Peter Evans is a London-based engineer and Elektor reader interested in analog technology, electronics repair, and working with Arduino and PIC microcontrollers. He recently told us about his two-year-old home workspace and the handy equipment he has at his disposal. Whether you live in a small city apartment, a suburban home, or a sprawling farmhouse, Evans's insights will inspire you to take action and build your own electronics workspace. 
 
Peter Evans's neat and tidy home workspace in London, England, where he works on projects and enjoys
learning about electronics. We really appreciate his well-labeled component filing system.
Tell us about yourself. What is your current occupation?
Electrical engineer. Originally trained in electronics and work in IT. Now electronics is mainly a resurrected hobby.

How would you best describe your home workspace? And where is it located?
The workspace I now have is as I have always wanted it but never had the time, space, or money! Located in the loft conversion — away from everyone else in the house!

You noted that you use your home workspace every day. When you were designing your workspace, what were your intentions?
I needed a space to repair small pieces of equipment, but primarily for getting back into electronics (after 30 years) and the new areas outside of analog electronics — PICs and Arduino to name two. I wanted a space that I could leave equipment set up and running without having to move or power down to make way for using the space for other purposes (i.e., the kitchen table) as I wanted to work my way through Learning the Art of Electronics as one of my main objectives.
 
A thorough introduction to circuit design.
What are your technical interests? What kinds of projects do you enjoy working on?
I enjoy analog electronics of old. I am motivated by the new (for me) PICs and Arduino, as I did program in 6502 assembly code in the past, and I wanted to get a grasp of C and Python.

How do you use your home workspace? Tell us about your equipment and tools.
My space is has two uses: one for my business administration, the other for my hobby. Main equipment: Weller solder station, Siglent four-channel oscilloscope, bench DMM and frequency generator, various hand-held meters, dual power supply, and Peak LCR meter.

What is your most important or valued tool or piece of equipment?
I wouldn't be without the Global Specialties Proto-Board. It is perfect for setting something up quickly, as it has everything needed within one box and can easily be moved out of the way without disturbing things too much.

Anything special about your home workspace?
I built the desk from old scaffold tube and brackets with two sheets of 18-mm ply fixed together to make a nice sturdy bench, which is covered with an anti-static mat.

Are you planning any improvements or additions to your workspace?
I have a plan for some more focused lighting and would like to have a camera/microscope setup for fault finding.

What is your favorite electronics-related project?
I have enjoyed rediscovering analog electronics and have designed a nixie clock and a basic valve stereo amplifier. But my latest project involves automating my telescope and trying to integrate a CCD camera with an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi.
 
What are you working on right now?
I am planning on migrating my nixie clock project to a PIC rather than CMOS/TTL chips.

Describe your dream project.
My dream project would be a modular synthesizer and a drum machine/sequencer. Analog would be nice, but I imagine it would be easier going the digital route!

Do you have any advice for Elektor community members interested building a home workspace?
I seem to have more unfinished projects than finished ones. If I could listen to my own advice, it would be to take a little extra time to finish the current project before embarking on a new one, as the right time never seems to appear to go back to a previous one.
 
 
Enjoy learning about where your peers work on electronics projects? Take a look at these other electronics workspaces.
 

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