new design lab in London - equipment to choose

I've suggested to an aerospace client to buy a low end Instek, similar price range. When I showed them how to get nice clean documentation out of that with just a USB stick or a laptop and USB cable that blew them away. Especially that it could dump a 2nd file that loads right into their Excel number crunchers.

Yes. And Lyn will like that it it a genuine British design. Heck, even the folks at Lascar US sound British. But keep in mind that it is a switcher and will thus spew some noise into analog stuff. So for building a seismograph these Lascar supplies may not be so cool, keep at least one linear bench power supply around.

But please, please, also teach the students to measure L and C without.

An ARB function in whatever generator is bought is very nice. That can be used to load a computer-generated stimulus function. Ok, call it something else in the US, the word stimulus has a dubious reputation right now. Maybe we could call it the freedom function :-)

A Keynes Generator. It outputs more power than it takes in.

John

I'd be afraid to solder on anything that pretty.

A couple of questions: 1) Can you connect your Lascars in series for a + - configuration? 2) Are they noisy? I found that both my Lascar knockoff and my Rigol 1052 are - I can hear them with an AM radio.

Ed

I have a slab of Corian that I solder and hack and photograph things on.

Yes. They do only go down to 1.2 volts, not zero.

Kind of. For delicate stuff, I use the old Tek TM500-series supplies.

John

:-) I once applied for a job. After the grand tour I was still wondering where my desk would be. Ofcourse they hired me so when I started they explained the previous engineer left such a mess they where too emberassed to show it to me.

I know a high level manager who had to borrow another manager's office when a VIP came. Because his own office was so messy that it would have been a major embarrassment for the company. No, this is not a joke, it happened :-)

Recent job interview, I asked to see where I worked. Seems that they would only let me see the offices after I had signed the non-disclosure agreement! Didn't take that job...

Charlie

Why? That's often standard procedure. There may be groups hashing out stuff on whiteboards while you are in the area where the EEs work.

NDAs don't scare me at all. Foreign ones can be quite interesting. The English version of a German NDA (from a big foundry) spells out that in case of breach I will be brought before a tribunal :-)

.usbee.com/

Lab is a few floors in Islington, London, for an initial 9 people, my equipment will be on a desk sized. Rigol scope sounds good. PSOC has improved over the years, it certainly used to be dull and vanilla, but I use the ARM based one with 20 bit ADC

Lyn

They were apparently doing cutting edge Li-Ion battery work, and didn't want just anyone to see what they were doing. Since I started my own company, I have found NDAs a major PITA since most companies just assume that you will give up your own company if they hire you as an employee, and I don't want to do that! Plus, they just assume that anything you have ever invented, or come up with once you are employed by them belongs to them.

But there were a number of red flags on that one. I asked for two weeks to get re-located, and they insisted I had to be there in just one week. 'Just get a hotel room for a week or two' but they didn't offer to PAY for that hotel room! I had to pass...

Charlie

Thank you for all your contributions, keep them up! The Lascar power supplies look rather elegant, will put on my list. I also also deciding on a decent soldering for SMD work. I recently got a very lightweight SMD Weller iron, but wondering what people's preferences are? I won't be teaching (I will be a Reader in Hardware and software Integration) so kit is for me to use only. I have worked in other's people's labs before when one is expected to have arms

I have been pleased with the Rigol Sig Gen I got a while back:

Lyn

I hope they let you rummage through the mess for any gems left behind.

Some employers are not worth it. I once had a job interview where they told me they want their employees to be loyal to the company. Further on they told me I would get 3 one year contracts to start with because they wanted flexibility. I declined their offer.

preferences are?

so kit is for me to use only.

For SMT work, a Mantis is a gotta have.

preferences are?

Metcal, no contest at all.

so kit is for me to use only.

Get a Mantis. It will change your life.

John

At my last job before self-employment I insisted on an exemption for stuff I developed on my own. It was granted. Well, else they'd have been back to square one with recruitment :-)

That is indeed a red flag. A big one.

I have two regular Weller stations, analog with a potmeter to regulate temp. The new one is called WES51. Add in the really pointy ETS tip and all is well. Grand total was under $100 per station. Having two stations allows two things: Easy removal of SMT parts by heating boths sides, and not having to switch tips (tsssss ... ouch) when doing mixed SMT and through-hole soldering.

Personally I stay away from digital Wellers. Seen them die too fast, still got one here that's headed to E-waste soon.

Looks good. I bought another one from Mastech (SFG-2120) for under $400 but I assume you'll have to go by what you can get in or into the UK at reasnable expense.

You can change a Metcal tip in 10 seconds, and the new one will reheat in another 10 seconds. Buy or make a fork tip for removing surfmount parts.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Fork_Tip.JPG

John

Yeah, but that's still 10x the time that it takes for me to grab the already heated and ready-to-go Weller #2 :-)

I've made some tips in the past but lately I got by with just those two Weller. Plus they cost only a fraction of a Metcal. Ok, their design is not quite as slick and shiny, they are the same baby-blue plastic cubes they were decades ago.