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Re: building a home lab

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6/7/2000 9:15 PM

Re: building a home lab

Excellent link, thanks, Ken.

Couldn't agree more about having a lab for use at any hours, especially long sessions without interruption.

It wasn't until I had a slowdown in my regular testing lab work that I added tube amp capabilities to my facility, this has always been a lab/home instead of a home lab. I try to make it comfortable and always prepare enough rations for a 24hour stay every day before I leave home (if I even made it home the night/day before). For amps the biggest problem has always been the sound level, and complaints generated by spouses, neighbors, etc. In my industrial setting, no one complains, even when you can easily hear a cranked stack rumbling inside my building when you first drive up. From the same parking lot there is just as much or more db from other nearby sources: power tools, traffic, boom boxes, overhead aircraft, etc. with 2 body shops, mechanics garages, nearby fire house, restaurant equipment rebuilders and more, in addition to the other lab I built on this street for my previous employer in the '80's, we both now have visitors at all hours. The latest explosion at the nearby Phillips polymer plant rocked our buildings more than all of that combined, though :-o

When I go home to my sweetheart, I leave all scientific distraction at the office (unless a client pages me), it's still not possible to give the same impression as a normal working man, but it helps support the illusion to an extent. If she is real tired early I will seldom stay up and watch TV by myself, I just turn it off and read RDH4 which I carry with me at all times, I guess that's cheating ;-)

;-)

except I also carry the National Enquirer. Still my home is only a few minutes from the lab, I will go here at a whim and when she is here there are adequate non-scientific distractions for her too, but I don't play the amps then.

6/7/2000 9:42 PM

Yes, a home lab is indeed a great way to improve your productivity. There's nothing like having your own space with your own equipment, tools, and no health and safety executive breathing down your neck. I've a guilty admission to make, I'm 22 and I still live with my parents. Basically because I never could figure out how to fit my basement metal shop, and the electronics lab and digital recording studio in the attic, into a normal sized student flat. I'm moving out in a couple of months time and I guess the pedestal drilling machine, walk-in cupboard full of 70's test equipment, and 18" bass cabinet will have to go );

Steve C.

P.S. I disagree with that guy, I find at home my scope probes only last about a year before all the accessories are lost, the hooks are broken, and finally the wheels on the wheely office chair get them... rumble... crunch... oh no another $30 down the drain

For comparison, in the labs at the university where I work they last about a week.

6/8/2000 10:22 PM
Ken Gilbert	biggest freaking tube audio amp ever http://www.diyaudio.com/kolok/

6/9/2000 12:30 AM
R.G.	Tube Amps on the Moon I saw the cover of a 50's sci-fi magazine that showed a fellow in a space suit slogging past the biggest triode anyone ever saw - it had a plate about 50 feet tall, and of course ran envelope-less in the moon's vacuum...

6/10/2000 12:25 AM
Ken Gilbert	how about a loftin-white? see if you can figure this one out! follow the electrons http://hjem.get2net.dk/aaholm_audio/schems/2a3_1.htm

6/12/2000 1:57 PM
GFR	I think there was an article about this topology on the Tube CAD e-zine. http://www.tubecad.com

6/12/2000 11:34 PM
Brian	60mA reading in series with a 100mA current source- huh? 62mA DC (assuming) into a capacitor? odd indeed. BT

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