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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?"
Not quite related, but my bench is hand made, stands 43" high in a "L" shape, conforming to the layout of my single-car garage. I've got a kegerator in the corner, with the tap mounted 2' from my main PC's keyboard. Also have a 29" tv mounted bar-style in the corner, angled down with an Xbox and PS2 and a 5-disk DVD player attached.
:)
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:) Lemme know what ya all think, and if you're even in the SD area, look me up and I'll pour ya a pint.
My "console" consists o my main PC, an WinXP machine on an Intel 540 with Raptors in Raid-0 and 2Gb Ramm in the center, with a 2Ghz Dell laptop on the left and a 2.4 Ghz Fed Core server on the right, all controlled via Synergy.
The "L" is 6' by 34" on one leg and 8' by 34" on the other, along the wall. The wall portion is designed to fold down via gate hinges and gas shocks (not installed yet...it's heavy)in case I need to actually get a car in here.
My Fed Core tower has external, front-mounted IDE and Molex connectors, and it and the WinXP pc use LCD's to save on desk space. I've got a 2'6" rack box with nothin in it at the momment but plan to add sound gear and maybe a blade server of some sort when the fundage comes.
The workbench surface itself is white laminated 5/8's inch particle board stock which works great for optical mice. I wired in a 12-outlet power strip along the short wall and another 2-outlet box in the middle of the long wall.
It's quite cozy in here and I love having all this surface to work on whether standing or sitting on my barstools. And currently, I have Pyramid Heffe on tap which doesn't hurt either. Here's a link for a pic:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/testbenchdud
Hope you all like. I know it's kinda off-topic, but I do have a full range of miniature/microminiature solder repair equipment availible to repair PCB's and such.
There is simply too much glass..
-speakers
-dvi lcd (if the customer is complaining of a DVI problem, you'll need this)
-spare PSU(s)
-jumpers
-Y power splitters
-hard drives (pata, sata, various scsi if you got em)
-hi-speed usb device (to test usb)
-network connections (firewalled into its own DMZ, you don't want the customers wormed out pcs running wild behind your firewall)
-cordless drill and charger
-solder kit, heatshrink tubing
-all the standard various screws computers come with
-lots of outlets on a circuit supporting enough amperage to really use them
probly lots i'm forgetting, but it's a start.
"The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
That's all that comes to mind just now.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
You're right, spelling wise, but chose a bad way to make your point - espresso is Italian for "very quickly" :-)
A common misconception, but actually espresso is the past participle of esprimere, meaning to express or to press out, and relates to the process of making an espresso coffee.
sig under construction...
It used to be that repairing computers involved electronics knowledge. You would need to troubleshoot down to the chip level and replace the bad component. Motherboards back a couple decades cost upwards of $500 to $1000 depending. A well equiped bench would have Multimeter, Oscope, Logic probe, Chip tester, eprom programmer (bios upgrades),
Nowadays the motherboards (and most other pc components) use ASICs (aplication Specific Integrated Circuits). Even if you could troubleshoot down the that level replaceing them is very difficult (surface mount ICs mostly) and getting the parts just as tough. With motherboards costing only $80 to $200 it's not worth it. The one repair we still do is replacement of bad caps. These are a VERY common failure and are easy to spot (bulged tops). To unsolder these you will need a soldering station (irons don't get hot enough and aren't temp controlled) and a desoldering vacum station. The ground and PS PCB plains are so large they draw away mass amounts of heat when trieing desolder them. We generally have to use both the iron and the desoldering tool at the same time (one on the back of the baord, one on the front) in order to clean the cap lead holes. The caps? We get plenty of those from old/bad motherboards.
Power supplies are another thing we sometimes repair. The thing that most often fails is the fan. Like to MB's the caps can fail here to, however these are much easer to desolder.
A post diag card is helpfull to some degree but the best thing to have is lots of spare parts to swap. Old eqipment (486 and earler) is valuable for caps and fans. Allways salvage these parts before trashing.
I find most tech work these days involves not hardware repair but software repair. Most of our time is spent getting rid of spyware and viruses and fixing OS screwups (frequently reinstalling windows). The key here is to be able to work on several machines at once because you spend a lot of time waiting for things to happen (virus/spyware scans, os installs). Have at least three hookups for machines so you can work on three at once.
If you really want some test gear (machine that goes ping) for wow factor consider a used Oscope from ebay (~$100-$200). Analog is good enough here. I personally like HP test equipment here. You should be able to get a 100MHz or better scope for very little money. If nothing else they look impressive. A freind of my father used to have a sign in his office that read "If you can't dazzle them with brilance, baffle them with bullshit".
The essential I couldn't do without:
A good quality multimeter, and a large lighted magnifying glass. . So many problems can be traced and solved with that. Doesn't hurt to have an exacto knife and some copper tape as well, depending on the exact type of repair work you do (I can salvage some boards and cards this way, though its patient work).
Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.
1. Ability to make coffee: insinkerator hot water tap (replaced our bunson burner and fleaker.) We still use a glass funnel with coffee filters. Fresh grind and then pour 190 deg F water over them in a careful method. Perfect concentrated brew.
2. Multimeter. *vital*.... never leave home without it.
3. Complete screwdriver/torx set.
4. Spare towles for laptop disembowlment operations.
5. Stack of "fresh" drives. Never trust an old drive!
6. Rubermaid container full of untouched, pristine, NIB IDE cables. Another must have. I tend to swap out IDE cables when ever I get a box just in case. It's saved me a lot of problems.
7. Trusted powerspuplies.
8. iPod hooked to sony stereo system.
9. KVM.
10. 19" LCD Samsung 930b + Sony trinitron E400.
11. Laptop cooling pad.
12. 7pt USB hub.
13. 8 pt netgear switch (home bench) and 24 pt gigabit switch (foundary) at work.
14. Safety gooooogles and electrical tape. (I guess for sledge-o-matic operations safety.) Must have my PPE's.
15. Swingline stapeler. (Not red.) Vintage.
16. TI-89.
17. Perrys Handbook for Chemical Engineers. (DOn't ask why I have it near my comp workbench.... you don't want to know.)
-=fshalor
No, seriously! Go to your local Staples, and buy a bag of those big, pink, school erasers.
They work WONDERS for cleaning contacts -- RAM contacts, AGP, PCI, etc.
I learned this from an electronics engineer. I've taken *MANY* RAM chips that failed memtest, cleaned them off with the eraser, put them back, and voila! Never seen again.
I don't know how it works or what it is that does it, but erasers remove corrosion from copper.