What's On Your Tech Bench?

Twev1701 writes "As a small computer repair company that has seen enormous growth in the past few months, we are now looking to expand our facilities. With construction starting on our office space, we now turn to the task of designing a new tech bench. Our existing bench is 6'x3', has a dedicated 15" CRT, 4 port KVM, and overhead storage bins for parts. With a new bench of 12'x4', we have lots of room for expansion. What essentials would the /. community put on their new tech bench?"

Comments

Known Good Parts

[Fortress]

IMHO, nothing helps more with diagnosing hardware problems than some tested hardware (video card, processor, RAM). Makes isolating a problem or conflict dead easy.

Illuminated Magnifier

[mr.henry]

Maybe I am getting too old, but I've been thinking an illuminated magnifier would be pretty useful to have for my bench.

BTW, check out the Xcelite PRO-SERIES ergo screwdrivers (model #XPE500 for the 5 piece). I love these things -- using quality German made handtools is really satisfying. I think I paid $25 at Fry's.

For example...

[Yeti.SSM]

In random order:

1. Something to remove dust from the computers' inside and from the workbench (compressed air, vacuum cleaner, both...)
2. Voltmeter
3. Spare PSU
4. Air conditioning (posibly in conjunction with 1)
5. Trash bin

Re:More than one console . . .

[cgenman]

Another easily accessable computer. Sometimes you just need to google to see if a company's driver causes problems.

A completely naked computer that has been optimized for quick booting (a CF-system, perhaps?). Either way, a quick and easy way to test parts for failure.

Voltometer. Always good for testing parts for failure.

USB flash drive with all of your utilities.
Linux boot floppies / CD's.

A wired rotary disk-cutting tool. These come in handy far, far more often then they should.

A Lazy Susan. I hate having to constantly turn machines around.

All of the assorted parts you need to put into computers... Things like spare case screws, spare PSU's, little rubber feet...

All of the assorted screw drivers, etc, that you need to fix computers, which i'm sure you have figured out by now.

A bin of dead parts for scrap. Sometimes you just really need a face pannel from a networking card. You'll figure out what the usful scavengable parts are pretty quickly.

A pen and a notepad, believe it or not.

Re:The essentials of desktop repair

[jellomizer]

Maybe so. But if the customer decides to sue because their computer was unrepairable for the price they wanted to pay, and you told them that, they may use the fact that they don't have a static strap as a reason why the computer is now unrepairable. When dealing with the public you will get people who will complain and sue for almost anything especially when they feel they got ripped off, or they want to rip you off. It is better to have a static strap and use it to show to the customer and perhaps the court that you take good care of the others property.

Re:The essentials of desktop repair

[Goody]

I wouldn't laugh at anyone who uses a ground strap. While there's plenty of folks here that have worked on PCs for 50+ years and never wrecked anything from static (or so they say), the potential is always there. No static protection may not have outright killed equipment, but there's no saying that it hasn't caused damage that showed up later as squirrely intermittent hardware problems.

Re:ah yes, grounding yourself on the case

[cbiltcliffe]

Yes, but put one finger on the positive side of the coil (the 12V input), lick your other finger and put it on the negative terminal of the battery. You get a nice tingling sensation, also you now know that the circuit between the positive terminal of the battery and the coil is good.

That's not 12V from the battery you're feeling. That a higher voltage induced from the ignition coil.

When you have DC flowing through a high-impedance coil, there's a static magnetic field formed around the coil. Remove the DC supply, and the rapid collapse of this field induces a current in the coil flowing in the opposite direction from the original DC input.

This is the principle by which your car ignition system works. The ignition coil doesn't have a constant current to it. Voltage is applied, builds up the magnetic field, and when it's time to spark the plug, the voltage is removed, and the collapsing field generates one hell of a high voltage across the secondary side of the ignition coil, which is typically many times the impedance of the primary side.

You're feeling a little tingle of maybe 50 volts and a few milliamps on the primary side by doing what you describe. The secondary side has a voltage between 25,000 and 80,000, depending on the ignition system, but with only microamps of current available. That's why if you grab a spark plug lead when the engine's running, you feel quite the belt, but it doesn't do any damage. Not enough current.