| Products > Test Equipment |
| Do I need more test equipment? |
| (1/9) > >> |
| chrisb741:
I recently started experimenting with digital circuits and microcontrollers, Arduino, rp2040, after decades of not doing any electronics, I have formal training from the 90s but didn't do anything electronics related since '99. I have a good HH multimeter and bench PSU. Have a decent oscilloscope I mainly use to decode serial signals. The oscilloscope has an AWG. I have made some very basic driver boards but mainly use modules. I use one very simple wireless GFSK based communication board. My projects have simple sensors, motors, servos, Steppers, display etc. I don't design any thing RF and have very little exposure to anything RF, what I use is entirely low power digital comms. I have played with RC equipment. I have a few questions about more test equipment. 1. What benefit would I get using a bench multimeter. So far I only need to see roughly what the voltage is, eg 12 ish Volts or about 3v3. My handheld MM does that 2. Dedicated waveform generator, I've only ever used the pwm generator. What can I use the other features for? 3. SA, I've used one in the 90s a few times, what can I do with them that would help the kind of projects I play with. I can only see myself analysing the 2.4ghz spectrum. 4. RF signal generator and VNA. I have no idea about how to use these or what I could even use them for. 5. Any other test equipment I missed? |
| robert.rozee:
i would say, from what you have described - digital, low voltage - that items you may find useful include: 1. several 'cheap' multimeters, DT-830 or similar and equipped with leads that have crocodile clips on the ends. these are invariably useful when experimenting on the bench. 2. if you don't already have it, a good soldering station. 3. a bench meter can be handy for logging readings, although you may be able to roll your own. i recently picked up a nice fluke 45 which is ideal, having a serial port on the back. certainly don't go crazy spending money. 4. additional small power supplies are also useful, even just 'power-bank' types. 5. a dedicated bench computer can be exceptionally useful, something like an elderly laptop running XP or Linux. also doubles as a 2-channel audio signal generator, serial terminal, and 5v PSU (via a USB port). cheap means expendable if something goes wrong! cheers, rob :-) |
| forrestc:
I've found over the years that once you have a power supply, decent DMM, and often an oscilloscope you often have enough test equipment to handle all of your typical hobby electronics - at least until you start specializing in some specific area. The need for anything beyond that will become apparent as you explore electronics, and will be specific to the type of electronics you are working on Let me give you a couple of examples relevant to what I do. I do a lot of FET switching of DC power loads, including overcurrent sensing. As such, I need to be able to draw a certain amount of current through my circuit and verify the current sensor is working, and that I can turn on and off loads without causing a failure or overheating. I could do this with a big enough power resistor, but I find it easier to use a DC load, which allows me to connect to my circuit and draw a specified amount of current and vary that current as needed to test my device. For me, this is essential gear. For someone who doesn't do this type of work, this would be useless. Likewise, I work on various products that receive precision time pulses from a GPS receiver and then provides that timing pulse to communication radios. As such, I often need to be able to measure how much delay is being added by my products and also verify that the signal is consistent over hours or days. I can do some of this with a good multichannel oscilloscope, but for long-term use it's much easier with a timestamping or universal counter such as the TAPR TICC or the HP 53132A. If you're not doing precision timing, these would be useless to you. I also, on occasion, have to work with some sort of communication protocol such as asynchronous serial, CAN, USB, and the like, and this is often enough that I've accumulated a few protocol analyzers for this. For someone who rarely does this, often decoding on a scope is enough, so you don't need to spend money on those tools. So, it really depends on what you're working on and the challenges you regularly run into. If you were doing audio amplifiers or other audio processing you'd probably want some sort of audio analyzer to do THD and other purity measurements. If you're building radio transmitters and receivers (as opposed to doing modules), you'd probably want a spectrum analyzer and a RF signal generator. On the other hand if you were building antennas, you'd probably want that VNA. And on and on. My suggestion would be to not worry about acquiring any additional gear until you find a shortcoming in what you have when working on the projects you want to work on. I will answer, however, one specific item on your list. As far as a bench DMM goes, one of the big advantages is that it can be plugged in and is more mechanically stable than a handheld DMM. This is beyond any other features, such as ability to do advanced or precision measurements. So if you have a fixed workbench area, a bench DMM and other "bench" versions of your test equipment can be useful. For example, I have a small ethernet switch, a small USB hub, a USB "charger brick" with multiple outputs, a power strip, and other similar objects all physically mounted in my bench area. Since a bench PSU and a oscilloscope are both typically bench instruments, adding a bench DMM just because of the form factor makes some sense. Note that I have specifically ignored the other advantages of a bench DMM as they may or may not be relevant to you. If you were doing precision measurements, then having a high count DMM makes some sense. And so on. But these are the same arguments as for the other instruments. |
| DaJMasta:
Yes, you do, see TEA thread. In a more serious take, don't buy it just to have it. You've got a good set that will be broadly useful and pretty capable. If you find yourself needing additional capability, then look into getting something for that. The equipment out there isn't going anywhere, and if you eventually decide you need something expensive, in time a deal will come along should that be the only way you can get it. While the equipment can be interesting, unless you think you're really going to use it for something, is the interest alone enough to invest in it? |
| tautech:
--- Quote from: chrisb741 on September 19, 2023, 04:13:30 am ---I recently started experimenting with digital circuits and microcontrollers, Arduino, rp2040, after decades of not doing any electronics, I have formal training from the 90s but didn't do anything electronics related since '99. I have a good HH multimeter and bench PSU. Have a decent oscilloscope I mainly use to decode serial signals. The oscilloscope has an AWG. I have made some very basic driver boards but mainly use modules. I use one very simple wireless GFSK based communication board. My projects have simple sensors, motors, servos, Steppers, display etc. I don't design any thing RF and have very little exposure to anything RF, what I use is entirely low power digital comms. I have played with RC equipment. I have a few questions about more test equipment. 1. What benefit would I get using a bench multimeter. So far I only need to see roughly what the voltage is, eg 12 ish Volts or about 3v3. My handheld MM does that 2. Dedicated waveform generator, I've only ever used the pwm generator. What can I use the other features for? 3. SA, I've used one in the 90s a few times, what can I do with them that would help the kind of projects I play with. I can only see myself analysing the 2.4ghz spectrum. 4. RF signal generator and VNA. I have no idea about how to use these or what I could even use them for. 5. Any other test equipment I missed? --- End quote --- RF that you have dabbled with some is a magical world and an instrument like the SVA1000X range will cover #3 and 4. The TG output when the analyzer is set to zero span can double as a RF gen albeit with limited amplitude compared to a dedicated RF gen The VNA capability can assist to perfect antenna designs to extend range and/or reduce transmitter power requirements. Example here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/antenna-project-log/ |
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