The Quest to Build the Ultimate Home Electronics and Computer Lab
I'm on a quest to build the ultimate home electronics & computer lab. I do a ton of work from home: from school assignments, PhD research, to hobbyist electronics design and testing. In the process, I've accumulated a lot of useful tools. Most have been purchased with personal funds (no sponsored or donated equipment), but some pieces are on loan from friends/colleagues. Be sure to help me out with recommendations. Most importantly, what are the contents of your "home lab?"
Let's get started with a picture of the "main" part of my lab. This picture shows the bulk of my equipment.
Here's a list of the hardware in my computer/electronics lab.
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This is my Fujitsu T4210. It is actually a custom build with 1GB RAM, 60GB Hard-drive, Bluetooth, WiFi, DVD/CDRW and Spare Battery bay, Intel Dual Core Duo T2300E (1.66Ghz) processor. With the extra battery in the place of the DVD/CDRW drive (my normal configuration), I get a healthy 6+ hours of battery life -- enough for a solid day of classes. |
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Dual Samsung SyncMaster 226BW 22-inch monitors. These wide-screen monitors are hooked up to the Shuttle PC sitting behind (on the right). The best part is the combined resolution of 3360x1050 -- that's enough for about 4 full-sized applications to be running simultaneously! |
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This is a Shuttle SN25P10. It was acquired on Ebay, and it came with dual Western Digital WD360 (36.7GB) Raptor Hard-drives and a NVidia GeForce 6600GT. It currently runs Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) with RAID-1 on the two WD360s (across 3 partitions). It is also connected (via a 7-port USB hub) to the stack of external hard-drives sitting next to it. |
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On the far right, you can see a stack of 5 Western Digital WD2500JB 250GB IDE Hard-drives sitting inside some Addonics USB enclosures. These are hooked up to the shuttle PC via a 7-port USB hub. They form a RAID-5 array with a 1TB capacity. The RAID-5 is (obviously) done in software via Ubuntu. |
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This is my awesome oscilloscope, the Tektronix TDS2024B. This is a 4-channel, 200Mhz, 2 Giga-samples/second digital oscilloscope. It has a USB port on the front for a flash drive, and can connect to a PC (for control and data) over another USB port on the back. It has FFT capabilities built-in, so that's a great plus! I still haven't had the time to play with all the cool functions of this scope, but I look forward to tinkering some more. |
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This is the Weller WESD51 Soldering Iron. I went through about 3 crappy Radio Shack soldering irons before indulging in a good, digital, temperature-conrolled iron from Weller. Being able to switch iron tips from very fine (for SMT parts) to very fat (for 14-guage wire) is great. |
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This is the Kepco Bipolar Operational Power Supply/Amplifier (Model BOP 1000M). It has a range of ±1000V at ±40mA, and a bandwidth of about 1.5kHz. This isn't actually a piece of my personal equipment; it is on loan from a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, and is being used in my current research. |
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This is the Meterman LCR55. It is a glorified resistance-inductance-capacitance meter. The great thing about this meter is its range. It measures resistances from 20MΩ to 20Ω, capacitances of 2000μF to 200pF, and inductances from 2000H to 200μH. The one in the photo is actually a loaner from Matt Reynolds, as mine is currently in transit (after borrowing his, I had to get one of my own). |
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This is a Fluke 112 multimeter. It is your run-of-the-mill multimeter from Fluke. It works great. |
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These are function generators. The one in the picture is the Instek SFG-2110 Function Generator. I'm borrowing this one from Matt Reynolds for my research. Since this is such a fundamental piece of equipment, I've ordered my own: the EZ Digital FG-7002C (which should arrive any day now). |
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My trusty Samsung S730 Digital Camera. Its function is self-explanatory. |
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A Fluke 80K-40 High Voltage Probe. It can handle voltage up to 40kV (though it has a relatively small bandwidth of a few kHz). |
So those are the main components of my lab. I have a number of other small components, including a Dremel, PIC Development tools (I have two ICD2's), hack saw, a wet lab with chemicals, tons of electromechanical components like motors and solenoids, discrete electrical components (two large "dressers" full), power-supplies and wall-warts, etc. There is also a wireless router, cable modem, two old computers (with CRT monitors), two old laptops, an old oscilloscope, etc.
Can you think of anything crucial I'm missing...?
Comments
Yang (not verified):
^^^ haha, good one.
Sounds fantastic, you lost me after the laptop/computer/monitors :D
Otis Cooper (not verified):
I love to see any website covering the building of computers
and electronics.You went to great lengths building this lab.
I have HP Laptop with very short battery life. But your
Fujitsu T4210 comes with a spare battery bar? That's great.
http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com/article1.html is where we
use videos to help others fix their dead computer. Thanks for the neat blog.
Stephen (not verified):
WOW! IMO, you are a full-bloodied techno geek! Nice set-up.. better yet, Great set-up you've got there. I bet your girlfriend always have a hard time convincing you to go out of your room. Anyway, I envy your set-up. I wish I have more time (and money) to collect or set up that kind of electronics and computer lab. Great post, enjoyed reading your post.
Stephen
www.shopperarticles.com
Shopping Reviews and Consumer Product Reviews
Pieter (not verified):
That's what I'm talking about. We got a flatlet at the back of the yard. I'm slowly transforming it into something you got there. I got the TDS2024B last week. Enjoy your posts.
Mike (not verified):
seems like you got the essentials to do your work, what about your prototyping/design area? i bet you wouldn't want to scratch that desk of yours, would u? also, i didn't see where you store your electronic components. also, books make good addition to your lab.
Giddy (not verified):
(sigh) what if you had spent all that money on your girlfriend? She'd be real happy... I thought nerds do anything just to make a girl simply look at them...
blah, woe is me, why don't I have a desperate nerd?!?
just kidding.
btw, I bet that starbucks is still sitting on the desk... arr..