My Home Laboratory
My house was built in the '50s as the model for the subdivision. Back in the '50s, "subdivision" did not imply "all the houses are virtually identical", so there's a lot of variety in Franklin Heights, but my house has more variety than most. Such as the block workshop in the back lot. Yes, there's some storage going on in here, such as old kiddie clothes and baby equipment, but I've got a bit for my workbench.
October 2015
Left to right:
- Tek 541 scope (currently not working), on top is Technics turntable that I want to connect to the amp and rip LP albums to digital files
- Shelf above bench, holding ROMEX, isolation transformers (for X10 work), tuner/amp with external Apple CDROM drive as the CDROM player, and boxes with cables and hook-up wire
- Bench, detail below
- Cart with TI-99/4A rig
- Cart with Gateway "softsynth" computer and two junkers underneath (K5 166 and Intel 133)
- Cart with 486, Atari Falcon, and underneath are two IBM Pentium II machines and another 486
- Box fan hung from nail in beam to circulate air during summer (very marginal effect; installing swamp cooler is in the works)
Left to right:
- Dumont WW2-era scope, still useful! On top are Heathkit audio signal generator and LRC bridge
- 20MHz dual-trace scope, from estate sale for $20. On top are Fluke and Simpson 260 meters
- Surface-mount soldering station
- Two normal soldering pencils
- Monitor/keyboard/mouse connected to Raspberry Pi, connected to breadboard
- Component storage box, on top are bins for little screws and hardware and a do-it-yourself voltmeter
- Battery-operated wall thermostat, serving as thermometer and clock
- Lab peecee, Raytheon surplus, runs Slackware and FreeDOS. On top is storage for circuit card vice which can be bolted to benchtop
- Cable rack with clip leads
Underneath the benchtop are the two (stereo) speakers, storage for parts, and on floor are backup video monitors, a "new" Simpson 260, and boxes holding projects in varying stages of neglect.
July 2011
Left to right:
- Tek 541 scope (currently not working), on top is Technics turntable that I want to connect to the amp and rip LP albums to digital files
- Shelf above bench, holding isolation transformers (for X10 work), tuner/amp with external Apple CDROM drive as the CDROM player, boxes with cables and hook-up wire, and HP Laserjet 3 useful for generating printed circuit artwork
- Bench, detail below
- Heater, useful for when the lab gets "cold" (we're talking Tucson cold)
- Cart with TI-99/4A rig
- Cart with Gateway "softsynth" computer and two junkers underneath (K5 166 and Intel 133)
- Cart with 486, Atari Falcon, and underneath are two IBM Pentium II machines and another 486
- In the foreground, clear floor space! and a stack of mommy's school papers.
Left to right:
- Dumont WW2-era scope, still useful! On top are Heathkit audio signal generator and LRC bridge
- 20MHz dual-trace scope, from estate sale for $20. On top are Fluke and Simpson 260 meters
- Surface-mount soldering station
- Normal soldering pencil sitting on top of clock project
- Component storage box, on top are bins for little screws and hardware and a do-it-yourself voltmeter
- Lab peecee, Raytheon surplus, runs Slackware and FreeDOS. On top is storage for circuit card vice which can be bolted to benchtop
- Cable rack with clip leads
Underneath the benchtop are the two (stereo) speakers, storage for parts, and on floor are backup video monitors, laptop destined to get Slackware installed.
Note toolbox on floor; no place left to put it!