MightyOhm » DIY

A glimpse at Electronics Workbenches around the world…

Jeff — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:45:00 +0000

Since creating the Electronics Workbench Flickr group last November, I have received lots and lots of really amazing submissions from electronics hobbyists and professionals around the world.

My two biggest takeaways so far? I do not own nearly enough test equipment, and my shop is not nearly as well-organized or space-efficient as it could be (I need to use all available wall space and build up).

Here are a few of my favorite images from the group:

Click any of these images for a larger version!

Joe Grand (of Prototype This! and Grand Idea Studio) and his awesome electronics workshop:

(Nice scope, Joe!)

blalor turned his BMW into a temporary workshop, and his passenger seat is the electronics workbench (note the laptop perched on the dash):

eschlaep (Eric Schlaepfer of tubetime.us) submitted this moody shot of a CRT project in progress:

Senke2 has a nice home lab with a lofty feel:

Looks like *someone* has a Tektronix fetish. Beautiful setup by Alan (W2AEW):

More scope envy, of both the oscillo- and micro- kinds (Thanks Mgburr!):

embeddederic sent in this picture of his workbench. Note the Tek 491 spectrum analyzer up top, 10MHz – 12GHz with 1950s(?) technology:

And lastly, check out this awesome workbench panorama by anachrocomputer (best viewed large):

See if you can spot the Tektronix 575 curve tracer!

There are lots more great photos in the group photo pool.

Do you have an electronics workbench that you’re proud of? Snap a photo and share it with the group!

New Flickr Group for your Electronics Workbench

New Flickr Group for your Electronics Workbench

Jeff — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:03:44 +0000

Ahh, the electronics workbench – shrine to the electron, the diode, the transistor, the soldering pencil and flux pen.

You can learn a lot about someone by looking at their workspace. Note the way that they store components (in pullout drawers or plastic organizers?), hang test leads (on hooks or wire racks, or on a nail?), and keep spools of wire at the ready for repairs and new projects.

A look at someone’s electronics workbench gives you a small glimpse into what is usually a fairly personal space – a space where visions become reality and electronics projects are brought to life.

While there are quite a few electronics workbenches on flickr, I determined after a quick search that there had been no attempt to bring all of these glimpses into a hobbyist or engineer’s soul together into one place.

And thus was born the Electronics Workbench flickr group:

Have a photo of your bench? Add it to the group!

No? Then go downstairs into your basement, out into your garage, or up into the attic and take one!

And don’t spend too much time cleaning it up first – noone will believe you that your workbench is that clean when we’re not looking.

Also, a shoutout: This group was inspired in part by the Workbench of the Week (WOTW) page over at The Amp Hour. I don’t think WOTW has been a feature on the show for several months. Maybe we can get Chris and Dave to bring it back??

Happy soldering!

- Jeff

www.flickr.com

Geiger Counter Kits are (finally) in stock!

Jeff — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:50:31 +0000

Geiger Counter kits are now in stock! You can order one below or go visit the Geiger Counter kit page to learn more.

There are currently three ordering options:

You can buy the complete Geiger Counter kit with a tested, known good SBM-20 Geiger-Muller tube included (recommended).
You can buy the same kit with all parts except the Geiger tube (in case you already have one).
Or, you can purchase a bare PCB only (for experimenters).

You can select one of these options below:

Shipping is via USPS Priority Mail. Allow 1-2 weeks for order processing and delivery.

Soldering is Easy – Traditional Chinese Translation

Jeff — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:19:19 +0000

Another translation! I present to you Traditional Chinese, by Shanghai’s XinCheJian hackerspace.

Souder c’est Facile (Soldering is Easy – French Translation)

Jeff — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:32:17 +0000

Lionel of Snootlab sent us this French translation of the Soldering is Easy comic book. Thanks, Lionel!

Menyolder Itu Gampang (Soldering is Easy – Indonesian Translation)

Jeff — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:08:39 +0000

More translations keep rolling in, and we’re having trouble keeping up with them!

Rudi Voon just sent us this Indonesian translation of the Soldering is Easy comic book.

Solder É Fácil (Soldering is Easy – Portuguese Translation)

Jeff — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:11:52 +0000

Radamés Ajna just sent us Soldar É Fácil, a (Brazillian) Portuguese translation of our Soldering is Easy comic book.

I’ve started adding the translated versions of the Solder Comic to the original post.

Soldering is Easy – Simplified Chinese Translation

Jeff — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:11:23 +0000

XinCheJian just sent us this Simplified Chinese translation of the Soldering is Easy comic book.

Announcing the “Soldering is Easy” Complete Comic Book!

Jeff — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:00:22 +0000

Do you want to learn how to solder? Do you want to make really cool things? Do you want to teach other people how to solder (and make cool things too)?

I’m happy to announce the release of Soldering is Easy, a comic book that will teach anyone the basics of soldering.

This seven page comic book explains in detail and with pictures how to make a good solder connection. It also teaches you all the other bits and pieces of knowledge that you need to successfully solder together an electronic kit, even if you’ve never soldered before!

I worked with Mitch Altman (@maltman23) and Andie Nordgren to create this revised and extended version of the wildly popular one page handout that Mitch and Andie created in 2010.

The comic (and lots more cool stuff!) will be included in a book that Mitch and I are writing about How to Make Cool Things with Microcontrollers (For People Who Know Nothing). It will be published by No Starch Press.

Here’s a sample page (click for a bigger version):

As of January 2012 the comic book has been translated into 15 other languages! A huge thanks to everyone who sent in translations and is helping us spread our message around the world! We would love for people to translate the comic book into more languages! If you create a translation, please post a comment here and I’ll link to it! If you’re looking for help with a translation, you can try posting in the forums.

The comic is released under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-ShareAlike), so you are free to teach with it, color it, modify it, share it with your friends, translate it, and basically do whatever you like with it!

English:

The complete comic book is available for download here:

“Soldering is Easy” Comic Book (PDF)

We also have some other versions of the comic available:

FullSolderComic.mobi – Amazon Kindle version by bloo

FullSolderComic_Booklet_11x17_EN.pdf – An 11×17 version that you can fold into an actual comic book (with 8.5×11 pages).

FullSolderComic_Images_20110409.zip – 300 DPI images of each page
FullSolderComic_NoText_20110409.zip – 300 DPI images without text (for translation)
A PDF version without text is also available.
FullSolderComic.zip – the Comic Life source file used to create all of the other versions.

High resolution images of both versions of the comic are also available on Flickr:

Translations:

PDF File	Language	Translators
焊接是容易的	简体中文版 Chinese (Simplified)	XinCheJian
焊接是容易的	繁体中文版 Chinese (Traditional)	XinCheJian
Jootmine On Imelihtne	Eesti Estonian	Markus Järve
Souder c’est Facile!	Français French	Lionel Delteil (Snootlab)
Löten ist einfach!	Deutsch German	Alexander Bodora Richard Meinsen
Οδηγός Για Εύκολη Συγκόλληση	Ελληνικά Greek	F.N.
Menyolder Itu Gampang	Bahasa Indonésia Indonesian	Rudi Voon
Saldare E’ Semplice	Italiano Italian	Michele Maffucci
ハンダ付けなんて簡単だ！	日本語 Japanese	Yoshi
Det Er Enkelt A Lodde	Norske Norwegian	Henrik Sandaker Palm
Lutowanie Jest Proste	Polski Polish	Mark
Solder É Fácil	Português Portuguese (Brasilian)	Radamés Ajna
ПАЯТЬ ПРОСТО	Русский Russian	Atarity
Solder es Fácil (Version 1)	Español Spanish	SGTECH 2nd translation by juani_c
Att Löda Är Lätt!	Svensk Swedish	Christopher Eriksson




Special thanks to Alexander Bodora for creating this table!

And really, soldering is easy (and fun!). Learn how to solder and teach your friends!

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Update 2011-09-23:

Comments are now closed. Please use the online forums to discuss translations of the solder comic, ask questions, and give us feedback. Thanks!

Soldering is Easy: Here’s how to do it.

Soldering is Easy: Here’s how to do it.

Jeff — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 06:54:16 +0000

This one page handout by Mitch Altman and Andie Nordgren teaches the basics of soldering in a simple and easy to understand way.

I’m very, very familiar with this comic, for reasons that I hope to reveal soon.

Enjoy!

Soldering is Easy, by Mitch Altman and Andie Nordgren.

Click the image to open a full size version or visit Andie’s site to download a PDF version suitable for printing.

AO StereoStar Microscope Wiki Page

Jeff — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 06:52:49 +0000

Today, while I was tweaking the microscope that I use for surface mount soldering, I realized that I have collected quite a bit of hard to find information about this circa~1975 model 569 American Optical StereoStar Stereoscopic Zoom Microscope (say that three times fast!).

So, I made a wiki page and put it all online. StereoStar owners, rejoice!

AO StereoStar Stereo Zoom Microscope Resources

The Amp Hour Episode 29

Jeff — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 03:37:37 +0000

I’m happy to announce that I have again been given the privilege of co-hosting The Amp Hour, this time with Dave Jones of the EEVblog! Chris Gammell is away this week recruiting bright young engineers ~~into slavery~~ to join his company, so I was given the guest spot. This is my third time on the show.

If you haven’t heard of it before, The Amp Hour is “an off-the-cuff radio show and podcast for electronics enthusiasts and professionals.” I listen most every week and would recommend it to anyone who wants to hear a humorous and off-beat take on electronics engineering.

Check out Episode 29 – DJ and Jazzy Jeff and all the rest of the episodes at The Amp Hour.

HV Rescue Shield 2.1 Now Shipping

Jeff — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:27:20 +0000

I have good news. The latest and greatest version of the HV Rescue Shield is now available!

Version 2.1 contains a new and improved 12V switching circuit that resolves an issue reading/writing to parts with certain startup timer settings. This issue affects all previous versions of the Rescue Shield kit.

I have kits in stock and ready to ship this week. If you have been waiting for the new release, you can place an order now.

Note to HV Rescue Shield 2.0 customers: Because the startup timer issue was identified so quickly after version 2.0 was released, I am offering a free upgrade for all customers who purchased a version 2.0 kit. Please contact me to arrange for a replacement. This offer only applies to HV Rescue Shield 2.0 customers.

CD101 PID Controller stop mode issue

Jeff — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:32:20 +0000

The CD101 is an inexpensive (under $40) PID controller sold by Sure Electronics. Aside from the incomplete documentation that is shipped with the unit, I’m pretty happy with this controller. I’m planning to use it to replace the failed PID controller that controls my soldering hotplate.

I am having one small issue with the CD101 – stop mode doesn’t seem to do anything. By that I mean it doesn’t disable the outputs or seem to affect the controller in any way. Based on my interpretation of the user manual, the outputs and alarms should be disabled in stop mode. This is mostly an annoyance in my application – if I want to disable the hotplate I’ll just turn it off. However, I can imagine that the lack of a standby mode might cause problems in some applications.

I contacted Sure Electronics about the problem, and they requested a video. I figured I might as well post it here, since I went through the trouble of making it and everything.

By the way, since it can be hard to find information on this controller (eg. how to change from Fahrenheit to Celsius display), I have been slowly putting together a wiki page for the CD101.

PS: The video was shot with my new Canon PowerShot S95, which seems to take great footage, except that there is no autofocus or zoom control while shooting. (?!)

HV Rescue Shield 2.0 update

Jeff — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:56:40 +0000

Version 2.0 of the HV Rescue Shield (I decided to drop the ‘AVR’ from the name) will add support for high voltage serial programming (HVSP) and 8-pin parts like the ATtiny13A.

Boards are due back next week, components are on order, but there is still code to write.

Back to work!