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Equipment to buy?

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Zenador

Fri Oct 03 2008, 07:57PM

Registered Member #1733 Joined: Thu Oct 02 2008, 03:17PM
Location: Hamilton, ON, Canada
Posts: 100

Guys,

I'm somewhat new to the whole electronics thing. Somewhat means - first HV project was my SGTC for the last 2 weeks, been building small circuitry electronic projects for years. My last "serious" small project completed was a fuel mixture meter for my car, built into the center console. 10 segment LED bar would indicate how lean or rich the engine was running. Useless really in an EFI car, but I wanted to build it. I think I'm going to stick with the HV side, as it can incorporate the small electronics as well. After flipping through hundreds of pics from others, I've noticed some common equipment that many (not all) have, like an oscilloscope, larger multimeter's complete with HV probes, etc... I've got the A-typical hobbyist equipment, but should I look into buying some of this larger equipment?

Future projects include a larger SGTC, AMSSTC, Railgun, Coil Gun, other unknown potential things...

Sugestions?

Thanks,

Z

EEYORE

Fri Oct 03 2008, 08:39PM

Registered Member #99 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637

Id say an oscope would make a great investment. That and a good DMM. And dont forget a quality soldering iron.
matt

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sat Oct 04 2008, 12:08AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

I would add to your list 2x 0-50V 0-5A power supplies because you never know when you want to build an amplifier or something that needs a dual ended supply. The two supplies would allow you to go for +- 50V or up to 100V single supply.

After all the basics are taken care of then the sky is the limit on equipment, and so is the price $$$ heh ouch!
Swapmeets and ebay are good for a lot of this stuff too.

aonomus

Sat Oct 04 2008, 01:20AM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

If you can, find a clamp meter so that at the very least you can measure AC current. More pricey ones can measure DC but AC is more useful imo.

For the scope, at least 25Mhz if not more, dual trace.
For the soldering iron, a good soldering iron is always important.

Other tools that will help you build and machine:
Heat gun
Drill press
Extra Power Supplies (Salvaged and converted for benchtop use)
Cheap DMMs
Decent terminal connector crimper and wire stripper
Angled flat cutters for clipping off component leads
Perhaps a vice, definitely a dremel

Coronafix

Sat Oct 04 2008, 03:16AM

Registered Member #160 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 02:07AM
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 938

It's pretty easy to make a 0-30V 5A power supply, there are plenty of schematics around
if you feel inclined for another project.

Steve Conner

Sat Oct 04 2008, 09:15AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Indeed, you can never have too many power supplies, this is what I have
+/-15V, 0.1A, power brick converted for bench use
13.8V, 20A, switchmode
0-20V, 10A, linear
0-30V, 7A, switchmode, converted from an old TV camera supply
0-150V, 7A, switchmode
2x 0-300V, 150mA - tube regulated, retired for safety reasons :(
Wooden box containing 2A variac and 500VA isolating transformer, switchable for 0-140V AC, 4A or 0-280V AC, 2A

Oh and +1 on a Dremel, they're amazingly useful. I've used mine for everything from cutting PCB tracks to bike repairs.

Grant

Sat Oct 04 2008, 05:47PM

Registered Member #7 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:32AM
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 18

mattrg2 wrote ...

Id say an oscope would make a great investment. That and a good DMM. And dont forget a quality soldering iron.
matt

I'll sell you this oscilloscope. $110

Zenador

Sat Oct 04 2008, 06:32PM

Registered Member #1733 Joined: Thu Oct 02 2008, 03:17PM
Location: Hamilton, ON, Canada
Posts: 100

Thanks for the advice guys... I have two irons (AC and gas), have a dremel with hundreds of attachements. I have an OK DMM, my local electronics shop has some nice ones with temp probes included.

I'll look into more oscopes, thanks for the offer Grant, shipping from Florida to Canada could be costly... There are some on ebay, CL, and kijiji. Is there any advantage in looking at a 4ch model?

Z

teslacoolguy

Sat Oct 04 2008, 09:21PM

Registered Member #1107 Joined: Thu Nov 08 2007, 10:09PM
Location:
Posts: 792

A 4 channel model is actually better then a 2 channel model because you can monitor 4 different frequency's at the same time.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sun Oct 05 2008, 01:21AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

I just finished this part of a little supply for amp testing last week (for hf amp stuff DC - 5MHz qualification ). It's only half.. the other half will have a bunch of little fixed regulators and go under the other side of my monitor.

This guy is a little remote unit that has a couple AC supplies come into it from the remote transformer in the big box. It takes ~9VAC for the meters and ~38VAC for the +- 48V supply and then I used the standard lm317 and lm337 to get the +- adjustable supplies here.

You can use the lm337 and lm317 at high voltages, you just have to prevent the adjust tab from going straight to ground. My example is by adding an extra 1.8k to the adjust resistance so the supply bottoms out at +- 10V and topps out at +- 38V.

Still need to make the other supply, but this is a good start.

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