Yeah, you’re right. I think we should aspire to have enough soldering irons for a ~5 people to assemble concurrently, but that’s a future thing.
Kind of like how we’re looking to add more lathes for the woodturning classes.
In both cases, we could use additional sets of very basic equipment that are in storage other than when used for classes.
I could come up with a sample project to guide basic lab training. 5 parts, 10 PTH solder joints, small custom board. Opportunity to use the bench supply, ammeter, ohmmeter, voltmeter, and scope. $10 per, 10 minutes per. It’s doable.
If the time comes we could figure that out.
@valerie That’s a beautiful picture (and my shelf looks very similar), but the moment any of those resistors get moved to a different drawer, all bets are off. And do note that you have those neatly segregated into “audio taper” pots and “linear taper” pots–which isn’t obvious and if you don’t understand the difference you have scrambled the inventory.
As for LED strips, have they standardized sufficiently? The “computer” LED strips used to be quite different from the “home” LED strips.
This is actually a great jumping off point because of the contrast.
Metal scraps are useful by themselves. And getting metal scraps in Austin sucks. And shipping metal is expensive because it is heavy.
Every single one of these things is different from electronics.
My anecdote: I do a lot of soldering on random roughly 18"x18" aluminum plate. It sucks down heat quickly, prevents me from burning my anti-stat mats, is easy to move, and resists solvents and solder. The thickness isn’t particularly specific, anything from about 1/4" to 1/2" will do but you prefer thinner because cheaper and lighter.
Finding that in Austin was a disaster. Westbrook Metals has a terrible cutoffs bin. Metals4U doesn’t even have a cutoffs bin. Most other things are either HVAC (very thin sheet) or purely steel.
I actually wound up bringing a whole bunch of scraps back from Industrial Metal Supply in San Diego (https://www.industrialmetalsupply.com/) the last time I drove in because the selection here in Austin is so lousy.
I’d probably do something like this Maneki Neko thing for a “training kit”:
You could do it with a small number of components but that still have a useful mix of wire, DIP and SMT soldering.
Bonus points if we could make the things “talk” to one another somehow.
Agree with the projects idea. And, and others have mentioned, especially (in my case) classes to learn.
It sounds like a cabinet for up-for-grabs stuff isn’t completely objectionable, though there’s debate about whether it’ll work. If rules for the contents are clear (and ideally permanently attached to the front of the cabinet) it’ll be a lot easier to keep it from getting clogged with printers or other items that only seem useful to the donator. I don’t make it to the space all that often, but when I’m there I will go through the cabinet to ensure it doesn’t stagnate.
(Side note, the makerspace in Indy that I came from had a huge area for up-for-grabs stuff, with little oversight of what came or went. Printers were never a concern. I’d say it was because of the non-ADA stairs used to reach storage, but CRTs would be far heavier - and judging from the pics I have, there were more of those. https://photos.app.goo.gl/BzbMisVaT8rjEz5o6 )
With the addition of these two amendments:
It seems like this proposal could be adopted to the letter, for within the reasonable given budget, and that would make all the interested parties at least relatively happy. There would be something you could honestly call a lab, and people could do lab-like things in it. A very good start, if nothing else.
It doesn’t actually matter at all when this stuff happens. It’s important to have this lab, not urgent. But I do think it matters a lot that some sort of expectations and plan are put in place, so that it’s possible to execute that plan and meet those expectations.
@Jon or @valerie: assuming basic consensus on the proposal plus amendments #1 and #2, can we guess what happens next, and on what kind of timeline? I assume it’s some degree of necessary bureaucracy or formal approval process, a fair amount of labor organizing, some relatively straightforward procurement, and recruiting for some steward or trainer roles. Could we make that more specific/accurate, and put some pragmatic target dates to it?
Yes @cjp I will be emailing you this weekend to discuss more. You should hear from me by Sunday.
I’m on board with the overall concept of remodeling it, including moving walls if needed. The “scrap bin” concept needs to go, or at least shrink. Please don’t mistake my focus on equipment lines as dismissing the value of room improvements- rather, it’s approval of the room improvements, those are simple straight shots.
I do want to underscore the need for the right equipment though. It may seem like nitpicking, but it’s important to spend $ on the right equipment in these areas. They’re easy enough to amend at this point and just execute on.
If we’re talking formal amendments:
Add Thermaltronics TMT-9000S-1 instead of Weller (Assembly Benchtop line 5, WE1010NA-ND) for soldering
If we want cheap one-piece irons, change the Weller Assembly Benchtop line 8 T0058770715-ND to Hakko FX600 : https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-temperature-limiting-soldering-FX600/dp/B006MQD7M4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=hakko+iron&qid=1639760457&s=hi&sr=1-4 Different iron tips than the Thermaltronics/Metcal types, but far better than Weller’s tip design, and Hakko tips are very cheap.
Add Thsinde 19B in place of Assembly Benchtop line 10, 2368-DM-817-ND
Change T&M line 6 BK1671A-ND to Rigol DP832
Add a USB PC based logic analyzer- I’m gonna say the $149 DSLogicPlus, it’s a good starting point. Along with that, change T&M line 5 from Rigol DS1104 to a cheaper DS1054Z. Or the Instek is fine too. As reasoned above, the DS1104 scope is more pricey because it has a logic analyzer port but that port is not suitable for our needs anyways so that can be bumped to the cheaper one without the LA port.
From my point of view, I’d like to make some adjustments. However, volunteer spaces like ours run on momentum and motivation.
When someone’s got the bit in their mouth and are running with it, it’s theirs. I’m of the opinion that we should let them run and give them help and resource and otherwise get out of the way.
I’ll talk to a couple of my distributors Monday about oscilloscopes to see if maybe any of them are willing to cut an end of quarter deal on something.
Agreed, with minor provisions.
I want to inspect the existing benches to confirm they’re all trash. Maybe they are, and that’s fine, but I’d rather not spend $500 to replace a perfectly good bench. I will complete this action no later than Monday 12/20 so we can close that question.
Purchases will be made in phases during CY22 – we can’t allocate the full $5k budget in January. Cash donations would of course accelerate the timeline in this regard.
I really don’t want to move all the security wiring. We’ll keep a small, high cabinet to house the DVR, camera power supply, and an UPS. It won’t take up any floor space and should be well out of the way of even upper bench shelves.
Next steps:
IMHO, any area deemed worthy of Asmbly support should both build a depth of expertise among the few and be a resource for the many. Where this really shows its value is in complex projects which require community collaboration.
Collaborate!
But we’d need in-house electronics expertise to pull these off.
Quick example of a community project fueled with in-house electronics know-how:
Batches of 10 tablets preloaded with Linux Mint are available for the small prices of packaging and shipping … the owner bought 1,000 to saving them from a landfill. They “lack batteries and the back cover, they’re otherwise complete and in usable condition”. This means x10 tables available for a song.
What if Asmbly put a digital wall display as part of the reception remodeling?
This is purely concept, not a proposal, but a key part of such a project would be harnessing the tablets. A rotating wall photo gallery of member projects? An array of screens making a large screen? Having electronics expertise would be an important component in such a community project.
Another thought, imagine 3x3 portable array behind Asmbly tables at outreach events.
Here’s the excerpt from a Hackaday post from with I learned about these tablets:
From the “One Man’s Trash” department, we have a request for help from reader Mike Drew who picked up a bunch — like, a thousand — old tablet computers. They originally ran Windows but they can run Linux Mint just fine, and while they lack batteries and the back cover, they’re otherwise complete and in usable condition, at least judging by the pictures he shared. These were destined for the landfill, but Mike is willing to send batches of 10 — no single units, please — to anyone who can cover the cost of packaging and shipping. Mike says he’ll be wiping the tablets and installing Mint, and will throw in a couple of battery cables and a simple instruction sheet to get you started. If you’re interested, Mike can be reached at michael.l.drew@gmail.com. Domestic shipping only, please. Here’s hoping you can help a fellow hacker reclaim a room in his house.
I would keep the back bench as it is metal and well wired for electricity. The other 3 are increasing levels of trash.
Agreed. The light-grey steel one in the corner could perhaps be salvageable with some elbow grease, but as it stands now it’s awfully wobbly for a steel-frame bench. I think we have better things to do with our time.
Also, when the hell did we get all those CRT oscilloscopes? I recall noticing one, maybe two before, but now there’s like 8. Are people actively “donating” old gear, or have they just emerged from the pile of trash?
Those CRT scopes have always been there–you would actively have to hunt to try to find one to donate them nowadays. They simply became more obvious once I removed the rest of the trash from the place. 
I am inclined to simply disposition them all once we get a couple of new scopes. You have to be as old as me to know how to operate them. @cjp pointed out that most of the equipment was last calibrated sometime before he was born. And a cheap digital scope beats the hell out of them except if you have a stupidly rare case.
The thing that has appeared is a new CNC-ish thingy after I’ve already dumped 3 of them. If nobody owns that, it’s heading for the trash.
@dannym Are any of our lasers able to mark steel/aluminum?
I’d like our equipment and tools to be permanently marked with Asmbly’s name and address, as well as the general area the item is supposed to be in. Priority would obviously be expensive but easily portable things like scopes - but it’d also be helpful in keeping things like screwdrivers where they’re supposed to be.
Random, unrelated thought: Are we interested in hanging old equipment on the wall as art? If so, there’s a potentiometer box in the lab that might be worthy; this model or similar:
https://www2.humboldt.edu/scimus/Instruments/L&N_K3Potentiometer/L&N_K3Manual.htm
@mark999 - I also thought making some art pieces of of old equipment and/or consumables could be nifty. Imbedded in some epoxy, river style, as the center of some sort of table. Mosaic work. Things like that.
If you spray Moly Lube onto a metal surface, the laser will meld (the proper term escapes me) the substance with the metal. It is permanent and resists wear quit well. There are products specifically for this purpose, but they run about $85 per can, vs a few bucks for Moly Lube.
