ODP: equipment

[Roman Sowa]

If I may add something to Andrew's list

tools that always lay on my desk (and it's not a desk devoted only to
diying)
are:
1. side cutters (Sandvik - it's like BMW amog side cutters)
2. tweezers (small, nonmagnetic and a bigger ones for havier work)
3. soldering gun (80W), rosin pot and solder wire in 35mm photo roll case
4. power supply (+/- 0-20V, but most used is 3-12V range)

I also find very usable, but not constantly on sight:
5. Crystal driven generator (square/sine) with 1Hz steps (for tuning and
drift measurements), but you can also have common oscillator with
frequency counter - I've seen such counters in kit form starting from $18

and of course - the best tool of all - any kind of audio input to your PA or
anything, so you can hear your circuit working.

one more thought about DMMs - the *only* usable features of DMM for me are:
DC voltage, ohms, capacitance, diode test and *immediate* continuity test.
Most DMMs just measure resistance, and after a second or so they beep
or not. This is crap. Early DMMs made it better. You could connect one probe
to board's GND, and slide the other over 187 leads of some big TQFP chip
and you knew whether some of them were connected to ground if fraction
of a second.

Roman

-----Oryginalna wiadomooeæ-----
Od: Roel Das [mailto:roelrules at yahoo.com]
Wys³ano: 6 wrzeoenia 1999 19:52
Do: synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl
Temat: equipment


I'm still new at this. Help me out; which test and measurement
equipement should i buy? What options on these are important; which
aren't? How can i make sure not to spend too much?
I gotta know this as soon as possible.
Help me from being an idiot.
please 
roel