The Bench

Bench012014

The electronics workbench… the bench itself, the tools, the layout, etc.

Benchtop:

  • shelves below the counter for additional storage
  • on 4″ locking castors, makes this a lot easier to move around

  • built-in fume extractor

  • threaded holes in the surface to anchor pana-vise tools in various positions

  • Mantis and Microscope arms are mounted on a corner of the bench

  • Along the back of the bench (above the backsplash) is a 16” deep shelf for the bench meters, signal generator, electronic loads, and JBC soldering controller

  • Four 8′ shelves above are about 18″ deep, and can handle any of the lab equipment, even large power supplies and Variacs
  • Heat resistant anti-static mat
  • Ground Monitor & wrist strap
  • ESD floor mat
  • ESD safe chair, with ground chain

Equipment Rack (left):

  • 6′ steel frame with 2′ x 4′ reinforced 3/4” plywood shelves
  • Rack is mouned on locking castors for easy access
  • Contains servers, UPS, 3 montiors on articulating arms
  • Additional storage accessible on the back
  • Tool drawer unit, left side (the kind designed to hang on the side of a mechanic’s rolling toolchest)
  • Horizontal file rack (legal-size) to hold component cases, etc.
  • designed to hold heavy equipment like the Fluke 3330B Calibrator

Lighting:

Having good lighting is important.  Hanging directly above the bench is a 4 tube flourescent light, which alone illuminates the benchtop at 700 lux.  There’s also a row of dimmable 5 LED floods (around 2700 K) mounted on a track next to the flourescent fixture and those add another 600 lux… with everything switched on, the bench is litup at 1300 lux!

Equipment:

  • Soldering Tools
    • JBC DIT-1B station
    • JBC CP-1C micro tweezer station
    • Black Jack
    • Hakko
    • CSI 825A Hot Air/Rework
    • CSI474A solder vacuum
  • Microscope
  • Power supplies
  • Meters
    • Agilent 34461A (2)
    • Agilent 34410A
    • Rigol DM3068
    • BK Precision 5491B
    • 1KV Sinometer
    • 5KV Uni-T UT513
  • Oscilloscope
  • Signal
    • Rigol DSA815–TG spectrum analyzer
    • Rigol DG4162 signal generator
    • Rigol DG1022 signal generator
  • LCR
    • BK 879B
    • IET DC-5000
    • 1061 LCZ (bechtop)
  • Logic analyzer
    • Saleae Logic 16
  • Programmable Load
    • Array 3723A
    • Array 3710A

18 comments

  • Bill Clay
    April 9, 2012 9:09 pm

    What brand of microscope do you have?

    Reply

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  • eagle1109
    February 24, 2015 3:14 pm

    Your workshop looks very professional, what fields you work with this set ?

    Reply
  • Jim
    August 2, 2015 8:49 am

    Where did you get the legs for the table and who is the manufacturer?

    Reply
  • Corey
    December 2, 2015 1:55 am

    Nice blog… you have some cool toys too. Cheers, Corey 🙂

    Reply
  • Bob
    December 8, 2015 1:43 am

    Hi, thanks for the video on the Amscope articulating arm. If you use it for soldering and you bump the eyepieces will it move the your view of the object being soldered or can you lock down the arm firmly enough that it will stay put?

    Reply
    • circuitous
      December 8, 2015 6:40 pm

      It really doesn’t move much if I bump it with it unlocked, but that’s at a soldering magnification (4x – 8x). It might be quite different if you set it to 90x.
      There are knobs(large turn-screws) at each of the 3 moving joints which lock it down quite tightly.

      I have a second arm which I use to mount various Pan-a-Vise clamps (the hole in the mounting arm is the right size). I use those to position my soldering work, then lock the arm down. I find it to be quite stable.

      Reply
  • myrtle
    December 9, 2015 12:58 pm

    I saw your youtube video and I am begging you to fix m why wifi pen. The usb is larged in too far. The OLED doesn’t work. I need to get the data synced and hopefully get this fixed. Please help

    Reply
    • circuitous
      December 9, 2015 7:59 pm

      Myrtle, If you’re at RIT, I bet there’s a few handy engineering types around and between us can help you out.
      If I understand you correctly, the USB port on the end got pushed into the pen, and now you can’t get a plug into it?

      Be careful with this, as you may damage the circuit board and not be able to retreive any data.

      My first suggestion is to contact Livescribe tech support to see if they can retrieve the data for you. They may be happy to help.

      But, if you want to do this on your own:
      First, you will need to disassemble the pen (I forgot to video that part).

      • To do that I just gripped the pen with one hand on the black part and one on the grey and pulled. Flexing or twisting a little while pulling helps.
      • Do this with the display facing up, as there’s a little clear plastic cylinder that can fall out.
      • This may take quite a bit of strength, and persistence, but it will pull apart.
      • Then, take out the two screws, you will need a #5 Torx driver for that.
      • Next slide the black shell down(away from the USB end).

      You now need to remove the circuit board, as the USB connector is on the back side.
      I did not go beyond that.

      Reply
  • myrtle
    December 9, 2015 10:28 pm

    Thanks I got the pen open and the cylinder did indeed fall out. I will email a colleague in electrical engineering. I’m pretty handy and thought this might be something that I could either fix myself or get someone to do quickly. I really appreciate your help.

    Reply
  • Khalid Abdulla
    June 16, 2016 9:24 pm

    I am very jealous of your bench set-up. How long did it take to accumulate all that gear?

    Reply
  • Brenton W
    May 14, 2017 5:05 pm

    Would you have anymore photos of your bench and shelving setup? we are moving offices and I’m looking for some inspiration to reconfigure my bench. Would you still happen to know the type of shelving/racking you’ve used?

    Reply

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