Placement of gear - cable clutter - how do you do it? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: FriedMule
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2021, 10:39:45 pm
content: Below, can you find my totally exaggerated illustration of what I am talking about. :-)So you have your dmm's, psu's, frequency generator, counter, oscilloscope and what not, maybe even stacked on top of each other.How do you avoid cables "hiding" a display, not influencing each other and so on. I know you could just place them side by side, but unless you have Dave's loooong table and want to "drive" from one end to another, stabling may be the only option?

author: bob91343
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2021, 04:04:40 am
content: I try to stack units such that the jacks are not one above the other. And I put some hooks here and there to temporarily hold cables from the front of displays. Still, I often find myself holding cables to the side.There is no easy answer if you want versatility. If you are running the same tests over and over you can move stuff around to reduce interference of leads. A couple of carts can be useful to move gear around to better spots. I have one cart with a spectrum analyzer and a scope. Another with a scope and LCR bridge. Another LCR bridge and a megohm bridge on a shelf under the bench. Power supplies and generators and counters and another scope and another spectrum analyzer and some soldering tools and a VOM take up a lot of space too.It's a mess.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2021, 06:27:51 am
content: Why would one want power supplies at the very top, that does not make sense. They are heavy and it is simply inconvenient to run wires from the circuits on the bench up to the power supplies. I also never understood placing soldering stations on top of everything else or on high shelves, again that does not make sense.

author: FriedMule
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2021, 02:57:23 pm
content: So no "do it all in half the time" solutions? :-)Bud, my order of units were more just a random mess but your comment about the PSU being on top, made me think. I am wondering if you had very limited space, compared to your amount of gear, then would it maybe be nice to have the most used buttons (units) near you, i.e. Scopes, DMM's, other test gear, while you seldom change the PSU's value, except from on to off. Am I making sense? :-)

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2021, 03:45:42 pm
content: When building an electronic workshop area I have learned that I want a bench with depth to it. Width is good also. the reason for depth is that I like to put gear on an overbridge and heavier gear under the overbridge like heavy power supplies, isolation transformers and variacs. Above the test equipment is a cork board with notes, often used formulas and the 4-part ohms law wheel. I have some of those sliding calculators hanging there also, R.F. coil calculators, resonance calculators etc. To my right on the wall is a row of hooks for hanging unused test leads and probes. On my left is a 6 foot 19" equipment rack. In it is a rubidium clock with 1Mhz and 1Hz reference outputs. A tektronix RTM506 full of modules with many more modules in a storage cabinet behind me. There is a rack mount computer with internal VGA display (big monitor KB and mouse on workbench) a shelf with ham radio transceivers (antenna switches on side of rack) A classic Tektronix 5441 analog storage scope and in the bottom of the rack about 100AH of 12 volt batteries to power a 1kw UPS when needed as well as all of the ham radio gear. The shelves to my right hold DMM's, function generator, two digital scopes, tube checker, A.C. power analyzer, Pace desoldering unit, Sprague Tel-ohmike TO-4. Behind me is a wall full of 'multi-drawer cabinets' full of all kinds of electronic parts. This was all pieced together over an electronic career spanning 50 years!! I wish I still had some of the old nostalgic gear I bought and sold over the years, Technical Equipment Company, Singer Metrics, Nems-Clarke a.k.a. Vitro Electronics and Defense Electronics Incorporated as well as a ton of surplus miltary gear bought at hamfests in the technology corridor of Frederick MD, Gaithersburg MD and Potomac MD. (where the good space program stuff went to surplus as well as Federal Surplus in Harrisburg Pennsylvania and Avram & Horgan Salvage in New Cumberland Pa.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2021, 03:47:27 pm
content: @FriedMule: Actually to me it is the other way around - most used controls should be at comfortable height for my eyes and when i lift my arm from the bench to reach them it should feel natural. Power supplies are typically the least frequently used component during a working session, you typically just turn the output on and off, that is it. Preference to place at eyes level i give to oscilloscopes as the most frequently used gear and other equipment with analog/LED displays. Equipment with nixie tubes and digital LED displays can be lower or higher eye level and/or to the side as it is not a problem to view them at an angle. Handheld multimeters are always on the bench surface because they get moved around often as needed. Power supplies can be stacked with one another and located to the left or right as their own cluster, giving the center to the most used gear.

author: FriedMule
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2021, 10:57:29 pm
content: What a great reply from you both, I would love to be able to place gear around me but for two very great reasons is that not possible. :-)1) I have my "lab" in my bedroom and not the ability to take up much more room.2) LOL, Not nowhere enough gear to do that. (A "problem" I hope to "solve" over time.) :-)As it is right now, do I have a huge 2M x 1M (over 6 ft x 3 ft) table and the possibility to build right up to the sealing.I am wondering how far from my body I shall place the gear, how high up and left and right. I would love to be able to reach out and easily push the buttons or turn a nob. I know that these measurements, depends on my height, length of arm and so on, but isn't there some rule of thumb, a "not more than a hand's width above your forehead" or something? :-)

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2021, 07:20:35 am
content: I snapped up a Ping Pong table headed for the office building garbage dumpster. Kept half for office / LAB.Nice, (and cheap), plus no worries about damage / dings to the particle board panelling, just put some protective paint.In a bedroom share situation, you need to maybe plan for doing things as a 'session', where some items are 'staged', out (just for the day). How about, try building a full floor to ceiling vertical set of strong shelves, on side of closet. So at least you have a compact and efficient permanent home, for the bigger stuff.If possible, check out those wheeled stainless steel kitchen shelving, ours was over 6 feet tall, with those open, thick 'Wire' shelves, normally used for pots and pans.