My Workspace

My workspace hasn't gotten any larger than last time, nor better organized. But it is all I have. Too many projects, too little time, too little space on the boat. It has to provide space for repairing the electrical failures of the boat, a radio station, a computer access area as well as a micro-processor development and software lab.

The closet on the left was supposed to be a hanging locker. I've added shelves and stacked lots of parts boxes on the shelves. I have to leave room at the top to turn them sideways to pass out the door.  I have the less used parts in the opposite closet behind my chair. I would love to find more of the little box with the yellow latches below! Most of the anchorages we stop in have little for sale in the way of parts. Almost no SMD parts and only older, more common through-hole parts. Shipping is only available in larger cities and then only if I think we are staying long enough to not be restricted to "waiting for the package before we can go on"!

Another parts box, with the USB sound card for xoscope, an XprotoLab scope, Bus Pirate, capacitance meter, arduinos, clones and programmers is used as a mouse pad. A 9x12" cutting board with a homemade swing arm LED lamp, soldering iron holder and pan-a-vice serves for a work area. The DVM and LED flash light (off to right on top of the HAM radio), seldom get put away.

Electronics workstation aboard the sailing vessel Katie Lee.

The HP printer/copier/scanner makes a platform for the laptop. I wish for a more reasonable solution. Above are a couple power strips with individual switched outlets, They have universal sockets for Australian, European, US and Chinese plugs. The printer, laptop charger and variable power supply are to the left as well as a 9v and 5v wall wort with the leads hanging on the left wall. Before, every time I wanted to use one, the cord was so tangled it wouldn't reach the breadboard.  The strip on the right has the adjustable temp soldering iron. The other side is usually open for the 110v appliance of the moment. Above that is a car charger outlet for 12v unregulated (12.2v to 14.3v depending on state of charge) and a terminal strip with a few open positions. I also have an old PC-power supply and the ATX breakout board from Dangerous Prototypes but the boat is 12volt with battery and solar power. It takes an inverter to get 110v to plug in a power supply to get 12 volts! I have all the current I need there too.

The high wattage soldering pistol hanging on the left wall needs a step-up transformer as it was replaced here where there are no 110v irons are for sale. The headphones are for the few times that the internet access is fast enough to listen to youtube videos. (I sure wish people would do written instructions and photos instead.) Below are the glass plates and white board for exposing the pre-sensitized pcb in the sunshine. So no making boards at night.

A small tools-toolbox holds up the fan. (It is running, the camera just stopped the action. Its 31C or88F here now.)  And it rests on a plastic cookie box full of extra USB devices. The tools include the usual I imagine. They include: close side cutters, needle nose and mini lineman's pliers, wire strippers, jewelers screw drivers, stainless tweezers straight and angled, long and short, hemostats, exacto-knife, manual PCB drill and bits, strip-board trace cutter, manual nibbler, solder sucker, solder wick, solder dispenser, flux pen and a handful of other junk that keeps the lid from closing most days.