Setting up an electronics workshop | Hacker News Reader

Setting up an electronics workshop

lcamtuf.substack.com

292 pointssaeedesmaili197 comments

I would add a good fume extractor as a must-buy to this list if you're soldering once a week or more. The fumes from flux are noxious and prolonged exposure can cause sensitization. I have always been slightly sensitive to flux fumes, so since I began soldering on a daily basis for work I have always used some form of fume ventilation. I use a lot of the MG Chemicals 835 flux mentioned in the article. Even with a ducted extraction fan removing the smoke from my workspace, I began to develop headaches and fatigue from exposure to the flux vapor. These symptoms worsened over time and began starting with less and less exposure. Now I use a fancy Hakko FA430 extractor, which has a bulky HEPA filter and allows me to solder all day without ill effects. Even so, I watch my exposure and have drastically reduced my liquid flux use as just the flux aroma can make me feel a little off. I believe I have been permanently sensitized from using sub-optimal ventilation and that's not a good feeling.

I don't think you need to go buy the $700 FA430 I use, but I would say the extractor needs to have:

- a hose/duct that can be positioned right at the soldering site

- some kind of HEPA filtration or equivalent, even if it is exhausted outside your workspace

- well sealed ducting/hose/fan housing, so fumes don't leak out. I first used a duct fan with some hoses and loc-line for fume extraction, and I now believe it was leaking fumes into my workspace the whole time because the system wasn't airtight :(

Those little "benchtop extractors" with a fan and a carbon filter are absolutely useless. I wouldn't be surprised to learn companies buy them for "regulatory compliance purposes" as they don't really do much of anything except be cheap.

I've been recently trying to set up a soldering station at home and am still in the research phase. I haven't been able to find one cheaper than the FA-430. It's weird as you can get a nice air purifier with a HEPA filter in it for much cheaper than the FA-430. I don't plan on soldering all that much, and so had been looking at the FA-400. I was assuming it was better than nothing.

My belief is that people who review the FA-400 positively would be as well served by a regular fan (and even better served by a box fan with a decent furnace filter in front of it). Possibly they are infrequent users or just not sensitive to flux fumes like I am. My understanding is that activated carbon filters like in the FA-400 rapidly lose effectiveness when exposed to the air.

It's probably possible to DIY something as effective as the FA-430 by adapting an existing purifier or fan, as long as you carefully seal the pre-filter path. Since I use the extractor every day in a workshop with coworkers, I need something durable and idiotproof with parts and filters easily available. So it made sense for us to shell out for the FA-430.

For people who aren't soldering all day, they can just wear an N95 respirator.

Yeah that or just use a $1 PC fan to direct the fumes away from your eyes like I've been doing for the last decade. If you solder <100 joints in one session like the average hobbyist, a normal HVAC system that does >4 air changes per hour should have no trouble cleaning up the diffused fumes.

Those little "benchtop extractors" with a fan and a carbon filter are absolutely useless.

If I soldered a lot more often, I might feel differently, but as it is I sorta disagree with this sentiment. All I use for soldering is a combination of one of these[1] "fume extractor" devices and a cheapo $10 desk fan I bought at Walmart.

Now maybe I'm just not inclined to be particularly sensitive to flux fumes, but with the bench fan blowing towards my soldering area, and the "fume extractor" sucking away from it on the other end, I don't notice soldering fumes at all. If I don't turn the fans on though, the difference is acute. I never solder more than a few seconds without realizing I've made that mistake on the occasions when it happens as I notice the fumes immediately otherwise.

Now I'm not saying that this combo is the be-all, end-all, or that it's compliant with any particular regulatory regime, nor am I even saying that it's sufficient for anybody in particular. I'm just saying that to say that a setup like this is "absolutely useless" is not correct, in my experience.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VWDN29F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

It's "absolutely useless" because it doesn't do the thing its advertised to do, which is extract fumes from your workspace. It dilutes and mixes the air right in front of your face, but your workspace will still gradually fill with solder fumes as you work. If you're an infrequent solderer, that may be fine. But if you are making a habit of soldering, or its your job, get something that actually filters or removes the fumes. I'm giving this advice because I used a setup as effective as yours for years and it caused me health problems through sensitization even though it seemed ok for a long time.

Sure, which is why I said If I soldered a lot more often, I might feel differently. Context has to be taken into account. I'm speaking from the position of being a hobbyist who solders every now and then, and not for hours at a time at that.

For somebody who solders regularly and or does so for hours on end, I would totally agree with the need for a more purpose built and effective fume extraction setup.

> extract fumes from your workspace

If you're just doing a little bit of rework or tacking on bodge wires, I think the small fans are enough just to get the fumes out of your face.

As a personal experience, I'm very sensitive to cigarette smoke, but not at all to soldering fumes.

It's probably better to be an upgrade rather than a must-buy for a beginner. One can invest on the extractors later when he or she found the fume is hard to tolerate, or save for something else if it's not a problem.

The advice I wish I knew is to not buy an inventory of parts. I bought a bunch of resistors, capacitors, LEDs, etc., with no specific plan. Most of it sits unused.

There's no point in keeping an inventory because almost every project will require a parts order anyway. Just order what you need per-project.

mostly true, but always infuriating when you need a specific resistor value and don't have it. I like having a resistor kit around, but it doesn't need to be a big sorted set of drawers, can be a box of bags from digikey

Yeah, resistor kits. Supplement them with an ample supply of 1K and 10K resistors.

Ehh, if you're not doing analogue stuff how specific do you really need? And even if you do you can combine a few to get closer to what you need. Like if you have 220/390R & 1k & 10k & 1M on hand, are you really ever going to be that annoyed for breadboarding purposes that you don't have 680R or whatever?

Or a set of good pots?

I think that I could go for an entire decade not needing any passives other than powers of ten except for power supply work when you need an exact ratio for feedback.

But analog tinkerers do things that are very different from what I do!

E12 resistor kit (86 values * 10pcs) is $6 on AliExpress.

Don’t buy resistors on aliexpress. They tend to be steel legged and go rusty invisibly leading to all sorts of weird problems. Also some of the tend to be mislabelled.

Spend on some decent ones. Tayda sell decent quality Royal Ohm ones for not much money.

Better to just DIY an E6 kit on there.

Especially don't buy: old-school digital IC assortments (if they still market those) and electrolytic capacitors.

If you are using substantial discrete digital logic in 2023, we can be friends if we're not already, but you shouldn't be giving people advice on stocking their workshop.

Electrolytic capacitors have a shelf life, and you'd be amazed how time flies. I've thrown out old electrolytics (>10 years) at more than one employer now.

I kind of like assortments of pre-cut wires for breadboarding.

Sort of like buying complete cat5 cables instead of adding the connectors yourself from bulk cat5 - bumps your thoughts up an iso layer or two.

Cat5 (6,7,etc) cuts make for some very good breadboard cables; they're just the right size, colored, stiff, and much much better quality than the specific ones sold online. Unless one needs more colors or different sizes, they're just perfect. The ready made ones aren't single core and not ideal for breadboarding, still they're handy for other uses; A while ago I was about to throw away a long (15 meters or so) cat5 one that I swapped after it had been chewed by a dog, but rather cut the damaged part, stripped away the external insulation and saved each wire, and man, they're really good, from the copper used to the consistency of their insulation.

There's no point in keeping an inventory because almost every project will require a parts order anyway. Just order what you need per-project.

That assumes that everything one does is a "project". I don't know about anybody else, but sometimes I just sit down at my lab bench intent to tinker or experiment, or do some ad-hoc repair on something from around the house. And I've found having a modest stash of components on hand is very useful for those activities.

It's a balancing act, of course. There's a limit to how much one would want/need to spend on stocking components, but I posit that the limit should probably be "greater than 0". I can't tell you what the upper limit is though. My component stockpile has been building for many years, and there's no way I could even tell anyone how much is invested in it.

All of that said the one other thing I've often heard quoted, and tend to agree with, is this sentiment:

"When you order components for a project, always order more than you need, and put the unused ones in your stash". The thinking being, something along the lines of "If you needed this component once, you'll probably wind up using it again."

Of course it is, again, a judgment call. Order a few extra $0.50 comparators? Sure. Ordering a few extra of some multi hundred dollar FPGA or ADC or something? Yeah, no so much. :-)

Yeah, I didn't really mean "there's no point in keeping an inventory". I totally agree about buying extras and building inventory over time. But that's all you need to do, IMO.

For the beginner you can apply this principle to your first few breadboard projects and you're off to the races with some power-of-10 resistors, one color of LED, a few tactile switches, etc.

The main point is that you shouldn't try to anticipate what parts you will need more than a couple weeks into the future.

The main point is that you shouldn't try to anticipate what parts you will need more than a couple weeks into the future.

No doubt. You could easily wind up spending a TON of money if you do that! Not to say that I've never bought something on totally speculative basis, of course... :-)

Last year I started with a small ESP32/WS2812B project, after that was finished I wanted to get an understanding of how all this electronics stuff works and also get an understanding for embedded programming. Now I'm sitting here with lots of electronics components, some PiPicos, ESP32 boards and my newest addition, some STM32 Nucleos. :) I think I should really sell some of this stuff and only concentrate on one project at a time.

It's a matter of storage space more than cost.

If you mostly do digital, I'd say just get the E6 resistors and capacitors, common connectors and switches, and but there's as needed for projects.

Unfortunately multi packs usually have the whole E12 series full of odd sizes, like as if I'm going to need a 68k resistor rather than 100k, in a situation other than a project I'm ordering stuff for anyway, but having the extra selection isn't the worst thing.

E12 is about being +/- 5% of your target resistance using only a singular resistor.

A couple of notes:

1. E12 kits plays well with +/-5% tolerance. You're covering the entire spectrum of resistances possible with your kit, within the error-specs of your resistor.

2. Trimmer potentiometers (cheap pots designed for only ~200 cycles of use or less) are the key component needed for most analog / accurate circuits.

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You can usually design a circuit with +/- 5% accuracy (nominal), and then have one or two key trimmer-pots tune to 0.1% accuracy at the end. Ex: You might have one trimmer-pot control an a voltage offset (ex: from an instrumentation amplifier), and a second pot control the scale / multiplier (ex: op-amp multiplier and/or resistor divider).

You may have 20 to 30 resistors all across your analog circuit, all within +/- 5% tolerances for various reasons. But these two control points at the very end can "trim" away your error and reach 0.1%, or better, accuracy, in practice.

But you have to be "close enough", and have "linear enough" behavior. E12 (aka: resistors all within 10% of each other) seems to be enough for most such projects.

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Digital circuits on the other hand, don't really care too much about this stuff. So you end up with a bunch of 100nF capacitors with 1k resistors just all over the project. That's fine too. You should build a stockpile of the components you plan to use.

E12 resistor kits + a set of trimmer pots are for analog circuits. At least if you want 0.1% or 0.01% tolerances (3 or 4 digits).

I try to solder as little as possible and I find having a large selection of task specific breakout boards, power management, motor controllers, etc. and various wires and connectors to be essential. It's much easier to experiment if I can do it adhoc when inspiration hits and then put in a parts order when I know what the missing pieces are.

This depends - my projects are usually small and spontaneous, my attention span is short, and not having parts to at least start means the project is dead right there.

I do most of my stuff on microcontroller boards though, and I keep a small stock (maybe $30 worth of ESP32, ESP8266, and something-that-can-pretend-to-be-a-USB-keyboard dev boards).

There's some truth to this, but on the other hand I find it cost effective and useful in the long run to build up inventory by cheap kits.

For example, if I need specific resistor (and don't have any high precision/tolerance/current requirements — i.e. 90% of hobby projects) I could buy online:

- 10 of them for maybe £3

- 100 of them for around £6

- a kit containing 1000 resistors of 25 different values for <£12

Not only is the last option exponentially better value, but it means that I almost certainly don't need to buy anything the next 10 or more times I need a resistor. There are a good number common components, fittings, etc. that I've found this works for.

If you're doing specific high frequency, RF, hifi, etc. stuff, this approach might not work so well, but for other hobby electronics, messing around with microcontrollers and the like it's served me well.

I often grab stuff from my stock. It's really annoying to have to wait a month from AliExpress or pay shipping locally to get something.

And really a nice stock of components doesn't cost a fortune.

Like a lot of skills / crafts to some extent you can trade hours of experience for dollars. You will probably learn more and produce better joints by melting $50 of solder than buying a $500 iron.

You "can" intermix real solder with lead-free but thats another skill type thing where you might be somewhat better off with one reel of leaded for rework. Assuming you get into rework. If you get into ancient Tek o-scopes you'll need solder containing a little silver, etc, there's an infinite variety to the hobby.

Some fluxes turn into a sticky mess and you'll rapidly learn you need flux remover, so there is such a thing as "too much flux".

One workholding tool you'll need if you get into thru-hole digital is a piece of wood the size of your pcb, you insert your sockets, place wood on top, flip over, wood holds sockets in place, solder away...

If you don't understand the specs and limitations of your instrument, don't waste money on it. Find a guy who's into the hobby and has hand-me-downs and get your oscope that way. If you don't understand why you can't run full bandwidth on a 1x probe or coherently explain why you need a high BW scope you're mostly wasting money. On the other hand I am spoiled by mixed-signal oscopes that can decode I2C and many other protocols "on the fly" pretty cool. Likewise with power supplies, if you know why you need dual outputs, then you need dual outputs, but if you're not into that aspect of the hobby... likewise DC output over 18V or so, or currents over three amps, if you don't already know why you need that, you don't need that.

I would suggest that "pretty much everyone" needs clip leads. You'll rapidly learn why some are unimaginably cheap and others cost $5 each, you can pay once for the tool or you can pay in frustration every time you use a tool LOL.

(edited to add WRT the above, you'll rapidly learn the difference between low cost and cheap. A 1970s HP solid state scope is very low cost, but not cheap, for example. And a noob will not be capable of doing work that would have been cutting edge in 1975)

But what do I know I only got started in this madness in 1980 by assembling a Heathkit AM radio kit, which still works BTW.

> You "can" intermix real solder with lead-free

Let's not pretend lead free solder is somehow less real than leaded solder. Unless you plan on repairing pretty old devices you definitely should use unleaded solder. It's really not any harder to use than leaded these days, it's just slightly different. You mostly just want your soldering iron to be a fair bit hotter.

My only tip, and this is super basic, is spend the money on silver solder. It handles much more like lead solder, and flows freely, it'll make learning to solder a fucktonne easier.

its about twice as expensive, but will make your life easier as you don't need to apply as much heat. So you'll save in fried delicate components.

I wouldn't bother. I use silver solder for special occasions (Felder stuff) but it's too expensive to use all the time. You're probably fine with 60/40 loctite multicore. Just keep your parts, iron and boards clean and it's no harder.

Seconded. Silver is expensive and really doesn't do anything useful for an amateur.

Decent soldering station + correct and well taken care of soldering tip + thin multicore 60/40 + tools and supplies to clean your board + a bit of soldering training. There is lots of really good instructional videos on YouTube which is how I learned to solder.

> doesn't do anything useful for an amateur

It really depends on what you are building. If you're building a HAM transmitter then it is very useful.

I’ve built a couple of fairly hefty transmitters without silver solder. I don’t get your point.

The main use cases are certain alloy joints. I’ve seen it quoted as having better mechanical strength but that’s not what’s solder is for!

> I’ve seen it quoted as having better mechanical strength but that’s not what’s solder is for!

That depends. Back in the day when I did this work large end stages were built pretty much 'in the air' and in the stuff I worked on there were trimmers and coils that were pretty heavy and that were only supported by the solder. So we used silver for those joints, and they held up pretty good.

Hefty => 1KW and up...

As for the skin effect, that is the reason we did it in the first place, but I never had access to the kind of gear that would have allowed me to test in practice what the difference was and I've long ago stopped doing this sort of thing.

Ah yeah that sort of stuff makes sense. Most of the high power stuff I did was with waveguides. Never needed it for VHF or lower.

Skin effect makes sense. Hence why I use silver plated stuff in my VHF stuff.

I actually tried to build a 100 to 200 MHz end stage using stripline to get rid of all of the hand wound inductors to replace them with silver plated traces but never could get it work in a predictable manner and I lacked the math background to figure out what I was doing wrong. The people that can do that sort of thing intuitively are magicians to me :)

I can highly recommend Signal and Power Integrity from Eric Bogatin.

You're probably fine with 60/40 loctite multicore

Where do you buy this stuff? I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find it. Amazon doesn’t have it, Mouser doesn’t have it, Digikey doesn’t have it. Seems like it might be discontinued!

I've never used loctite solder, but I've had excellent luck with Kester or alphametals. I don't see smaller spools than 1 lb on digikey, but they have an excellent spec sheet. Personally, 8oz spools are a good size where they aren't too heavy or bulky, but that's personal preference. Additionally, 0.032" is for me a nice balance where you can still do SMT (id say 0603 is ideal, 0402 can be done but for that I'd recommend smaller) but you can still solder larger stuff, up to around 14AWG wire.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/kester-solder/24-...

Newark?

https://www.newark.com/w/c/tools-production-supplies/solderi...

Also, Amazon appears to have it, per this listing:

https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WI...

Looks like you can get it from Digikey as well:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/multicore/386824/...

Note that part of the problem might be if you're searching for "Loctite Multicore" and not just "Multicore". I think the brand might have been sold off, or something of that ilk, so you may not see it with the "Loctite" branding everywhere. I don't know the backstory on that entirely, but it's something I've noticed (being a big fan of Multicore solder!)

Oh I forgot to mention that I'm in Canada, so the Amazon link says "cannot ship to your location. The Newark link doesn't work either, although they do have one Multicore solder product when I search their Canadian site, it's only about 6 feet in length. The Digikey link has a price of $60 which seems outrageous for solder.

The good news is, there are plenty of good solder brands out there. If the Multicore stuff isn't readily available to you for whatever reason, you can also consider products from Kester, MG Chemical, Stannol, Cardas, Chip Quik, etc. And while I've never used it myself, I've actually heard good things about one of those cheapo Ali-Express brands - "Mechanic"[1].

And since this whole sub-thread started with a mention of "silver bearing" solder IIRC, I'll point out that there are a couple of decent options there. I actually like the Radio Shack brand silver-bearing solder, but I don't know if it's still available or not. But Chip Quik have a product in that space[2] and they are a pretty reputable brand so I would expect it to be fine. That said, I don't think the whole "silver bearing" thing is terribly important and I rarely use the stuff myself these days. YMMV.

[1]: https://www.aliexpress.com/i/2251832830340296.html?gatewayAd...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Solder-Wire-Lead-Silver-no-clean/dp/B...

Many countries have outlawed leaded solder, even for at-home/hobbyist use. Much annoying.

I’d you’re in Europe where it’s banned, eBay and hamfests.

60/40 is available at Home Depot.

You have to be careful when saying "silver" solder.

For soft solder, the eutectic is SnAg3.5Cu0.9, which melts at 217C, 34C higher than the 63/37 eutectic Sn/Pb. There's a lot of low cost lead-free solder out there which is essentially pure tin[0], with silver and copper content below 0.5 percent each. That melts even higher, at about 230C, and tends to be not eutectic, i.e. it has a pasty range.

I think you are talking about the eutectic alloys with about 3% silver. Good stuff, but the higher temperatures involved make it harder to use without damaging the components.

For repairing 20th century electronics and for general DIY electronics use, 63/37 is great, and flows better than 60/40 - just wash your hands afterwards.

For repairing 21st century electronics, use lead-free for compatibility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-silver-copper

Also, to many people, saying "silver solder" means a silver-copper high temperature brazing alloy, which is a whole different thing. Better to say "tin-silver solder" or "tin-silver".

Edit: See also this entry on degradation of pure tin electronic connections[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest#Modern_tin_pest_since...

I am just beginning to solder, and I am committed to using non-leaded solder. After some research, I have settled on SN100C, but I haven't used it yet.

https://aimsolder.com/products/solder-alloys/sn100c

Not sure about the downvotes. Is this bad solder or something? Don't try to convince me about leaded solder, please.

Probably because you haven't used it yet. Would like to hear from you after having some experience with it though.

I guess so. But there's nothing I can do about that right now sans going to the future, as I'm still acquiring the pieces. Haha. I was trying to just make it clear that this was a choice was due to research and not use, as of yet.

No idea, but I'll give you an upvote for joining in!

The tin solder you mentioned is 99% tin and has a very high melting point, so you'll have to be careful with hand soldering not to cause heat damage. You can also expect rework to be difficult, with lots of burned flux.

The photos at your link show some gorgeous joints, so good luck! It may be that the trace amounts of Ge in the solder will help with joint longevity.

Since I don't do production soldering, and cost isn't really a consideration for me, I use 3% silver alloy to keep the temperatures down, when I'm not using 63/37.

Kester solder listing:

https://www.kester.com/knowledge-base/lead-free-solutions#47...

I've used silver solder for very special stuff (HF, high power) where skin effect matters but wouldn't bother beyond 63/37 for normal soldering and that will melt a lot lower than your silver solder would.

I agree with this. I’ve long found Pb-free solder to be very hard to use for hand soldering. It has a high melting point and it never seemed to flow well. Pb solder is of course easier to use with its low melting point and flowability, but I don’t like using it on account of it being more toxic. Silver solder has been a great middle-ground for me. While it has the high temp requirements of other Pb-free solder, it flows much more like lead.

I also can’t emphasize enough just how much of a difference an application flux makes. I spent years struggling with sloppy solder work and thinking I was just doomed to be bad at it. Using flux made a massive difference. I was no longer having to constantly clean up bad joints or deal with solder blobbing where I didn’t want it. Just recently I was able to effortlessly hand-solder a bunch of tiny SMD components onto a board. Something I never thought I’d be able to do.

When I was learning to solder I really wish the importance of flux use was taught to me. It would have saved me a lot of cursing and frustration.

It's bizarre - I talk to a lot of people who've been soldering for years and few of them use flux. They use solder with flux but not the flux liquid.

You know, I'm going to give it a try. Since the last time I soldered electronics, I've soldered a lot of copper pipe, and the flux is just critical.

Lots of sound advice, I especially like the mention of lead-free solder not being bad at all and the pencil soldering iron. Some surprises though:

- the multimeter should not be an afterthought like it seems to be in the article.

- I now tend to recommend buying a logic analyzer before buying an oscilloscope unless you're doing analog voodoo. Most of the time you're troubleshooting why is that darned peripheral over whatever bus is not reponding properly to your commands. Even a saleae clone is fine for most hobby work and won't break the bank if you're not happy (but please buy genuine ones if you can afford them!).

I spent around $500 for a used Logic Pro 16 and it’s easily my most valuable purchase. Even for analog voodoo it’s good enough most of the time as I’m debugging logic level signals. I have a very capable Tek scope with all the bells and whistles unlocked but only plug it in if I’m working at higher voltages than the saleae can handle.

Far too expensive.

Someone just setting up an elab is WAY better off buying one of the ubiquitous Chinesium 24MHz 8-channel USB logic analyzers. In addition, a newbie is way more likely to "just try it out" if the thing they can destroy is only $10.

I have lots of really nice equipment, but even I will pull the cheapass logic analyzers out when I'm doing something that has the possibility of destroying my more expensive stuff.

24MHz 8-ch is a bit insufficient for debugging most of real stuff which is when the real fun is.

Also IMO logical analyser and scope are two things where you want to spend money when you are starting with electronics. This is how you are going to learn stuff and how you are going to debug anything you do. You need good scope and analyser EXACTLY because you are a newb.

I am personally using DSLogic U3Pro16 which was $300 when I bought it and I can highly recommend it.

> 24MHz 8-ch is a bit insufficient for debugging most of real stuff which is when the real fun is.

And by that point you'll not be a newbie anymore and know you've outgrown your chinesium. But for most tasks, it is plenty enough. It's amazing how much you can do with so little.

> You need good scope and analyser EXACTLY because you are a newb.

I highly disagree. You need decent enough ones, not good ones. Want to decode that uart? Wanna know why that adafruit I²C sensor is not responding? Why this SPI thing sends garbled data? The logic analyzer will be the biggest help when working with digital electronics, which is what most people get started with.

You need good scope and analyser EXACTLY because you are a newb.

I have my doubts about this. I believe that many beginners will experience the "I'm scared to use this" effect if they buy something too "nice" (read: expensive). Hell, to this day, I still use my Rigol DS-1102e first for most things, in favor of breaking out the "nice" oscilloscope, because I have that faint murmuring of "if you're going to fry a scope, fry the cheap one" in the back of my head.

The cheapies are great. I will say that, of the modern USB based analyzers, DSLogic is the only affordable one with a compensation network in the probes similar to what benchtop analyzers used to have, shielded leads, and configurable comparator voltage. It isn't worth paying $500+ for something where they just wing it on the probe interface.

Depends on what just setting up means. Someone tinkering with their first ESP32? Sure have at it with Chinesium. If you're getting more serious I'd say my $500 Saleae is a more valuable purchase than a $350 rigol scope recommended in the article.

I was a huge Saleae fan but with the last few projects I've been converted into a Digilent Analog Discovery 2 fan.

You get analog oscilloscope features, good enough for almost everything you will need on a typical project aside from RF or DRAM. Really good logic analyzer capabilities including protocol decoding and injection of signals - with analog waveform generation, digital protocols, and a small 5V voltage supply. Saleae still can't send a byte over UART.

And it's scriptable! Python, C++, and LabView. Again, something Logic can't do.

I'm not saying someone just getting started needs one, but if you've been in the business for a while and/or are working remote and need something on your bench, this can do almost everything in one go. The Pro model looks even more serious but I've never needed anything that powerful.

Yeah, those have been in my bucket list for a while, as they tick every box. Thanks for making me want one again!

I still think that Saleae clones are unbeatable for the price though and are the best investment someone getting started could want.

Yep - picked up one from eBay for $20 AUD. Fully compatible with their software. Amazing.

Hmm, but just a side note, one should not expect too much from it as a traditional analog scope. It's slow and its Achilles heel is the lack of an on board memory. It can neither cache more than 16k points, nor upload the samples through USB in real-time like a USB DAQ card. Today's sub-$1k Chinese scopes have few tens or hundreds of Mpts of sample memory, which turned out to be very helpful for my hobby.

Also it's quite overpriced now, unless one catch the $159 sale.

Slow? Perhaps. I don't know.

I was debugging a driver for those silly WS2812 RGB LEDs, the ones that are pretty picky about timing, and the AD2 could measure out edges in the 100 nSec range. Seemed pretty usable to me.

Recently being in the market for an oscilloscope, I was strongly considering the Digilent Analog Discovery 2, but I ended up going with the Siglent SDS1104X-E.

https://siglentna.com/digital-oscilloscopes/sds1000x-e-serie...

Just got it a day or so ago but am so far really impressed with it. It should be good until I hit some point where I need to upgrade. At that point, I should have a better idea of the exact features I need, although it was tempting to pre-upgrade to the SDS2000 series. The Rigol's seem great, especially the MSO5000 series with dedicated controls per channel, but I've seen a lot of complaints about noise levels and preferred the more featured and cheaper Siglent.

I'll probably get an Analog Discovery 2 or a Digital Discovery if I need some more digital logic stuff, although the Siglent can do some decoding.

I really dislike my Siglent. The measurement UI is horrible and the probes are iffy. I’m still mostly using a relatively ancient Agilent 546xx (can’t remember which model) and some decent Keysight probes and will probably sell the Siglent.

The Rigol UI is painfully slow. I didn’t buy one because of that.

I actually have the opposite feeling.

I have used quite a few low-end scopes at work, a new Siglent, Agilent DSO7034A, Tek DPO3054, some Tek TBS2000, some RS RTB2 and Keysight 3034T. I prefer the RS if my boss is paying for it, but there isn't too much to complain about the Siglent.

The DSO7000 series (and those other VxWorks infiniums) are the direct successor of 546xx, it always work and it's nice to have a few Mpts of memory. But the feature set is quite limited, no intensity grading display and the FFT looks so poor compared with more modern scopes. I'd be happy to replace that DSO7034A on our bench with a Siglent.

The KS3000T also have a laughably slow UI. The touch screen is supposed to make cursor measurements easier, but it doesn't. If one VNC to it (yes, running Windows CE), one can get miserably 1 fps.

That's a fair evaluation. I mostly do RF stuff these days (SA + VNA) so the scope use cases are fairly basic. Mine's a 54642D so 500MHz + LA. I don't want to put down at least 50x what I paid for it ($100 broken - $10 fix) for a new scope. The Siglent fills the feature gap and but I don't like it.

+1 for getting a LA for digital work. I started with a Saleae clone (dirt cheap and works), and loved it so much that I bought a Logic 8. They have a 50% discount for hobbyists which brought it down to an affordable luxury for me.

https://blog.saleae.com/saleae-discounts/

I just bought one of these and then realized the 10+ year old linksys router I wanted to reverse engineer uses an 80 mhz SPI bus, which is too fast for the entry level Salaea. Nice hardware if it works for your use case though.

For these (relatively) high speed serial interface, a scope with protocol decoding is actually more suitable.

Would you recommend something like a Rigol DS1104Z?

If it's really 80M, DS1104Z is still not fast enough. Maybe something with like 350M BW is required.

Also note that many modern scopes have software bandwidth limitation, and many of them are hackable. Rigol and Siglent are famous for making their scopes trivially hackable, that's a marketing point, but some Tek and Keysight's also.

The DS1104Z has a MSO option: if you add the RPL1116 logic probes, you can sample 8 channels at 1GSa/s, or 16 ch at 500MSa/s. That should be easily capable of capturing 80MHz SPI.

The downside to using a scope is it's much clunkier than using a LA on a PC. The decoder option it will give you the data, but if you're doing more than a handful of bytes, it gets tedious to scroll through hex dumps on screen and manually copying out the parts you want.

Saleae's software is delightful for this on their hardware. However, Sigrok is a decent alternative which supports a lot of devices. That includes the DS1000Z series, though I don't know if that includes the logic inputs. The OP might want to check them out.

https://sigrok.org/wiki/Supported_hardware

eeh the logic analyzer is nice when things work well enough, but many times I get nonsensical results from the LA and I have to go back to the scope to figure out what's exactly is going wrong.

Something I never see much mention is how the hell to organize all this stuff. Especially if your space is limited. Electronics hobbies are a magnet for collecting little bits and bots and, while infrequently used, are vital to a project when they are needed.

As someone who runs two electronics workshops (one at home, one at university) the only true solution is to get yourself storage solutions with a ton of seperate compartments and different sizes and label/use them with discipline. Same goes for equipment and cables. Cables either go into boxes or onto the cable holder depending how often you need them. Equipment goes into the labeled drawer.

For projects I currently just put them into a cardboard box with their parts and label that box.

Beyond a certain scale I recommend using a software like for example https://inventree.org/, especially when you have project boxes with parts in them and need to get ab overview of how much stock you have where.

I'm pretty happy with lots of stackable plastic boxes with click lock lids in a few different sizes (mostly 1 and 2 liters). Like these: https://cdn.abicart.com/shop/9024/art24/h3597/181473597-orig...

Examples of labels: sensors, displays, switches, pin headers, heat shrink tubing, microcontroller boards.

I like being able to move them around to where you need them.

Tools go into a drawer at the desk though.

Pick a stacking container with lids and compartments available in your region. To use even less space, bags in containers. Resist the urge to use open containers with easy access to everything because as you said, most things are infrequently used.

All my stuff is in zip lock bags in storage boxes.

Avoid drawers which take up a large volume as they’re mostly empty and tend to end up all over the floor when they inevitably fall over.

Thanks for the idea, somehow didn't even think that I can order 100 small zip-lock bags for less than $1.50 to finally organize all that small electronic and photographic crap.

That isn’t actually a bad idea. Especially paired with a label maker

Having a 3D printer available, I've been using these two projects to set up my modest workshop and it's worked out great.

https://github.com/jeffbarr/gridfinity-catalog

https://github.com/aderusha/DDD-Printable-Wall-Control-Syste...

If you are going to do electronics soldering a lot, I would personally recommend to stump up for one of the RF soldering systems (Thermaltronics or Metcal) as absolutely soon as you can possibly afford them.

The difference to your soldering is night and day. I cry for all the time I wasted soldering before I got a Metcal system.

Given that he is recommending Wellers that are in the same price range there is no reason not to step up to the RF systems if you can.

100% agree with this. Metcal is life changing.

I got an old metcal station from work that was destined for the recycling and it is amazing. I'll never use any other kind.

I'd be interested in seeing other "setting up an electronics workshop" articles by other engineers.

Luke Gorrie, for example, has an article here: https://github.com/lukego/soldering

It's a video, not an article, but here's Dave "EEVblog" Jones on "How to set up an electronics lab".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_PbjbRaO2E

I haven't watched that particular video, but I would exercise caution with his videos. He can often exercise some rather strong opinions due to: (1) he's right, (2) he misunderstands the product or a feature but claims it's an issue, or (3) some arbitrary reason based upon the name printed on the product. And (2) is often coupled with (3). This caution is probably advised on many electronics videos, especially from old heads because their American made or Japanese made gear from 30 years ago is better, which is often unhelpful because that gear isn't available anymore and is subjective anyway. Or entry level gear is compared to their $1,000+ soldering iron or $5,000+ oscilloscope.

I have been doing a lot of research lately for some entry level gear that will last and suit my needs without breaking the bank, and it's very difficult to sort through inaccuracies and biases against certain gear.

He can often exercise some rather strong opinions due to: (1) he's right, (2) he misunderstands the product or a feature but claims it's an issue, or (3) some arbitrary reason based upon the name printed on the product.

That's fair, although I would say the same is true for most (if not all) people commenting on this topic! Myself included as far as that goes. I am, for example, a fan of Hakko kit (I use a Hakko soldering station as well as the aforementioned FR-301 desoldering gun) and am an unabashed Rigol fanboi when it comes to test equipment. Rigol made my oscilloscope, bench multimeter, lab power supply, programmable load, signal generator, and spectrum analyzer. Outside of Rigol I'm also a fanboi for old HPAK (HP/Agilent/Keysight) kit. I have an HPAK logic analyzer, modulation domain analyzer, frequency counter, and dynamic signal analyzer. And I'm still lusting after an HP 3458a one of these days.

That said, I try to avoid falling into complete fanboy'ism when recommending stuff to others. There are lots of good brands out there for most things!

No doubt. For me, the pattern I fell into is reflected in what I wrote above: I buy mostly Rigol kit for anything I buy new. And that's because Rigol strikes me as a good compromise between cost, quality / functionality, and "hackability."

And then for more specialized / niche stuff, if I can find a used HPAK instrument for a good price on Ebay or whatever, I'll go with that. So far I feel like that strategy has allowed me to get my lab kitted out fairly nicely, without breaking the bank. But I'm sure even my lab would seem extravagant to somebody, especially the prototypical "starving college student".

The most valuable piece of advice is: make your decisions based upon what you plan on using your workshop for rather than following generic advice. Analog differs from digital, low frequencies from high frequencies, repair from construction. Even once you know your domain, how deep you plan on pursuing it is also a factor.

Advice like that provided in the article rubs me the wrong way since it both throws away nuance and deters people who are even mildly price sensitive. On the one hand they suggest that the equipment facilitates learning, on the other hand they are suggesting a $400 soldering iron. That iron will make things easier if you already know what your doing. It isn't going to protect the learner from destroying their first tip, even though the tip will cost as much as a cheap iron. It isn't going to protect the learner from applying heat improperly or for too long because, at best, the learner will only have book learning to guide their use.

But it isn't all about deterring price conscious learners, there is also the issue of encouraging them to succumb to temptation. I mean, who doesn't want a good oscilloscope? Oscilloscopes are awesome. That said, a logic analyzer is going to be more useful if you're working with digital circuits, even once you factor in the sophisticated triggering and (limited) decoding abilities of modern models. They also require a fair amount of experience before purchase or you will end up with one that does not meet your needs (unless you have extremely deep pockets).

Recommending a beginner buy a $400 Weller soldering iron is particularly egregious.

If you’re spending that much money get a used Metcal or just don’t bother.

Bingo. If you can't afford a used Metcal, you can afford a Hakko clone and Hakko tips, and if you can't afford that, there's a pretty small gradient from a $5 Harbor Freight open-loop carpet-burner to whatever else is in-between.

Just buy a used one. They pop up with great regularity on second hand sites. If the tip isn't usable then just get a fresh tip and you should be good for many years.

I bought my Weller soldering iron and all the tips I needed for $200 CAD new on Amazon, not sure where these numbers are coming from.

The price I cited was from the article. While I didn't check the price of the soldering iron itself, I looked up the price of the tips and those were over $40. Personally, I used $10 irons for decades and only picked up a temperature controlled one (for about $150 CAD) a couple of years ago. While it was a very nice upgrade, I am firmly in the camp that you can do good work with a basic iron.

A "decent" iron makes soldering much, much easier. Decent in my eyes being: has a semi-accurate temperature setting, reasonable wattage, and quick temperature recovery. This lets beginners keep the heat "low" without having issues when using small tips or soldering to the ground plane.

In the last few years though, the price for "decent" has dropped a lot. Like the Pinecil is honestly a solid option despite the awful ergonomics. And, if you're only soldering for 15-30m at a time, the ergos aren't going to be a huge issue.

There's also AiXun T3A for about $100. I've been using the T245 version as my main soldering iron for a while now and have been very impressed.

Here's a discussion on EEVBlog forum:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/any-opinions-on-the-ai...

Something I would add: LTSpice! Free (except for your time), but once you build up a muscle memory you find issues with parts before you order them. Just recently I used this to discover that I had missed an opamps minimum signal input voltage was V- + 2V when I was trying to amplify a 0-2.5V signal with a unipolar power supply. Playing in SPICE taught me that I need rail-to-rail opamps if I want to work with low voltages and unipolar supplies.

Agree with this. LTspice will cost you a bit of sanity too but it’s worth it.

What do folks think about this new generation of smart usb-c soldering irons with a processor? (ts10x and pinecil)

My friend who has soldered professionally swears by metcal.

I have both a hakko and a ts-100, and honestly I end up just using the ts-100 most of the time as I can run it off a small battery pack.

Its kinda like having a dyson battery vacuum vs a proper AC one - the AC vacuum has way better suction, but the dyson is so light and convenient to use and good enough for most things.

Depends on the AC vacuum — my old Dyson V6 in turbo mode outsucks most AC-powered vacuums I've dealt with. Sometimes new tech is just better.

You must have used some very very shitty AC vacuums.

I have a dyson v6 and a nilfisk x150 - the nilfisk motor is 1600 watts, they aren't even in the same ballpark suction power wise.

Without the motor brush head the v6 is pretty useless even in turbo mode.

Dyson V8 here...it cant even suck a rice grain on high power mode. Worst vacuum cleaners ever

Out of curiosity I just did a bit of a google, my AC vacuum is 6x the measured suction of the dyson in turbo mode:

v6 normal - 24 air watts

v6 turbo - 100 air watts

nilfisk x150 - 600 air watts

Not a pro, but the handful of times a month I solder, the Pinecil has been great. It can use TS100 tips so easy to get different tips.

It packs easily away in a plastic shoebox with my soldering accessories and consumables along with whatever project I'm currently working on.

I’m used to Weller irons, and personally had a hakko 888 but for home use (where I currenrlt don’t have a dedicated electronics bench) I love my pinecil. So convenient to just hook it up to my MacBooks brick.

Stay the hell away from the USB-C ones. They are toys. And yes your friend is right: spend on a Metcal. The PS900 is decent if you don’t want to spend on a higher end iron.

I have a genuine Hakko 888, a “T12 clone” and a pinecil. These clones are usually not fake Hakko products but they use the very common T12/T15 tips. I got the T12 clone because I was moving and wanted something that worked on the voltage of my new country (it has a DC power input so it’s easy to change). This clone was like $20 and works just as well if not better than the real Hakko.

But I have yet to set it up in my new place because the $25 pinecil also works just as well and is so small and works on a usb-c power supply which I always have plugged in at my desk anyway.

So really I would just recommend the pinecil as your first iron.

Pinecil is $40 now. I got one and can't figure out how to power it, it complains about my power source. Is it picky? Any ideas?

Pinecils are $26 on pine64.com atm.

I got amazon'd

It works with my Xiaomi and Lenovo 65W chargers. Maybe you can check the power of your charger and if it supports the PD protocol.

Not really, I’ve been using it at 15V and 20V. Not sure if it will work at 12 or 9. It will work at 5.

Typo: it will not work at 5V.

I use Weller stations at work, and have a Pinecil V2 at home. Have to admit haven't use it so heavily, nor attempted to solder SMTs with it, but it seems good enough for through hole devices.

Metcal (actually OKI) changed my life, and for under $200 all in second-hand with a selection of tips and the option to add another handpiece (dual port power supply).

Pinecil has been working out well for me. Haven't been using the smart parts of it, but definitely a good step up from the cheap amazon stuff.

Also discovered that the barrel jack (and power req) are compatible with some asus laptop bricks

The recommendations here are surprising. Some examples:

  - No mention of hot air
  - No mention of fume extractors/fan
  - Recommendation of a point tip vice chisel
  - No mention of solder paste
  - No mention of different flux application methods
  - No mention of braid/wick
  - No mention of hot plate or oven
  - No mention of tweezers
  - Mentions scope, but not logic analyzer
  - No mention of copper etc tip cleaner

He seems to be mostly interested in building through-hole designs, which avoids the need for a lot of that specialist equipment. I do think you need a good desoldering solution for through-hole work, though, and he should talk about that a little. (For me, solder braid is always ... a relief? You struggle for a while and it does finally work once you are frustrated enough. Solder suckers are nice when they work, though!)

I kind of see where he's coming from but on the other hand, if you have some budget for hand tools, surface mount work is not as hard as you think. The Universe wants it to work; you heat up a board with surface mount components and solder paste on it, and entropy pulls the components to their correct position. So instead of waging war with the laws of physics, they're there to help you. A light touch and magnification are all you need.

I don't have a hot air station (or reflow oven) and I'm perfectly happy building surface mount designs. There are some things I can't do -- super small passives, BGA chips, etc. That's easier to design around than through-hole only.

My tip for the send-to-fab-and-wait workflow is to get someone to "code review" your design. Maybe they will find a dumb mistake and save you a week for a new revision.

>Solder suckers are nice when they work, though!

They are great things once you learn their quirks.

Cut a notch in the nozzle that is slightly smaller than your iron's tip, a few uses will mold that notch to your iron's tip so you can keep the iron on the joint when sucking without affecting the seal.

Add more solder to the joint before sucking, this will help get a good seal as the sucker's tip will sit in that solder. The sucker will have no issues getting the excess.

Don't force sucked solder out through the nozzle, if the piston is more difficult than normal to depress than unscrew the end to clear the solder, forcing it through will only distort the nozzle and shorten its life.

Take the time to clean and lubricate at the end of the day. Bits of solder which get trapped in the sucker chew up the o-rings and ruins the vacuum. Take it apart, run a small stiff bottle brush through the body a few times to remove any solder, remove any solder in the nozzle, clean the plunger. Apply petroleum jelly to all threads and the plunger, reassemble.

If function quickly degrades after cleaning/lubricating than your o-rings are worn, replace them. O-rings are cheap, keep a supply on hand.

All good pieces of advice.

I also want to throw out a recommendation for this sucker in particular: https://www.engineertools-jp.com/ss02

I kind of impulse-bought that recently and had to repair a device where the AC line cord was damaged and is soldered directly to the board. I heated up the joint and sucked out what seemed like a gallon of solder in one go; the wire then just fell out with no problem. I was very very impressed. For $22, worth having in your toolbox if you ever interact with large quantities of solder that may be to removed.

I concur. It works exactly how you expect a solder sucker is supposed to. It gobble up the solder so good it's a joy to use.

I regret not having known about this tool years ago. I wasted so much time and frustration on the ubiquitous cheap solder sucker. It's a world of difference.

Be careful with these. If you use one with a crap iron or overheat the joint it'll suck the traces off the board too. They should only be used with a decent temperature controlled iron.

Sucking solder without temperature control is no different than soldering without temperature control. If you are not good at spotting when the solder goes liquid or using a sort of solder which is difficult to see when it goes liquid than just apply solder as you heat it as you would if you were initially making the joint, solder touches the pin and not the iron's tip, when the solder starts to flow put down the solder and grab the sucker, suck. No need to rush when getting the sucker, you have a second or two still before the entire joint has gone liquid and a few seconds after that before you are at risk of overheating assuming you are using a properly sized iron for the job.

This company also makes amazing pliers!

Braid ALWAYS works if you know how to buy it, store it and use it properly.

Buy it -> chemtronics soder-wick. Do not buy anything else.

Store it -> store it in a zip lock bag not just chucked in your draw or crap box.

Use it -> Use an iron which can actually deliver energy quickly without overheating the workpiece (Metcal!), place the wick at least 1cm in from the end onto the joint and hit it hard from the other side in a iron, wick, joint sandwich until it stops creeping up the wick. Do not stop until it's done or it's game over for that joint.

99% of bad wick and soldering experiences are crap irons, crap solder and crap wick.

Tip: Solderwick goes bad after while.

I mostly agree with you but sometimes through hole joints just won't wick all the way because of the extra surface tension around the pin on the opposite side of the pcb. Not a huge deal if you can access it, but if you can't, like under an electrolytic cap, it's a pain. Even with my metcal and chemtronics wick. Sometimes preheating the joint can help but I almost always end up just destroying the cap.

If they are big cans like the old Sprague ones, I use a crap desolder station and the metcal at the same time. I wouldn't hit them with wick. That's for small components.

Question - you mention caps, I've always found them to be the easiest component to desolder. Just heat one pin and rock the cap using your other hand, sometimes you need to rock back and forth several times if the layout is tight, but this method applies way less heat to the board and cap. Once the cap is out, even one of those useless solder suckers will easily clean the hole in the board. You pretty much need to have a vise or some sturdy way of holding the PCB where you can access both sides, but this works way easier and doesn't destroy the cap or delam the board.

Yeah through-hole you want a desoldering gun. Using a wick is too much work for that IMO.

Something I've found that helps is to snip off a section of wick and hold it with a pair of ceramic-tip reverse tweezers so you don't have the rest of the roll leeching heat from the section of wick that you are using.

Check this vid for de-soldering w/o hot air [0]. Lots of flux and some heat spreaders.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVsmwFAkf7I&list=PLYG9UdJdXi...

I also like that Chip-Quik solder that stays molten for a long time; apply it to every pin, lift off chip.

It Does mention solder paste/flux types and application.

A hot air soldering station is an absolute must for SMT work, in my opinion. You can get "all-in-one" stations with a soldering iron, infrared plate, and hot air, very affordably. This is the one I use: https://www.xtronicusa.com/X-Tronic-5040-XR3-Hot-Air-Rework-...

Gotta start somewhere. I've been doing electronics prototyping, and some light manufacturing, for 40+ years. In that time, the technology has changed dramatically. Had I tried to keep a fully equipped shop throughout that time period, I'd be broke today. Instead, I choose my battles in terms of what technologies I want to work with, and what tools I need.

Likewise with bicycle tools and music gear. ;-)

Nonetheless, your list contains many things that a person is likely to want or need, and that are not exorbitant or too big for a small shop. My surface mount tooling is still fairly limited, and I don't own a logic analyzer. I do share many tools with my regular household tool set.

Another thing I'd mention is a basic stereoscopic inspection microscope, like maybe 10x, or adjustable if you want to splurge. Maybe it's my age, but vision aids are close to the top of my must-have tools. Nothing is getting bigger.

Concur on that - and/or a jewler's loupe with light. Cheap on amazon etc, and nice to have.

You can get surprisingly cheap and nice head-worn binocular magnifiers now - like an optivisor but lighter and cheaper with interchangeable lenses. I absolutely love mine, which may say something more about me approaching 50 than it does about the tools. It's useful beyond solder work, from reading IDs on tiny parts, to plugging in tiny antenna connectors, to removing splinters from your kids.

I do an occasional bit of SMD work and I don't have any of those other than tweezers and a flux pen. And you definitely don't need them for TH work.

When I'm building SMD prototypes I'm usually not assembling PCBs either. It's deadbug, superglue and thin strips of 0.3mm board.

For solder I would recommend you source a roll of 63/37, it will make your life much easier even if it uses lead. Add a fume extractor and you should be just fine if you don't solder 24x7.

One other thing I'll throw out there: the author is right, IMO, to eschew "generic" advice. Not that there is no advice which is generally useful, but the "Devil is in the details". And in particular, I'd say that's extra true with test equipment. The kind of test equipment you need really does depend a lot on what kind of work you plan to do.

For example, if you don't do any RF related work, you aren't very likely to need a spectrum analyzer, and especially not a high-end one. FFT mode on a scope will probably serve one well enough if they're not doing RF. Conversely, if you are doing RF work (where I mean, building or repairing radio transmitters and receivers) then you probably very much want a dedicated spectrum analyzer, and probably an RF power meter as well.

Similar arguments could be made around logic analyzers... if you aren't interested in doing a lot of digital logic work, and especially not high-speed digital logic, you probably don't need a dedicated logic analyzer. For retro-computing stuff and debugging simple stuff you can probably get by with one of those cheap little USB logic analyers[1] and Sigrok[2].

Now probably everyone wants at least one decent hand-held DMM, a lab power supply, and an at least halfway decent oscilloscope. But beyond that, you really can tailor your test equipment choices largely based on what kind of stuff you find yourself doing.

And just to throw one other random anecdote out there: when I was building my lab, I bought a decent dedicated bench multimeter relatively early on. It wasn't the first thing I bought, but it was maybe the third or fourth. In hindsight, I rarely turn it on, and it probably gets less use than anything else in my lab, including seemingly niche devices like a programmable load. It turns out, I prefer using one or more handheld DMM's over using the bench DMM. I can't even tell you exactly why that is, so take it for what it's worth. But a benchtop DMM has been just short of useless for me. shrug

[1]: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18627

[2]: https://sigrok.org/wiki/Main_Page

Handheld multimeter is what i played with when i was a child, there is always one sitting in my dad’s drawer. So it was a first piece of equipment i bought when i started doing electronics work.

I am trying to gather local support to turn a empty building into a games cafe / library / small workspace. These skills are a vital grounding in modern life (I maybe watching too much perun but modifying small drones is an existential skill in Ukraine today)

Anyway not being political this sort of skill is a hands on skill - and youtube and blog posts can only go so far

What I meant to say is I would be interested in hearing from anyone doing something similar in their local area

I'll add this: get a nice de-soldering gun. I use a Hakko FR-301[1], which while not exactly "cheap" isn't "insanely expensive" either. The thing about it is, you never want to have to use it. To use a metaphor, if you do any shade-tree (or professional) auto work, having to pull out the FR-301 is like having to pull out the left-hand twist drill bits and a set of EZ-OUTs. When that happens, you know you screwed something up. BUT, when you do pull out the desoldering gun (or the EZ-OUT kit) and it saves your ass, you feel very good knowing you have it in your hip pocket.

I probably use my FR-301 a couple of times a year, but I think it paid for itself the first time I used it.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BKSLLG9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

I’ve had one at work and while very nice to have, at home for hobby stuff I think you can get by with solder wick (it does take practice!) and chip quick alloy. Chip quick alloy is a very low melting temperature solder. After using it to dilute all solder joints on a part, it’s easy to melt all pins/pads at once and pull the part off.

What would you say is the best (but affordable!) way to solder SMT parts like this kind of connectors with small pitches?

https://no.mouser.com/images/marketingid/2016/img/163696678....

Last time I tried using the basics (Hakko soldering iron, with all kind of tips, flux, different types of solder...) I only got a bad soldering with lots of contacts between pins, and some other pins seemed to make a poor connection.

Also, as those are not very common parts, I could not have it soldered in a fab like JLCPCB and the like...

I think your cheapest route is to build a DIY reflow oven using a cheap toaster oven. If you don’t want to design the controller yourself, one option is to buy a kit such as the Controleo3 [1].

[1] https://www.whizoo.com/controleo3

I've had success with the basics you mention, but I found very important to have a good holder for the PCB and a magnifier with light. You need to see the details while you're soldering. You need decent bent needle tweezers to manipulate and hold the part. Also a stronger magnifier (hand-held) for inspecting my work is useful, as well as an ohmmeter. And finally to fix mistakes I found desoldering wick to be the easiest.

Yes, I thought about the magnifier, but how would one do the soldering? Soldering each pin at a time? As those parts have 0.5mm or 0.8mm pitches, I only tried with this "drag soldering" technique, but with the aforementioned results.

I usually apply solder on 1 pad on the PCB, then hold the part with tweezers and place it while heating that pad. Once the placement is good, I solder the rest.

I tend to do them 1-by-1, not by dragging over the complete row. If the pitch is smaller than the iron tip, you don't have a choice and need to solder several at once, but usually with flux and the right quantity of solder it works itself out.

For the problems you mention, adding flux and reheating usually works. If there is too much solder, you need to wick some away.

It's not very difficult if you do drag soldering rather than attempt to solder the pins one by one. I do it in a slightly different way, just put a ton of solder and clean the shorting with braid.

I'm not so proud of my soldering skills, while still managed to hand solder more than a dozen of such FPC connectors (0.5 mm, 45 pin, Wurth Elektronik 687145149022) with just a standard Weller station for a project at work, and only non-fatally screwed up my second one.

Yes, drag soldering was the only technique I considered. However, it didn't work very good. As said before, the main problem was that solder created shorts between pins, and some others were left with bad connections. I also tried to use braid to remove the excess solder, etc., but I felt the more I tried to fix it, the worse the result.

I once watched this video about SMT soldering, and while the guy seems to be using just a soldering iron and flux, the result is outstanding. I don't know however which specific equipment and solder/flux he is using, and if it's real or there's some kind of trick involved :-D https://youtu.be/5uiroWBkdFY?t=112

Maybe you can try some different brands of braid and flux.

However, actually I got four out of the dozen done without even brand braid, but with some scavenged copper grounding braid, as the proper one usually on the bench was stolen by a colleague :).

This guy has great tutorials, and tips, about soldering. You may be interested in this video primarily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LSG5uIdqJc

As someone who teaches soldering since years, the one thing you should realize is:

A soldering iron is not a paint brush, that means if you try to put solder onto the iron and then "paint" it onto the connection it will not work well

Solder flows to the places where it is hot enough. So if you wanna solder to form a connection between a lead and a pad you need to heat up both enough to make the solder melt if it touches that part.

It can totally be the case that your iron cannot supply that amount of heat, especially if the tipp is oxidized and it is a cheap iron.

Also: different types of solder have different melting temperatures.

Finally: keep everything clean. The iron, the PCB, the parts

What I typically tell people is "solder will stick to the part that melts it." If you melt the solder with the iron tip, it will stick to the iron. If you use the iron tip to heat the joint and melt the solder with the joint, it will stick to the joint. The physics isn't correct but it's served me well as an easily remembered rule-of-thumb.

That is a good way to put it as well, thanks for sharing.

I'm surprised it's not mentioned (I guess the author doesn't do anything small) but a microscope was like my third purchase after solder station and scope and I've loved every minute of playing with it.

For whatever reason, there is a plague of cheap breadboards which are basically unusable. The sockets require too much insertion force, which intersects terribly with the trend of cheap resistors having very thin and weak legs which bend out of the way rather than insert.

The BB830 from BusBoard Prototype Systems (search BB830 on Amazon) is one which is a bit pricey but doesn’t suffer from this problem.

Tayda electronics is a great source of inexpensive resistors which dont suffer from cheap, thin leads.

For electronics, I think showing is better than telling. Hence, it’s more productive for me to consume and replicate YouTubers like Carl Bugeja [https://youtube.com/@CarlBugeja], and seeing what they can practically produce with their setups. It answers the question of ‘why’ as well. Self soldering circuits are beautiful

That style of Weller soldering iron really is the best. Too bad prices has become even more crazy. I managed to get a WHS M for €200 back in 2010 (which was a good deal, but nothing extreme). Now they are going for €500. Is there still no competition?

A used Metcal/OKI RF iron is a good investment. They're pricy, but if you're using lead-free (and if you're modifying something soldered elsewhere, you probably are), they just work. Even a Hakko struggles on ground pins with lead free solder with a smaller tip and the OKI just does it in a second.

By avoiding even a couple of days ruined by hellish rework drama, it's paid for itself.

I thought you meant the OKI that make printers xD But apparently this is OKInternational. I'm not finding an RF though... perhaps FR? Those look very much like Hakko FX-100 tip-wise, and while i take your word for it that they are good, the Weller design seems superior to me.

RF as in radio frequency. They work by sending radio energy down a coaxial cable to the tip where it's absorbed. At the desired temperature, the tip alloy reaches its Curie point and stops absorbing energy. The instant it cools, it absorbs again. It's a far faster control loop since it's all physics and doesn't require a sensor (with some non-zero level of thermal impedance between it and the tip itself), no separate heater element (the tip is the heater, again with that thermal impedance) and feedback to the controller.

The downside is the only way to change temperature is to change tip to one with a different alloy. In practise, this isn't any kind of issue because the only reason you usually need to ramp the temperature with a conventionally-heated iron is because you are trying to compensate for the heater-tip-sensor feedback loop being unable to keep up when soldering big things, which is a problem the Metcals don't really have in the first place.

The Curie point system as what the FX-100 uses too, so probably they're as good for the same reason, but they don't seem to have a good second-hand supply like the Metcal/OKIs (I scored an OKI power supply for under $100, but even if you don't get lucky they're relatively cheap).

Also if you're into that kind of thing, the MX-500P-11 at least has schematics of the entire power supply that have been reverse-engineered (notably it appears to contain no microcontroller).

Couple of interesting points and takeaways from a dabbler and tinkerer of 40+ years:

Weller soldering station - I got gifted a professional, but dead, one of these in my youth, after the chap witnessed me heating an iron over an open flame to desolder components. Then he showed me how to repair it. I've been brand loyal ever since. That old iron sits in pride of place on a shelf in my office, but I later went and bought a new Weller, with digital control, and dual outputs to run two heads simultaneously at different temperatures, and also has a temperature lock on each output. A range of tips and a comfort grip handle makes all the difference in the world. Weller also make a good line of electronic work hand tools that are worth investing in. I also like the Weller irons because they can shut off automatically if you don't touch them, then heat right back up super fast when you need them. How many people have gotten called away, accidentally left their iron on, and come back two days later to an odd smell. If you can afford/justify a Metcal soldering station, get one of those instead. But don't waste your money on a Metcal if you aren't serious about your hobby. I am not serious enough to have a Metcal, but I very much like them and have used them.

That said, if you just want to get started, get a Pinecil iron. You won't go wrong with it for 90% of what you want to do. You can have mine when you can pry it from my cold dead hands brought on by a lead solder induced coma.

Get yourself a few different tips for your iron. Avoid the cheap ones from Amazon, buy the branded ones for your iron.

If you do a lot of repair work, a desoldering station is a useful addition. Though wick and a good quality solder sucker goes a long way.

Get a cheap hot air rework station if you do any SMT work.

Buy solder. Try the cheap stuff. Then go pay for the good stuff. You'll understand why. Use the thin stuff. Get a solder dispenser to put your reel on rather than fighting the reel. Buy flux. Buy cleaning wicks. Practice how to use them. You'll get amazing results if you just solder for a few hours.

Sometimes, when you need to join a couple of wires, you don't need to solder them. A heat gun and some no-crimp, self-soldering, heat-shrink butt connectors will do the job most of the time. Dewalt make a nice cordless heat gun and a pretty nice corded heat gun too.

I invested heavily in to Akro-Mils organizer storage. I had a number of the classic Akro-Mils organizers that I picked up at Weird Stuff years ago, that are unfortunately no longer made, and the clear plastic drawers have unfortunately degraded and chipped over time. I've bought the newer, flimsier ones, and built a custom cabinet to house them. Add in a 3D printer to the mix and a search on any STL website for Akro-Mils storage, and you have a lot of versatile little drawers. Currently my components and interesting bits of wire sit in 880 individual organizer drawers.

For breadboards, there's a wide array of quality. You pay for what you get. Pay for good ones. Realize that bread boards eventually wear out.

Magnifying desk lamp - 3x diopter at least, 5x is better. Yes, video scope or stereo microscope is a good addition, but a decent magnifying desk lamp is essential.

Don't forget your hand tools. Side snips, flush cut trimmers, wire strippers, Weha/Wera/NWS/Weller pliers of various stripes, tweezers (cheap ones, but get a few different types), Weha screw drivers. An iFixIt screwdriver bits kit. Comfort grip Xacto knife with #11 blades. Metal engineers rule. Desk calculator with electronic formula functions. All these little tools are where you'll go broke and also need to worry about organization.

Head mounted optivosor - get a cheap one.

For work holding, I highly recommend two of the suction mount Panavise devices, and a range of heads for different work. I also recommend a good pair of helping hands, but avoid the $10 junk you find on Amazon. Again, you get what you pay for, go to a jewelery making store and look for the helping hands they sell. You'll pay through the nose, but you'll never be frustrated with the damn things again. Mine set me back over $150. You can have the Pinecil iron when you can pry it from the cold dead helping hands setup that will still be holding it in the proper position long after I am dead.

Circuit diagnostics, Fluke for the meters, and then I go middle of the road for everything else, e.g. Rigol mid-level stuff. I could happily spend a fortune on this stuff, but I'm just a hobbyist. Handheld multimeter is good, benchtop multimeter is better. Have both. Dual or triple output benchtop power supply is a must have. Get two if your budget and desk space will stretch that far.

Fume extractor - Weller make a nice one, but any of them will do. Seriously, unless you are soldering hours per day, a cheap fume extractor with a carbon filter will do wonders for your enjoyment. If you are doing hours of day soldering, none of my advice matters as you have more experience at this than I do.

Soldering organizer mat - Weller or Hakko. Hang it up on your balcony for a couple of days so that the off-gassing doesn't take over your workspace. Be aware, most organizer mats are not ESD safe. You can get nice ESD ones. You'll pay beaucoup bucks for one that is worth the desk space. I like the Weller mat as it has little pockets to hold components and screws and interesting bits of wire.

Cordless drills - get a really nice, lightweight cordless drill, you don't need anything that weighs a lot. Something to put a small hole in something else. I put Festool in my workshop, so I put Festool in my workbench, but a $50 Milkwaukee Fuel on special discount at Home Depot will do just fine.

Blue tape. Lots and lots of ****ing blue tape. You can use it to hold components in place, hold wires down while you solder, hold parts for assembly, hold a circuit in place that won't stop skidding around. Cannot be used for gagging someone.

Don't bother trying to stock an inventory of parts you might need (I am guilty of this), you'll go broke fast. That said, having common stuff on hand is a no brainer. Sometimes though, it is nice having a lot of ingredients in stock so you can make whatever takes your fancy that day.

Not all alligator clips are created equal, and neither are Dupont wires. Inland make some nice cheap ones that won't break the bank. Buy more than you think you will need. Avoid anything sold on Amazon. Go to a physical brick & mortar electronics store, handle their cables, see if they have the good ones.

Buy a selection of headers and push together connectors, solder those to your perfboards. It makes assembly and disassembly much easier. You can salvage your SBC at a later date You can easily use little breakout boards. It makes transporting your project a lot easier.

Buy some buffer boards if you are like me and sometimes forget to pay attention to the amperage or voltage. Nothing quite like releasing the magic smoke from that over priced Raspberry Pi or Nvidia Jetson because you weren't paying attention.

the TS100 soldering iron and Engineer SS-02 pump have gotten a lot of praise over the years. add a multimeter and a filtered fan and I think that's a decent, even portable set-up.

I am wondering what are you all working on in terms of electronics/soldering projects?

I am currently trying to put together a small analog synthesizer.

Speaking of which, what is your favorite way of joining two wires in a straight line?

You mean something like this? https://www.adafruit.com/product/3786

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union_splice

Flux+touch: strip a relatively long length of both wires. Twist them together in a way so that the whole thing remains in a line. Touch with flux. Touch iron tip to solder. Touch soldered tip to wires. (Flux will flow through) Heat shrink after. (You may need to place the heat shrink first)

Yes. My workflow usually includes:

5) scream obscenities because you forgot to thread the heat shrink tubing before soldering.

6) snip wires

7) goto step 1

Stranded wire to stranded wire, or solid wire to solid wire? Or mixing stranded and solid? Same gauge or mixed gauge?

All of them, as in practice you'll encounter them all sooner or later.

Err don’t!

A few thoughts:

Scopes: Beware of entry level digital scopes, they can hide things such as overshoots, ringings, etc, and their effective real bandwidth at which they don't distort what they measure is often a lot smaller than the one advertised. If you can buy a good digital one, then go for it, but if all you can afford is a cheap one, then I would keep an old analog one next to it just in case.

Multimeters: the problems with cheap Chinese multimeters isn't much accuracy but rather consistency and reliability over time, and of course safety if you use them for critical measurements; some can even rival much more expensive ones during the occasional readings, but they may fail sooner due to contacts corrosion and other problems the good ones wouldn't suffer.

Solder wire: I have a life time stock of leaded wire and use it whenever I can. I tried lead free some time ago and didn't like it. However I'm old and solder mostly for hobby, so YMMV of course.

Solder iron: I've used for ages my two 1980s old solder guns (25W and 100W), then one day decided to go for a stylus and bought a Hakko 936 clone, and suddenly my solder joints couldn't even come close to the clean ones I did with 20-30 year earlier irons, The problem I later discovered was in the hand piece, namely reduced thermal mass and isolation between heater and tip. I was used for years to soldering guns in which the tip and the heater were the same thing and they also had much higher thermal mass, so touching a pad with the tip wouldn't dramatically lower its temperature ruining the joint. That became a problem with that cheap stylus that I couldn't solve by replacing first the heater and then the entire handpiece. So at the first chance I bought a used Weller TCP (now I have two) and all problems disappeared. If you can't find a used good quality solder iron, I've been positively impressed by the Pinecil by pine64.com (yeah, the same people behind the Pinephone) as it works incredibly well for its price.

Parts inventory: depending on how much time you spend on the hobby it may be from useless to invaluable to have parts at hands for repairs/tinkering/etc. If you need them, please stay away from some of the cheap ones sold online: they're mostly crap, especially electrolytic capacitors, transistors and chips. I didn't experience problems with low power resistors (aside thinner leads) and ceramic/poly capacitors assortments, but be careful with everything else, as the chances of ending up with fake relabeled parts is very high, in some cases 100% certain. Some great parts can still be sourced at HAM conventions or shops selling surplus parts. Flea markets too can be a source of parts otherwise almost impossible to find or too expensive: I've found over the years bags of ex TV repair shop parts, big spools of enameled copper wire, panel voltmeters, semiconductors, ferrites, capacitive trimmers etc. Most even brand new.

As an electronic engineer of 10 years, one of the most useful things in my lab is blue tac[1]. It's so useful and versatile as a third hand for soldering or keep things from moving around attached to cables etc.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_Tack

I don't see why this was flagged.

Good advice. It's also cheaper than a Panavise :)

I'm still tempted to buy one of these stations with flexible arms:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832787531236.html

Anyone having good/bad experience with this kind of tool?

They can be useful but often the cheap ones are not that good / fall apart. You can also just build your own with heavier wire like used in home wiring and some quality crocodile clips. Attach to a heavy base.

I also recommend the blue tack on top of the crocodile clip positioners.

I tried one of those and was sorely disappointed, at least the model I had the arms were way too flimsy.

It's super easy to build one that is better, Lowe's sells wire by the foot. Get either 12 or 10 AWG wire, crimp alligator clips on it, and attach the other end to a piece of plywood with 2 screws, looping the wire first around one then the other for stability. This works way better, and if you find the arms are either too flimsy or not sturdy enough it's super easy to modify. I attached mine with machine screws and have 14awg and 10awg arms that I swap between depending on how heavy the thing I'm holding is. Eventually the copper wire will work harden and break, but I haven't had an arm snap in the 6 years I've been using this. Probably would cost 15 bucks total and the only tool you need to build it is a drill (assuming you have electronics tools already).

Any tentacle monsters tend to just get in the way I have found.

I like that one.

https://omnifixo.com/

That's hear stable? I would not have thought thanks for the tip.

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