My workbench! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 06:17:52 am
content: Here are some pictures of my lab. This room also is my bedroom and office for school stuff. I hope this is some inspiration for other people. Also, please not the unique construction of my desk. It is amazing what you can do with a powered screwdriver.

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 06:25:42 am
content: Here is the picture of the unique construction

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 06:30:16 am
content: Looks good.Now you've got to fill up those shelves!Is.... is that a breadboard there under that pile of spaghetti? Plates work much better for that sort of thing...

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 06:52:28 am
content: Yes, somewhere underneath. I started the project to learn 7400 logic. Its a tic tac toe game in the making. All the chips are there but it needs more spaghetti. I want a cpld to put me out of my misery. I have a huge respect for the woz and other engineers of his time. This is painful. Especially when you are trying to make a decent ground from jumpers with a resistance of .1 ohm.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 06:57:10 am
content: Have you considered designing it in sections, and etching each section to a PCB as you complete it?As for the grounds - 16ga bus wire underneath the chips. Solder a small length of the thickest wire you can comfortably use in the breadboard to that right next to each ground pin; connect the ground wires together from breadboard to breadboard with a length of even thicker wire (or just double up the 16ga).

author: ElectroIrradiator
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 07:45:54 am
content: Start usingDead Bug Constructionaka. 'the ugly method'. Easy to prototype and modify, particularly with DIPs, and with care is good for 100 MHz signals or higher. Closely related to the 'glue down stripline' technique, which is also handy on occasion.Measure single or double sided PCB. Cut. Drill holes. Clean surface (outside away from - especially - cars, use steel wool or carborundum block/paper). Spray clean copper with clear solder lacquer and let dry. Go nuts with soldering iron. Start by locating and tying down chip - upside down aka. 'dead bug' style - with ground connections and power decoupling caps, and work out from there. Easy to modify, even years later, yet is mechanically strong enough even for a permanent, portable piece of equipment.Prototype boards are banned in this household. Useful in the classroom so the students doesn't have to solder, much less so for the serious experimenter.

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 07:51:11 am
content: I considered doing that but the chips are somewhat expensive and I do not want to commit them. I would probably want to give up electronics if I needed to solder 30 dips dead bug style. But I have considered etching a pcb and giving it as a toy for sagan.

author: ElectroIrradiator
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 09:05:20 am
content: Depending on the frequencies involved, then you can certainly use high quality DIP sockets in dead bug construction. It is a bit more work, and changing/pulling the ICs can be fiddly, but it can be done. If you don't expect to replace the ICs during the lifetime of the project, then just mount the chips in the sockets from the start, using the whole 'sandwich' upside down.If you don't wish to use a PCB, then dbc is pretty much mandatory, once your projects reach a certain level of complexity, operating frequencies or noise levels. Otherwise the risk is very great that you are just wasting your time.

author: robrenz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 10:41:51 am
content: Very nicely done!

author: george graves
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2013, 10:59:07 am
content: Nice adafruit "pi" badge!