Equipping a Small Hackerspace? 174
andy writes "After gentle prodding for about a year, my company actually agreed to include an electronics/robotics lab in the current build-out of our new office space. As I never really expected this to happen, I was at a bit of a loss when they asked me what sort of workbenches, equipment, etc. I wanted for the lab. The lab will only be approximately 9'x15' but there is a decent amount of vertical space to work with. I was thinking of having 2 workbenches side-by-side, one for 'hardware' and the other for 'software' with a floor-standing cabinet for storage. Semi-mobile workbenches might be a plus. Those of you that work in these sorts of environments, what do you recommend in the way of workbenches, storage, organization, and electronics?"
Re:get modular drawer cabinets (Score:4, Interesting)
YES.
I've run several aircraft maintenance and inspection section toolrooms in the Air Force, and good bench/storage solutions are a major "workspace effectiveness multiplier".
I have _severe_ love for Lista. We even got our Snap-on rep to work with the Lista rep to get our Lista box foam cut for our tools.
Snap-on boxes are very nice, but Lista IMO makes even better ones that survive G.I. abuse and often cost less.
Leadership like the professional appearance of modern workspaces, which helps sell what you do for them.
Re:power points, shelves and lighting (Score:4, Interesting)
AnthroCarts are not cheap, but they are solid, can carry substantial weight, and will last a long time. They are also modular: you can buy more pieces to extend them (adding shelves, etc.), or alter the height of shelves if necessary. Most of the pieces are on wheels (with locks) which is perfect for a workspace with constantly changing projects (need the wiring station in another room? Just roll it there.). You can also buy power bars that integrate directly to the Anthro desks/tables, so that all your equipment stays plugged in but is easy to move around. Many of the models also have adjustable-height work surfaces, which is great for adjusting keyboard height or moving the work surface as needed...
No, I don't work for them. Just a happy customer. The downsides are the cost and that assembly takes longer than other furniture (because they use things like actual screws instead of crappy quick-connect pieces).
Two thoughts... (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Wheels on stuff is cool. Make sure at least 2 of 4 wheels lock, and get the biggest diameter wheels you can stand. Rolling a workbench with 600+lbs on it will shred those plastic casters.
2) If you're going vertical, get a Little Giant-like ladder that splits into two a-frames, other brands work very well. Handy to be able to a-frame it, stretch it out and store vertically in a corner, use with planks as a third workbench, and of course lend out under constant supervision when someone else needs one.
There is little else as much fun as establishing a new shopspace. I've done three big ones, and it's a riot. Just be glad you're not working on portable tape recorders, and have to explain the $400 P.O. for screws. Having a 1x1.2mm screw when you need one; priceless. Sony made great stuff back then, man.
This is what I have in my lab (Score:5, Interesting)
Which is sadly under utilized these days (too much real work unfortunately)
Several voltmeters - I like the old Fluke bench units... LED displays you can see across the room, and the batteries are never dead because there are none.
Several scopes - tek is king here.
Drill press - bloody essential for anything mechanical at all.
Logic analyzer, i'm partial to the HP ones
Spectrum analyzer - pricy, but a godsend for RF work (if you'll be doing any) - HP, again.
Power supply - hp made good ones again. you can never have too many it seems. I have some homebrew ones too - ATX supplies and random ebay SMPS units can be handy and dirt cheap, but not adjustable (you can add an external reg easily though..)
Freq counter - hp, but fluke made decent ones. more for RF, but can be handy for digital, clocking and stuff...
Freq gen, whether you need a lower freq audio one or one that does RF depends on what you're planning on.
For soldering irons im partial to the hakko ones, '936' is the model, and there are plenty of knockoffs available on ebay. The genuine model isn't crazy expensive though.
Then a PC, a few programmers, depending on what you want. I'm partial to Atmel's AVR, but PIC is big, some folks are still stuck with moto 6800 derivatives for some unknown reason, likewise with 8051's... For the money ARM is really the way to go, but I havent played with them much yet. Some sort of JTAG unit will be handy for random programming also. I usually use a linux box with avr-gcc, but some tools are win32 only, so might want to have a windows box or virtualbox around - not to mention some schematic / board layout stuff is win only too.
For dev boards, I have a few from atmel, but some of them are pretty pricy. these guys [mikroe.com] make some nice dev boards, but I'm not crazy about their compiler. The IDE looks nice enough, but I'm used to gcc and my own editor. I have one of their AVR boards, and I use a GPL'd AVR based AVR programmer (chicken and egg if you dont already have one ;) ) with it, because their built in programmers (which work well, mind you) are windows only.