Your tools :)


  • Hardware Contributor

    Just like the Your workshop topic, lets have some information regarding each others setups in regards to tooling and testing equipment. This includes all of your tools, but mainly your soldering, power supply and testing equipment that you use to produce your electronics. Try and provide 3 things in your posts:

    1. An image of your current tools.
    2. A list of your tools (and maybe what you use them for).
    3. Some possible upgrades for yourself.
    4. And finally, tools that you would classes as vital and necessary. This will help the new comers to develop an electronics setup to allow them to learn the field well.

    Lets see what we can produce!



  • OK Ill start 🙂
    0_1459966034594_toys.png

    DSO Quad - Digital Osciloscope
    TS100 - Soldering Iron
    Bus Pirate - open source "hacker" multi-tool
    Open Bench Logic Sniffer - open source logic analyzer


  • Hardware Contributor

    I have a Weller EC-2002 soldering station with a narrow point soldering iron (I also have the standard one, but never use it, too big for delicate work).

    0_1459969864605_IMG_7860.jpg

    Stereo binoculars (20x magnification) with lamp to see those fine traces.

    0_1459969932268_IMG_7861.jpg

    My trusted Fluke 87 mark 4

    0_1459969970540_IMG_7864.jpg

    A large breadboard (and a few smaller ones):

    0_1459970056634_IMG_7865.jpg

    My power supply is a repurposed old PC power supple (gives a fixed 12V and 5V).

    0_1459970102173_IMG_7868.jpg

    Some tweezers and cutters.

    0_1459970136181_IMG_7870.jpg

    A magnifying lamp when the micro is overkill, it's also my desk lamp.

    0_1459970176174_IMG_7873.jpg

    I use an iMac with a 27 inch screen and 4GHz cpu for most of my software. Sometimes it is necessary to use Windows, which I do within a Virtual Box (e.g. to compile boot loaders with WinAVR2010).

    And even with this supercomputer on my desk, I still use my trusted HP-41CX with the Advantage module (since 1985, I had an overclocked HP-41 with magnetic card reader from '82 to '84 but it was stolen from me) for most of my electrical calculations. I lost count how many times I changed the batteries, but it is about every 10 months on average I think.

    0_1459970801358_IMG_7874.jpg
    0_1459970811989_IMG_7875.jpg

    Still on my wish list:

    • a dual power supply with voltage and current setting/indicators (not decided on the model yet)
    • a logic analyser (Saleae Logic 8 Pro, or 16 Pro if the donor is generous, in red !)
    • a second high res screen (5K at least 🙂 ), no options available yet

  • Hardware Contributor

    @sundberg84
    As requested here are a few detailed images of my repurposed PC power supply.
    For those with fancy lab power supplies: I also want that, but for now I make do with this:

    0_1460134229535_IMG_7878.jpg
    0_1460134287860_IMG_7879.jpg

    I ripped it from a PC I built in 1998, and added two things: a switch and an "interface cable"

    The switch:

    1_1460134303711_IMG_7882.jpg
    0_1460134303711_IMG_7881.jpg

    The "interface cable":

    0_1460134359218_IMG_7883.jpg
    1_1460134359218_IMG_7884.jpg

    The end result is plugged into my breadboard and gives me 12V (yellow), 5V (red) and GND. Too bad it does not give 3.3V, but that was not on the radar yet in '98.

    I could probably do better and put all this in a nice case, but I want displays showing voltage and current, so I plan to buy a real bench power supply (like a real grown up 🙂 ).


  • Hardware Contributor

    @GertSanders I'm yet to 'label' mine but it has 3.3, 5 and 12v. I too have a switch aswell. I will get a full tooling setup done this weekend to join you guys.

    0_1460135850372_image.jpg


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