What kind of hobbyist electronic testing gear would you recommend for these hardware Arduino projects? Can you be specific as I have old analog gear but hoping for some guidance on new digital gear? Thank you

[image] pneron: I am a bit "old school" You fit in here nicely then. FYI DIY Solder Paste extrusion tool: [image] Share tips you have come across General Electronics Solder Paste Dispensing Tool It can be difficult to get: repeatable, small drops, and accurately placed solder paste onto your SMD pads. You can make an effective hand tool to deposit solder paste on the pads. An inexpensive, stainless steel pair of food tongs can be modified to make this tool. Tongs cost about $15.00 (unmodified). Your choice of tongs should have the side walls at 90 degrees to the tong grips. The images below show what needs to be modified and the results you can get. [… [Tongs1]

[image] MrY: I have used USB logic analyzers Just a +1 on the inexpensive logic analyser linked and all the ones that look like they come out the same factory somewhere. I got one thinking I'd prolly be wasting money, big surprise… my "real" instrument gets much less use. But beyond gear is just developing some skillz using simple instant available things like serial printing and strategic LED blinking and such like. Beyond not writing errors into you code in the first place (!), you can go quite a ways with carefully designed theories and simple proofs thereof. And while I do use hardware occasionally, I've gotten in the habit of making the software as close as possible to both complete and perfect using regular command line C programs and more lately the wokwi simulator. Anything you've heard that amounts to "divide and conquer" is good advice. We see ppl with the entire remote control internets capable flying robot battle cat feeder all wired up and coded and totally not working at all here alla time. a7

[image] alto777: Just a +1 on the inexpensive logic analyser linked and all the ones that look like they come out the same factory somewhere. Another vote for the inexpensive logic analyzer. I was also skeptical, but I use it much more than my expensive (4 channel 1Gsp) scope. The only time I use the scope is if I need to see the actual waveform or more speed than the 24 MHz max sample rate on the inexpensive logic analyzer.

On the topic of DMMs - most of the time the cheap ones will be sufficient, most of the time the 1% - 5% accuracy is enough. Things like is the voltage about 5V vs 3.3V vs 0? Is the circuit drawing 10 or 50 ma? Most of the time with digital circuits just knowing the ball park is enough. If you get into checking analog converters you will need a better meter but you can do a lot inexpensive ones. I have one expensive meter and several inexpensive ones. With multiple meters you can monitor multiple voltages and currents at the same time. You can use the expensive meter to see how good the inexpensive ones are. Also if you loan someone a meter the inexpensive ones are less of a worry.

[image] oldcurmudgeon: Also if you loan someone a meter the inexpensive ones are less of a worry. Just an excuse to get a better one today at the same price. :-| One of my cheap ones is so good I'd buy it again if I could find it, I am surprised at how useful I have found its frequency meter with duty cycle readout. I can't say it would work for a wide range of input amplitudes, but it will def you you the skinny on what you've decided to put out on a spare pin. a7

A simple DIY LED logic probe can be useful too. [image] Share tips you have come across General Electronics Make yourself a simple but very useful Logic Probe with Logic Pulser. Resistors, diodes and LEDs are 1206. [2018-01-30_10-40-09.jpg] [2018-01-30_20-51-09.jpg] [2018-01-30_21-17-36.jpg] [2018-01-30_21-18-06.jpg] [image] [image]

Thank you for this video. Man has things changed on the surface mount side of soldering!

You can make a lot of DIY tools for modern electronic components. [SMD De-Soldering] [BB] [image] Share tips you have come across General Electronics SMD Component Desoldering Tip Addendum It became obvious the following changes to the DIY SMD de-soldering tip construction method could be easier. Here you can see the 14AWG wire is captured between the M4 screw head and a washer. This method lets you adjust the length of the copper tips. De-soldering temperature is set to 350°C . No Silver Wire Soldering necessary. +1 [AA] [BB] [CC] [SMD De-Soldering] [Removing Male Headers] [F] [image] Share tips you have come across General Electronics Removing an Arduino 8 Pin Header Further to Post #1280 The images below show a process that effectively removes male header pins from your Arduino PCB. The key to this process is to solder a conductor to the bottom of all the pins. We use this connection, so all the pins are pulled equally. See this PDF for a 1:1" soldering tip pattern. Soldering Tip.pdf (29.5 KB) [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] EDIT [F] [Removing Male Headers]

Good quality DMM. I use Southwire 11060S and I haven't electrocuted myself with it yet. With all these +1s on the logic analyzer I may have to treat myself! [image] alto777: flying robot battle cat feeder all wired up and coded and totally not working at all here alla time. Army of full scale humanoid robots to do almost anything a human can do? Someone's working on it...good luck is all I have to offer at this point.

The most used piece of "test gear" that I own is a "lab style" constant-current, constant-voltage power supply.

Hobbyist electronic testing gear

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LarryD July 11, 2024, 9:50pm 11

A simple DIY LED logic probe can be useful too.

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Hobbyist electronic testing gear

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