Building the Ultimate Electronics Testing Workbench

Note: The music during one of the montages has been muted because KZbin is a little overzealous on it's copyright claims.
In this episode, I get tired of doing prototyping on my cramped desk, so I set out to build a more compact, all inclusive unit that sits on the desk with everything at my fingertips.
Thanks for watching!
Discord: / discord
Reddit: / usagielectric
Music:
Artist: Red Tailed Fox
Title: Suco de Melancia
ocremix.org/re...
Artist: Tri-Tachyon
Title: Little Lily Swing
• Tri Tachyon - Little L...
Artist: Skrå Planer
Title: The Ginger Swing
• Skrå Planer - The Ging...

[@Wil_Bloodworth]

This is totally awesome. The most interesting part of this video, for me, was the practical usage / demonstration of the pentode being hooked up and actually seeing it working... that is excellent!

[@gammaleader96]

Nice build, the only problem with something like this is that you will always find another piece of testequipment to add ;)

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you! And aint that the truth! Fortunately, I've got another bench for the rest of my test gear, although that bench is starting to get full too...

[@anthonymitchell6831]

just a small recommendation put a shallow drawer under the unit to store the test leads and jumpers

[@carnright]

You are right very retro! Glad to see you are enjoying it!

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you! It's been pretty awesome having the scope right at my fingertips!

[@pangeaforever]

This was cool to watch. I love building custom units to fit a space and purpose

[@edgeeffect]

"Retro Sci-Fi Nerd Cockpit" made me laugh! :) and, with the direction of so many KZbin channels out there, I just love your revelation that you've never 3D-printed anything. :) But I'm sure cutting wood with an endmill on a milling machine can result in a prosecution for blasphemy in certain states. ;)

[@Semphora]

Not sure, what has happend but the sound seems to cut out between 5:13 and 7:28? I check on desktop and mobile and it's the same.. Also: is there any more information on you PC "case" it looks like you have two systems on one "base board"?

[@thermionic1234567]

Chinchillas at the end? I’ve had a few. Love those critters!

[@ropersonline]

Have you considered heat build-up? I wonder if having those power bricks so close together and so little air circulation around the three cases-now all enclosed in wood-might decrease the lifespan of the entire setup?

[@zyeborm]

yeah I was thinking an 80mm fan running off the 6v supply just to get some circulation would be nice

[@motorbikeray]

Heat buildup. I thought the same. Next on Usagi's list... add cooling fans to very cool retro looking workbench build.

[@frankowalker4662]

That case is brilliant, and looks realy good on the table. Nice test gear too.

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you! I'm really happy with the way it turned out! It's such a game changer being able to go from working on the computer to working on a circuit in under a minute without ever getting up. It means I can just hop onto a new a idea whenever it strikes me, test it out, then clean up and get back to what I was doing before in minutes!

[@driftliketokyo34ftw35]

You should I add some extra inputs and switch on the back so when you’re not usually the scope to measure stuff you can run audio through it

[@thermionic1234567]

Looks great!

[@SinnerSince1962]

That scope is made by Elenco “for” BK. There is an exact Elenco model as well.

[@DanBowkley]

I really love that old scope! Reminds me of my first, a Hitachi V212.

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you! When I was shopping for scopes for this project, I actually heavily considered one of those old Hitachi scopes like that, but the BK Precision just fit into my price range a little better. The old Hitachi's are awesome looking scopes though!

[@frankowalker4662]

I still use my Hitachi V-212. It's great.

[@ecercuit]

Nice one! I also have a similar built Electronics Workbench. Same approach.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

That's super cool. I traded an old 3d printer for an old tektronix tds2002c dso and an 800va isolation transformer yesterday. I love the knobs and stuff on your scope. I had just bought a new siglent too. The old tek is slower on paper but I swear it seems faster

[@astrawally8448]

Great build and looks awesome my only feedback would be my own experience. I built a similar unit out of white melamine (which went very well with my metal and glass desk) but I found hat the commonly accessible gear/functions at desk level are sometimes difficult to access when you have a bit of clutter on your desk. Also looking down to read displays is a little awkward and doesn't feel natural for me. My next setup I lifted it up off the desk about 100mm/4" and use the bottom compartments for tools and items which I grab first/put away last or I don't use often. Next iteration may have 600-800mm (25-30") wide pull out shelf which will be on draw rails and I can pull out, work on and push back in. This will let me quickly reconfigure the desk if I need to without needing a complete pack up but simply pushing it all in. Keep up the good work.

[@derekchristenson5711]

Nice setup! I was wracking my brain, trying to think why the controls on the multimeter and function generator looked so familiar, and it just hit me: they are strikingly similar to the blender that we had in my childhood, which my parents got in the late 70's! 😄 Not a detraction, though; that was a well-built blender!

[@UsagiElectric]

Oh absolutely! We still have our blender from the '70s with the exact same style buttons on it, and it still works an absolute treat!

[@mctavishmcardle6906]

a bit late, i know, but i've got schematics for the 2120b (& service & operation manuals for the '2120', presumably the immediately prior model) if you're interested. been meaning to stick them on bama or something i've got a 2522[a] i spent ages & ages banging my head against various walls trying to get proper schematics & a service manual for it, to only partial avail. i think i know your pain

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you for the offer! I managed to find the manuals for the 2120, 2830 DMM and 3010 function meter. The 2120 manual, like you mentioned is for the model before mine and so the schematic in it were only marginally helpful. Let me know if you find a good place to upload the 2120b schematic though, it'd be excellent to have in case this one ever gives me any issues!

[@vrangarajan605]

Good job ! However I wonder if there is enough space around the equipment ( between the walls of the wooden enclosure and the equipment) for adequate ventilation of heat generated within the equipment. How has been your experience ?

[@davidk8893]

Nice, it turned out great! Fusion 360 can be challenging, but once you get some key fundamentals down it can really speed up your workflow. Might I suggest some noise reduction in post on the voice overs? You're not hard to understand or anything, but some voice reduction would do wonders in adding to the already quite professional editing of the videos. And last thing: You should consider creating a discord server for your community. If you're not already on discord, it's a pretty neat platform for you to interact with your viewers. (certainly easier than the KZbin comments) This channel is looking very promising, and I hope to see it grow as you start making more videos. You've already got a great library of videos going. Anyways, keep up the great content!

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you so much for the awesome feedback! Fusion360 is definitely a handful to wrap my head around, but it is definitely a fantastic tool to have! I think the main thing that is holding me back is that I tend to build everything as individual bodies instead of components, so I’m kind of limiting myself. I’ve still got a lot of learning to do with it, that’s for sure. Thanks for the feedback on the audio! I’ve actually got some pretty heavy tinnitus in my left ear, so I can’t really hear any noise in the background of my recordings, which makes feedback on audio quality absolutely paramount! I’ll definitely look into doing some noise reduction and see if I can get the audio quality even better! I’ve used Discord a few times in the past, but that’s an excellent idea to make a Discord server! I went ahead and made one up and I think this is the correct link: discord.gg/QZbQ3k Edit: Here's a more permanent link (I hope, I'm still new to this Discord thing): discord.gg/DvWJvVD I’m still super new to it though, so I have no idea if I’ve got things set up correctly, but it does look like it’s correct. I think I’ll change up my closing screen and add some links to Discord/Twitter. Thank you again for the awesome feedback!

[@topilinkala1594]

I would have made an universal power supply with four to five outputs each capable of producing 0-380VAC or 0-1000VDC with adjustable current from 0-32A. You never know what you need.

[@SinnerSince1962]

As soon as you showed the screen, I said “Beam Find”

[@jaybird57]

You rock Man! What's your day job though?

[@winstonsmith478]

Cool retro look!

[@UsagiElectric]

Thank you! I'm super pleased with how it turned out!

[@ashleydawson5070]

Costa del Sol from FFVII?

[@ClaudeDufourmont]

Congratulations. Do you sell your DS car?

[@memento316]

How much fusion 360 pay these youtubers to do everything with this software? Really a 3d cam software to cut 5 pieces of wood?

[@UsagiElectric]

Oh man, I wish Fusion360 would have paid me! My videos get less than 400 views on average and I only recently cracked 1k subscribers, if I asked Autodesk for a sponsorship, I'm fairly sure they'd laugh so hard that tears would be running down their faces, haha. Now, as for why I used Fusion 360, the answer is two-fold. First, I have the hobbyist license, so the software was free, but I'm still a total noob at using it. Anytime I can use it for a real world project, I'm definitely going to as it's excellent practice to learn the ins and outs of the software. Second, the amount of space I had on my desk to fit the scope, multimeter and signal generator was very limited, so Fusion360 was an excellent tool to visualize the best way to lay everything out so it would fit just right. So, in short, no one paid me to use Fusion 360, I did it because I wanted to learn more about the software (and cam software in general). Plus, it was good fun!