whats on your desks?

[Hal]

I'm kinda curious what everyone else uses for prototyping.  Right now, I have a box with input/output and a bypass toggle, and a 9v/ 1.25-20v variable power supply (a toggle between those 2 modes) Both are connected to my breadbaord via binding posts with solid core wire.  I also have a DMM (wow, I upgraded! The analog one's downstairs now, with my iron).

I found that since i made the jack w/bypass box and the power supply, things work really nicely.  I might put a 100k audio volume pot on the bypass box, but I think other pot values are too random to just leave some pots wired on the desk.

What else have you guys rigged up to help out with testing?

[slotbot]

hello... heres my bench......

ive got an old analog scope, function generator adn 2 power supplies. 1 is a 5v ouput no matter what. the other is variable 0 - 30.

then i have about 4 or 5 bread boards.

I have a little drawer filled with wired pots of all different values. and also some wired up 1/4 inch jacks.

Then i have an old radio shack 35 watt pa amp hooked up to a speaker. i use it as my "test amp".

I usually use my MD player as my test input source when im actually listening to the sound but if im looking at it on the scope i use the function generator.

and i have a hand held DMM.

and a calculator.

thats about it. nothing too special.

scott.

[MartyMart]

I have all the usual tools etc and two "steel" office A4 drawers full of parts , just made a testing jig: It's a bent U shaped piece of Alu about twice the size of a hammond 1590BB, but open on top.
I drilled and fitted a stereo and mono jack, battery with alligator clips and a top bent "lip" for up to 4 pots, with four 10mm cut aways, to push pots into place.
It will make "testing" pre-box very cool, and will eliminate any "grounding" problems very quickly.
Its big enough to slide in my small breadboard or a large perf circuit.

I use my small park G10r and Matamp for testing, so far with a guitar but that gets akward, to play and "fiddle" with a circuit, I need some guitar recorded onto mini disk, that would be way cooler !!

Marty.

[petemoore]

Still use the 'ol test jig for every circuit not in a box already that needs testing. A real EZilator and time saver. I'ts the best 6 buxx I ever spent on DIY Stuff...gets used all the time.
 Uses two jacks [mono] three clips 'n wires from jacks [ground/in/out], a large RACO on the bottom is heavy and sturdy, the cardboard on top is light and sturdy enough, also I can drill holes inthe cardboard, and then just shove the potthreads through for quite pot holders.
 Took about a whole 15 minutes to make it. Bypass switch would be a good option...I just unclip input and clip that to the output to test for -/+ unity levels, then unclip output to see how much tonesucking haveing the circuit 'on' the bypass makes.
 Often I stick a probe shaft in the clip of the output jacks wire on the test jig, then use that to find where the signal gets lost, by poking it to points in a circuits signal path.
 DMM, I used an analog meter for a while :arrow: , till I got a DMM.
 My capacitor and transistor checkers [besides teh DMM's Hfe setting] are just circuits like FF or LPB with related sockets...having experienced many caps and transistors, comparitive performance testing like this seems to work just fine for me, but produces no #'s, graphs, or other crossreference data...just the sound tells the tale...I used the same trick many ways for mechanic-ing...if everything else in a a system is known to work, a substitution test can be very revealing about a particular component or parts, and doesn't require the amazingly expensive tests or test equipment.
 Alligator Clips at both ends of stranded wire...I have a bunch of these, very nice for trying a cap here, a paralleled resistor there, for quick A/B results.

[Torchy]

crp