Essential Tools For An Electronics Lab

Let's set up the new electronics lab and see where you should be allocating your tool budget and where you can skimp a bit.

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🛠🛠 Hand tools 🛠🛠

🛠🛠 Multimeter 🛠🛠

🛠🛠 Soldering 🛠🛠

🛠🛠 Oscilloscope 🛠🛠

🛠🛠 Desoldering 🛠🛠

🛠🛠 Power supply 🛠🛠

🛠🛠 Magnifying tools 🛠🛠

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:39 Work surface
02:14 Hand tools
05:14 #notsponsored
05:26 Multimeters
09:50 Solder station
13:22 ESD mat
16:49 Oscilloscopes
20:19 Desoldering
21:51 Bench power supply
23:05 Magnifying tools
25:16 Monitor and computer
26:19 Conclusion

Music tracks:

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#electronics #tools

[electronicscaos]

I built my company with a multimeter, a soldering iron and much patience.
The most important tool needed is knowledge, so don't forget to be focused and study a lot.

[daspec]

- A chip tester / reader / writer / eraser
- Two fire extinguishers, 2 fans with a flex hose to remove the nasty lead smoke from soldering and bring in fresh air (unless you like CANCER) and 2 smoke / air quality detectors (better safe than sorry) and a quality portable air-conditioner with dehumidifier. Air quality is a MUST in any lab. A wooden floor is also good.
- Security cameras with remote / cloud recording to keep the lab safe

[TheSudsy]

IPA alcohol? Captan tape? blu tack (to hold stuff), extra hands (or the little holders, little pots for screws, magnetic tray for screws, lithium grease, flux, nail varnish (solder mask), solder wick, marker pens, graphite pencil (for contacts), contact cleaner, air duster. Phew excelled myself there - could class these as consumables.. Great vid Noel.

[ekenpad]

Another necessity: One of the cheap $10-$15 ATMega based component testers. Way easier than doing diode tests against transistors with a DMM. Also, for classic computers, the EPROM programmer + UV Eraser is a must. Other ideas: The $10, 24 MHz 8 channel digital logic analyzer. $10 Improved DMM cables with silicone and plated leads for lowest resistance. A large starter kit of random transistors, resistors and capacitors. And sockets; lots and lots of dual wipe sockets in all sizes.

[sackbaggins]

What a smart idea. Taking advantage of the fact he has to rebuild his work space, and making it into a video.

[BigCar]

It was useful to give prices. I wasn't aware just how inexpensive a good soldering iron is. I've now bought the model you suggested.

[tailzer]

Two inexpensive musts for me are a plain white rubber(eraser) to clean ic legs / edge connectors, and a 3D printed chip leg straightener

[pcfred]

When I bench soldered professionally we used two things all the time. We used a soldering iron and a spudger. What's a spudger? A spudger is a wooden stick. Think of it as your finger that doesn't burn easily. Spudgers are even handier than tweezers are. The best spudgers are made out of osage orange wood and they're charcoal gray in color. They're kinda hard to find. But that's what you want.

[keithwhitehead]

I also use a whiteboard. They are great for writing steps to work through, especially when the work is broken up over days.
I also have coloured high lighters. Some equipment I work on are quite convoluted and its useful to photocopy the circuit diagram then trace out power supplies, ground and even some test points so they are easy to find.

[georgegherghinescu]

An adjustable height chair and a mug for that tasty drink while you work :) Glad to see tha workshop coming together, can't wait for more repairs and comparisons between 8 bit platforms like in the ti99 video.

[magicknight]

A soldering/desoldering station was such a gamechanger for me. Setting the temperature up or down drastically improved my soldering and the de soldering bit (again with temp control) let me desolder so much more much quicker and wasn't anything i couldn't de solder.

[vlt]

This video is a must-watch for anyone interested in electronics. Just like there are countless tutorials on camera setups for visual content creators, this video provides essential tools and tips for setting up an electronics lab. It's great to see resources like this for those interested in the field of electronics.

[wybuchowyukomendant]

I have the same exact combo of desoldering gun and cheapo hot air for a year now, and it saves A LOT of time and frustrations.

[erin]

I do vintage radio / phono restoration. My benches are 8 feet long and 4 feet deep. I have three benches, one bench is just for tube testing and tube storage. The is also a fixed ipad on that bench. My main workbench has an oscilloscope, HP Audio Oscillator, Heathkit RF generator, VTVM and a VOM.over the top shelf storage. On a third bench is an isolation transformer, on a variac, a laptop Macbook and assorted small devices for LCR testing, digital vtvm, tone arm gauge, laser tach, and Tiny Spectrum Analyzer. I have sever old Weller soldering stations, assorted soldering guns, 100 watt Iron for chassis work and assorted direct plug- in mini irons.

[lis]

That a really nice setup, i especially envy you that desoldering gun ;)
However, i've felt that you lack of:
- desoldering wick (very handy on non-THT components which happen often in 16bit units)
- capton tape (to hold thermocouple while troubleshooting some switching mode power supply which can get quite hot as well when you need to hotair something)
- kynar wire for fixing traces (no copper unwind from coil can be comparable really)
- FLUX, is most essential in soldering of any kind,
- UV solder mask (behaves much better than electric tape or hot glue)
- holder/ pins for PCBs. This one is missed by every begginer, but essential if you want to have sturdy base to work on your PCB
- single non conductive screwdriver and tweezers.
- Bottle of IPA or other cleanser (where actually i use and recommend isopropyl alcohol ;p)
- cleanser for potentiometers (ready compounds besides of IPA have grease which greatly prolongs lifespan of already worn pots)
- Thermal camera (but this is rather expensive option, yet it does help to troubleshoot instantly in some cases)
- Brush (best are these stolen from wives, i recommend :D), air blower (might be as well hand pumped), couple non-dusting dry wipes
- logic probe (Saleae)

There's a lots of stuff that i see on my bench and toolboxes which i use occasionally while fixing stuff (also some retro stuff but mainly modern SMD based consumer electronics).

PS: eeprom programmers are also available for linux (my whole lab with workbench is running linux including Hantek's oscilloscope and i do read/ write (e)eproms, so you aren't "tied" to windoze.

[bluegiger]

I bought one of those Hantek USB scopes after watching Adrian Black's videos on it. Great scope for the budget conscious and fantastic starter scope while learning how to use a scope effectively.

[mblu]

For any higher voltage work it’s good to have a variac an isolation transformer and a dim bulb current limiter as well as a load box

[Chevydude]

300 dollar scope isnt cheap, me over here looking at my 110 ghz 1.4 million dollar keysight scope. lol awesome video man, thats gonna be a cool lab.

[inyoudeep]

One important, yet commonly overlooked, item, well really its multiple items, test leads. I always need lots of different kinds. Some I end up having to custom make.

[rbrtck]

Others have already mentioned some things I thought of, but just in case, one tool that I haven't seen mentioned (but probably has been anyway) is an ESR meter for capacitors. One of these may not be necessary if you re-cap everything, like some folks do, but if you don't, then it's useful to know whether a capacitor needs to be replaced.