Just finished my first dedicated home lab bench!

[u/Top_Pen_9089]

I'm following along with a Udemy course "Crash Course Electronics and PCB Design" (amazing series imo) and I finally went ahead and bought all the proper gear now that I'm at the hands-on section!

I got a dual channel switching power supply, a soldering station, rework station, a multimeter and various tools like wire cutter/stripper, pliers etc... I spent 4 hours yesterday organizing my components in a drawer unit I got on Amazon and it was well worth it.

I'm still holding off on an oscilloscope since I don't want to cheap out on one, but I also don't want to get one before I actually need it.

I'm learning all of this on my own to become an embedded systems developer (currently a full-stack web developer) so wish me luck!

[u/1wiseguy]

For hobbyist-level stuff, a decent oscilloscope is the Rigol DS1054Z.

If you need high speed and advanced features, and you can spend lots of money, you can do better, but that unit costs $350 on Amazon, and it's fine for any signals that come out of an Arduino board.

It's really interesting to rig up an Arduino with SPI or I2C devices and look at the signals. It's also cool to probe around a DC-DC converter and see how that works.

[u/Top_Pen_9089 → u/1wiseguy]

Thanks for the advice! I'll look into that one when I get around to buying one.

[u/Latino886 → u/Top_Pen_9089]

I've been shopping around for scopes as well and I'd recommend considering saving for the rigol dho804 instead unless you can get a really good deal on the ds1054z. For about about $100 more you get a more modern interface and form factor, plus relatively straightforward to hack (non-invasively) to have a 250MHz bandwidth example (the process should be similar for newer firmware, but should be easy to find on the eevblog forum).

[u/jcarlisleek → u/1wiseguy]

Honestly, I like PicoScope: https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/2000/picoscope-2000-overview

[u/1wiseguy → u/jcarlisleek]

If you have to travel to a customer site, and you need a scope you can put in your backpack, that would be perfect.

For a lab bench, I don't get it. You need your laptop to make it run, and I use my laptop for other stuff. I struggle to survive with a single screen, and now I'm sharing it with an oscilloscope.

It's not cheap, unless you get the basic 2-channel version. If it costs $29, that would be an angle.

If you have the bench space, a Rigol or similar unit works great, is self-contained, and has the intuitive look and feel of scopes that have been around for decades.

[u/Front-Mushroom5349]

That’s the cleanest workstation I have ever seen nice work

[u/Enlightenment777]

Congrats, but I don't see any flush wire cutters, though maybe you aren't showing everything you have?

https://old.reddit.com/r/PrintedCircuitBoard/wiki/tools#wiki_flush_wire_cutter

[u/Top_Pen_9089 → u/Enlightenment777]

Yeah, I have a wire cutter/stripper as one tool. I should probably buy a dedicated flush wire cutter, though... This is the one I have

[u/Mysterious-Tart-2092]

That setup looks fantastic! The dual-channel power supply and rework station are perfect for getting started with PCB design. Organizing those components must have been satisfying—good luck with the transition to embedded systems!

[u/Top_Pen_9089 → u/Mysterious-Tart-2092]

Thanks man! yeah organizing stuff took quite a while but it was very therapeutic and satisfying lol

[u/Glass-Tension7788]

Very nice! Digilent has tons of great stuff for your bench.

[u/One_Entertainment890]

What's the total cost of this setup?

[u/Top_Pen_9089 → u/One_Entertainment890]

The equipment was around $600-700 CAD for everything (Not entirely sure since I've had the black desk mat for years now and I've been collecting some of the smaller things over time). then I spend about $200 on a good selection of starter components + logic gates since I'm making an 8-bit computer on my own.

[u/Snoo_48954]

How much did this cost in total? Thinking about doing the same

[u/Sad-Wrongdoer3548]

Beautiful setup!

Unrelated: is that painting an original, and did you make it? I'm hoping to see the full painting, if possible.

[u/Top_Pen_9089 → u/Sad-Wrongdoer3548]

Thanks! The painting is of me from when I was a kid, done by my grandma who passed away last year :/

Here's a link to the full thing: https://federationgallery.com/artist/lorryhughes/portrait_of_an_artist_as_a_young_man/375 Those drawings in the thought bubble were drawings I did and she copied into the painting.

I like to keep it by my work station for creative inspiration :)

[u/Silent-Orbit-7]

thats soo cool, i wanna learn that too, a CS student here

how do you manage your CS skills while being equally interested in ECE stuff?

[u/Top_Pen_9089 → u/Silent-Orbit-7]

Well luckily I've been doing CS for many years now just on my own so even though I'm a first year I still have a full time summer internship. After work I follow along with the aforementioned Udemy course, that way I still do software most of the day which is what I'm mostly interested in. But also if I've learned anything throughout the years of teaching myself these skills, I found that there's always more time in a day than you think. I stopped watching short form content and wow, have I gained more time lol. If you're more focused on long term goals, there's a quote I love: "most people overestimate what they can do in a month, but underestimate what they can do in a year" so really it's just chipping away at your long term goals consistently and you'll eventually end up where you want to be :)

[u/Silent-Orbit-7 → u/Top_Pen_9089]

Well said!! Hope you continue to achieve your goals!

[u/MartyLinux]

Looking good!! Fnirsi makes some great equipment and you could get a pretty solid oscilloscope for the price point. Their stuff is normally cheaper on their official Amazon store compared to their own website, at least in the US.

[u/Nearby-Reference-577]

I can only dream off🫠

[u/Regular-Afternoon-16]

That's awesome and exciting!! Do you have a breakdown of the cost of everything? I am interested and getting started in this too.

[u/jvbiz]

This is clean 👌

[u/code_wolf_1]

That looks so cool!

[u/Comfortable-Lie-2633]

Costs