I have started a small Electronic consultation company and have a small budget of $7000 to buy few equipments like scopes, smd soldering tools, analysers, processor kits..etc. (I already have low cost meters, soldering irons etc..)
The kind of work that we would be doing is -
This all sounds horribly wrong!! You want to decide on equipment in a week's time and the level of detail in your business plan is "RF stuff, possibly"?????
The best place to start is with the equipment you used when you did this (successfully) in the past. When your questions come out like, "We're using a XYZ system but have reliability problems doing BGA with lead-free solder, what do you recommend?" you (might be) ready to start thinking about starting a consulting business working with SMD.
So, here's what you do... Send me the $7,000. I'll buy a used RV and go on vacation. You'll have the same amount of money you'll have after your business fails. But you'll also avoid all the aggravation and additional debt that you're gonna incur. And you'll have some free time to work on your business plan so you'll start something with at least the normal 10% chance of success.
I'm not saying you can't make a go of a consulting business. I'm saying that you can't make a go of ANY business where you go buy equipment before you decide (precisely) what business you want to be in and have significant experience in that business.
If you're dead set on spending the money, go to the link in the sig and look at the TEK TDS540 scope I have for sale cheap.
mike
-- Return address is VALID but some sites block emails with links. Delete this sig when replying. . Wanted, PCMCIA SCSI Card for HP m820 CDRW. FS 500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Wanted 12" LCD for Compaq Armada 7770MT. Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below. MAKE THE OBVIOUS CHANGES TO THE LINK http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/
Mike, I'm self employed, but my business is machining. If I could buy tools for all aspects of machining the budget would be astronomical. Your best bet is to decide right now what kind of work you are capable of doing at this time. Then buy the tools that you will need to do the kind of work you already know how to do. Then, while your business makes money, learn other aspects of electronics. When you've gained enough experience and knowledge then buy the equipment and offer this new service. Whatever you do avoid debt like the plague. If you need to go into debt for a tool purchase then pay it off before buying another. This has saved my butt. And other machine shop owners I know who also share this philosphy and live by it have kept their collective butts out of a sling too. There will always be exceptions, so don't dwell on them, as they are only exceptions. Good luck, Eric R Snow, E T Precision Machine
Hi Mike, With all due respect no one here can help you. You really don't know what you are doing. How can you consult on something of which you have little knowledge? I agree with the other mike except for one part. Send me the money. I already have an RV and could make better use of it than mike can. With Respect, Tom
"Tom Biasi" wrote in news:RqxFe.14556$ snipped-for-privacy@fe11.lga:
yea, but I also want the money, how about we split it...
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Not even if you fall on your knees, beg and put your self respect on sale ;) J/K
Forget RF. I'm quite knowledgeable at microcontrollers. Perhaps I should have asked "what are the latest logic analysers around" or "what are the latest multi-function oscilloscopes around".. ;)
Mike
Tom Biasi wrote:
Everybody asks, "what's the best/biggest/smallest/fastest/your superlative here gizmo around. That's not a useful question. Best for me ain't best for you. And you can't afford the "best" anyway.
Call up any vendor and tell them you want a demo of the latest analyzer and you've got $7,000 to spend. At least they'll get a good laugh. State what analysis functions you need and maybe someone can make a recommendationon some old gear. S.E.Equipment might be a better place to ask.
You can't get "quite knowledgeable" without having successfully used scopes and analyzers to do the job. Start with what you know and branch out your search from there. What did you use? What did it lack? If you can't accurately specify the analysis tools you need, you gots no business starting a busniess.
Putting more time in on the business plan will save you $7000 in wrong equipment. mike
Good advice. One more thing, there are lots of places that will RENT expensive equipment. So if you have a job that requires a certain piece of equipment you can rent it for a lot less. To get a good scope you're looking at $30K+ and that's a lot of capital sitting around if you only need it 3 times a year. For lots of debugging a $1000 scope off of ebay will suffice.
I've picked up lots of deals on ebay. If you know what things are worth then you can find good deals. I've got a scope, dual HP power supply, HP bench DMM, and electronic load. The most I've spent on any one item is $800 for the scope a few years ago. New its all easily worth $10K, probably more.
Just make sure you deal with reputable sellers.
Cheers,
James.
The Agilent 54600 series combined scope and logic analyser are supurb value and will likely be all you need for combined analog/micro debugging (the deep memory is supurb). Fits within your budget too. But I echo some of the sentiments of the other posters.
What micros are you using that work at 300MHz? Do you know how to probe a 300MHz *digital* system? (not to mention, do you know how much these probes can cost? :->)
If you have experience with micros as you claim, then you should know this sort of stuff already.
Give us some more info on what sort of stuff you'll be working on and we'll be able to help you out some more.
Regards Dave :)
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