Essential Tools For An Electronics Lab 

I took a couple semesters of electronics when I was getting my ME degree, but having just gotten back into electronics a few years ago, I found a used basic electronics 101 textbook was a HUGE help, and I still refer back to it often

out of curiosity, what do you do?

​@@edwardgiovannelli5191 What book was it?

@@Juli-zy4ew That must be the Art Of Electronics 3rd Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Or maybe he's referring to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Electronics 101 (Penguin Group,2011).

Based. What kind of product did you invent ?

Why a wooden floor?

​@@weilaiyvn You must not have a carpet floor, unless you like to dry your electronics with ESD.

UV Eraser😅, I was taught to know this thing over 15 years ago.

Bro please provide those links. Thanks in advance!

I would also add: - tools to hold things, such as helping hands and even a small hobby vice - prying tools since so many things are glued together now - a second multimeter for testing voltage and current at the same time for people who do not have an oscilloscope

Qq.

Agreed, those little component testers are a must, I always use it for transistors, mosfets and caps, it beats looking for datasheets for the transistor pinout.

Good to hear that. Yes, some things aren't too expensive. On the other hand, a roll of good solder is comparable in price to that soldering station! 😲

"reâlly"

For real. I'm high rn and stared at the thumbnail for like 5 minutes trying to figure it out

Well, in the English language; when written, it is read from left to right. From the the top of the page to the bottom. If you use that rule the thumbnail makes sense. Hence,“What tools do you really need?“This may not be the channel for you.

​@@jeffsthill8208except there is no such rule. and if a rule is against common sense and make it harder to communicate, the rule is outdated

@@ege8240 Well, it’s not my opinion. It is a rule when reading the written English language. Hopefully English isn’t your native language,and you are still in the process of learning it. If that’s the case, speak with your teacher or instructor if you aren’t sure how to read written statements in English. Good luck.

I have a board in front of me where I clip or blu-tack info, but a whiteboard is a great idea, especially to keep track of several projects at once. A cheap mono laser printer is also handy for printing out data sheets and other things (I too am one of those people that like to print out circuit diagrams and follow the traces with a highlighter). Just make sure you get a printer with inexpensive toner and/or won't freak out over using non-genuine toner. The Brother HL-1110 would be my recommendation.

@@OzRetrocomp And it you get a whiteboard thats magnetic, you can use decent magnets to hold sheets of paper (eg parts orders, Data sheets, etc) for easy access.

Hi, I have always found that a good Lab Journal is better than a whiteboard. I can trace the steps I have used in building or deconstructing circuits and it provides a lasting record of all my mistakes and successes which greatly aids future work

Awesome list

Add a fume extractor. Great Scott did a video recently about making one.

Glad it was helpful!

maybe usb connection from microscope to pc/laptop will do the same

I think an ESR meter is indispensable.

Xacto knife and flush cutters are both definitely some of my most used tools.

Haha, that's quite a coincidence! But it's a great desk for that. Loving it so far!

May I know which desk it is?

Thank you! Yes, I'll try to cover that once I get my storage situation sorted out 😃

@@NoelsRetroLab No, thank you. We missed you while your move. An amazing lab that you are building in the best possible way: with knowledge and starting fresh.

Yes, the effect of flux has to be experienced to be believed. It totally changes how the solder behaves. If only it wouldn't be such a pain to remove the residue! I'd be thankful if anybody has tips for how to effectively remove flux, especially the tacky SMD flux type.

My understanding is that flux is used because it cleans the joint before soldering which helps prevent dry solder joints and, as mentioned, corroded solder joints from forming in the first place. As well as helping the solder 'flow,' ensuring it will spread to cover the entire pad. Not sure about it "spreading the heat equally" since it's temperature requirement is significantly lower then solder so it 'disappears' basically instantly.

@@EdwinSteiner Isopropyl alcohol (99%) and a cotton bud.

@@MattyEngland That's what I use and it isn't working too well for me. Maybe I've got particularly tacky flux. I use two types of "no clean" flux, so theoretically I could also leave the residue on the PCB but it just looks horrible and it sticks to everything. When I clean the PCB when it is still quite warm, I can get the bulk of the residue cleaned up with IPA and cotton buds but there is a thin and very sticky layer of residue remaining on the PCB.

@@EdwinSteiner You'd probably need an ultrasonic cleaner to get the last residue off, they are quite expensive though. Other than that, maybe try some different fluxes, the tacky ones are useful but they are hard to clean.

You're very welcome!

Glad it was helpful!

Just agreeing with this comment, really - the headline speed is the analogue bandwidth, which tells you how much low-pass filtering your signal goes through before the sampling circuitry gets hold of it. The sample rate of that Hantek bench 'scope is 1Gs/s, which is achieved, especially in these budget units, by deviousness and cunning and is not necessarily the whole story. Even if it were, it interacts with analogue bandwidth - you want *some* low-pass filtering else you get a lot of aliasing (non-existant waveforms arising from sampling errors) so your max bandwidth will want to be limited to half the sampling frequency at most, and most scopes (including this Hantek) have an option to switch in an even lower bandwidth limit to curb aliasing. 20MHz in this case. Furthermore, the overall analogue bandwidth in these things is software-set with switchable filters. They offer a range of models with bandwidths from 50MHz to 200MHz, and they're all the exact same unit with different badges and firmware. Firmware changes will turn a 50MHz scope into a 200MHz one, but even in its 50MHz form, the picture you get of typical signals is not very different from the 200MHz one, and in many cases it actually paints a more useful picture (because of less aliasing). Further again, analogue bandwidth limits are not usually "hard"; higher frequency signals are attenuated in proportion to the frequency, but they're not eliminated entirely beyond the stated limit. Other factors include how many waveforms per second can be captured, and the stored sample depth - the more, the better. Also whether the sampling is shared between the channels - with these cheap Hantek scopes, it is - the 1Gs/s drops to 500Ms/s per channel with both channels active. (Pay a significant amount more and you get headline sample rate on all channels at the same time. That's not to say avoid the Hantek. Indeed, at the price, it's almost criminal to pass it up. Mine also features an arbitrary waveform signal generator (another software-defined feature) and that is a very useful thing to have around, too. It's two really useful bits of lab gear in one unit, for a bargain price.) Then there's the thing of probe impedance and compensation, and 1x vs 10x probe settings. I have a "40 MHz" scope-meter, similar in principle to the one shown here but only single channel, as well as a variety of bench 'scopes, including a 150MHz version of that same Hantek, another cheap 50MHz scope that's similar, and an old 100MHz HP with a CRT. My scope meter has a 200Ms/s sample rate, a low waveform per second capability, very little sample depth and a stated analogue bandwidth of 40MHz, though in reality anything above 20MHz is noticeably attenuated. However, using plain (non-coaxial) test leads, it provides an interesting perspective on what other more serious scopes show you (even five thousand quid's worth of 350MHz Rhode&Schwarz or a ten grand Tektronix) - the proper co-ax 'scope probes are reactive, and hooked up to an 8MHz crystal on a 3.3v development board, for example, my cheap little scope meter shows me a nice square wave, while most scopes show serious rounding of the edges because of probe+lead impedance and the fact that the crystal cant't drive a 50 ohm load all that well. The "10x" setting on typical scope probes reduces the load (at the cost of signal amplitude at the scope end) but not enough to avoid having an effect on some signals. So 'scopes are kind of funny. Turns out a 50MHz scope can be as good as or better than a 200MHz scope for signals in the 20-ish MHz range, and sometimes a fancy scope probe is no better than, or worse than, a bit of wire, and you can't always believe what you see on an oscilloscope, it needs to be interpreted in the light of experience. Anyway, enough waffling - to Noel, great video, thanks!

Getting cheap picks etc. is where Harbor Freight shines. (Be careful with the quality of other stuff there)

Glad I could help!

True. I would have shown my Pana Vise but it's in the slow boat (still!) and didn't need a second one.

Yes, having a good vice (smoking, Diet Coke, maybe whiskey) is essential for those long nights of retro repair. Or is that what you meant? :D

Worth pointing out that JIS screws usually have an identifying divot or dot in the screwhead. Some impact-rated Philips drive bits used by carpenters fit JIS screws quite well ---- Milwaukee work great, but Dewalt fit poorly. All "philips" screws and drivers are not the same! Best to always break the screws free by hand before using a cordless screwdriver. And then there's Pozi-drive, which many people haven't learned to distinguish as being distinctly different from Philips. I am told that IKEA uses pozidrive screws on much of their furniture, so perhaps if one builds an electronics workbench from IKEA products, they will figure it out!

Oh, the kettle I took for granted 😃 It just happens to be upstairs in the kitchen, but I'm always having some tea.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.