Home Lab

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This is less one project and more a state of being. My home lab started as a soldering iron on a desk and has since consumed most of the garage.

Current Setup

  • Prusa MK4 with a MMU3 for multi-material prints. I’ve been printing mostly functional parts: enclosures, jigs, and the occasional keyboard case.
  • Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope. Four channels, hacked to 100 MHz. Good enough for the kind of低速 digital and analog work I do.
  • Weller WE1010 soldering station with a fume extractor that’s definitely going to get upgraded soon.
  • Various multimeters, power supplies, and a signal generator that accumulate like stray cats.

Current Projects

  • Temperature-controlled enclosure for the Prusa: I’m building an insulated enclosure with a Raspberry Pi and a thermocouple to keep the chamber at a stable temperature for ABS and polycarbonate printing. The plan is to PID-control a pair of ceramic heaters mounted in the enclosure floor.
  • Fume extraction overhaul: The current setup is a duct fan with a carbon filter, which works fine for occasional soldering but chokes on longer sessions. I’m looking at a proper 4-inch inline fan with a duct to a window.
  • Spectrum analyzer: I picked up a TinySA Ultra because, well, I wanted to see what my WiFi router actually looks like on a spectrum. It turns out it looks exactly like you’d expect, but the journey was fun.

Philosophy

I believe in building things with your hands. My lab is where the physics degree meets the garage. It’s not always pretty, but it’s mine, and every tool in it has earned its place by being useful for something. If it hasn’t been used in a year, it gets sold or donated.

I’ll write detailed build logs in the blog as each project progresses.