artlav]

Remember the neat space i posted a few months ago?
Well, for the contrast here is what it looks like near it's worst, thanks to a certain Capxon capacitor in the PC's PSU deciding it had enough, in the middle of a couple other projects being on the table already.

[ielektros]

Here is my lab. Mostly for repair works and for some prototyping projects.
The shelf is not finished. I haven´t enough time for all. But maybe the end of the year can help with free time.

nice ! i like it. kinda what i started with.

it is now almost in the state i want it to be in. i will finish it in the next few days and then post pictures.

 power switchboard ( isolation transformer / variac / switchable series ballast ) : 75% done
- articulating monitor arm : -done-
- compressed air on every bench -done-
- 42 inch touchscreen : support structure made
- dedicated Spectrum/network/ RF rack : in progress
- dedicated Logic analysis rack : in progress
- re-cable and repartition instruments across benches and new feeders: in progress

Here is a bigger picture from december. Next week I will finish the shelfs (I hope) and the compressed air. The compressor is finished (8L 4bar) and silent enough but only for one workplace till now. Very low-cost
The lighting is not finished too. Because I want to build a same over the whole bench like on the photo on a window side.

Here is my lab. Mostly for repair works and for some prototyping projects.
The shelf is not finished. I haven´t enough time for all. But maybe the end of the year can help with free time.

hmmm that magnifying lens arm with ring illum ... may i ask how much and if there is a web link to it? ... is it a 10x?

That is only 4x. The LED light is really good and the arm mechanic too. But The magnifier is not a big deal, was about 100€.

some people enjoy a good glass of beer or wine, i enjoy a good soldering session or repair. plus the money invested isn't pissed down the drain afterward

The two can go quite well together.

I think the same

[TerraHertz]

Took about an hour to go through all these pictures today.         Here's what 40 years of my addiction has done.
Some time in the early 70's with my CB radios and Dumont scope.
Late 70's with my first HC and National radios.    Notice my Radio Shack meter and transistor tester. 
Late 80's had stopped playing with radios by then and got hooked on computers.  8MHz AT clone with my Quantum
By the early 90s, I had my first mixed mode DSO and a 141T with a tracking generator.
2000 came, the world did not end and my lab continued to grow.... I bought my first VNA and my first LeCroy DSO.   

That's fascinating! Except you forgot to include pics from the last 15 years?

One of my great regrets is that in my early life I was so poor I very rarely even had a camera, and when I did I was frugal with taking pics because of the cost of film development and prints. Sigh. I started out in electronics in my pre-teens (early 60s) and have nothing in the way of photos from then until much later.

[oldway]

My work-bench/lab for repair and for analog and power electronics projects.
I have a lot more test equipments.

[andtfoot]

Recently I have been turning this


into this


It's still a work in progress... 

and after a bit more settling in, into this:

[kizzap]

and after a bit more settling in, into this:
http://andtfoot.smugmug.com/photos/i-33QvVJZ/0/XL/i-33QvVJZ-L.jpg

quite a nice solution. Can I ask why with the shelving brackets you have them on the top, rather then on the bottom?

-kizzap

[andtfoot]

and after a bit more settling in, into this:
http://andtfoot.smugmug.com/photos/i-33QvVJZ/0/XL/i-33QvVJZ-L.jpg

quite a nice solution. Can I ask why with the shelving brackets you have them on the top, rather then on the bottom?

-kizzap

I honestly can't remember...
The desk itself has them both sides for strength, but as for the shelves... maybe I was trying to increase rigidity of the uprights by increasing the distance between bracing points? Maybe I was lazy? Too much homebrew? 

[mswhin63]

Looks good, might not be strong but it allows the equipment in the middle shelf to slide in unobstructed.

[SeanB]

With those brackets having then on top makes it easier to undo a shelf, as otherwise you have to try to get to the back between the shelf. Upside down you have easy access to undo or do up the screws. If you want them to be as strong as the regular method just use a bolt and nut that goes through the shelf and bracket ( plus an extra 5 threads on the end) and use the largest fender washer on the bottom as you can get to spread the load. M5 bolts and nylock nuts with a pair of fender washers ( I use a large one on the shelf and a smaller one between that and the bolt head to spread the load more evenly) will never come loose, and the shelf or the bracket will fail before the stainless steel bolt in most cases, providing you use all 3 mount holes.

[Martin.M]

If you like oldies... 

[TMM]

Added a shelf above my fgen/scope so i could place component racks there, it's much nicer to prototype at now.


I think the next step is to build a taller frame for the desk - it's currently 70cm from the ground which is fine to sit at with an office chair but uncomfortably low to stand at. Raising it up to around 95cm and getting a tall stool should do the trick.