Alain Nardi is a Dunkerque, France-based electronics enthusiast with a background in industrial measurement solutions. About 16 years ago, he started using his basement as en electronics workspace for everything from designing Elektor circuits to building audio amplifiers. Let’s take a look at his workspace and current interests.
 
Alain Nardi's electronics workspace for Industrial Measurement and more
Nardi uses his basement electronics workspace for a wide range of projects, from industrial measurement to DIY electronics.
What do you do for work?
I'm retired but still active for some old clients located around the world, mainly for industrial measurements. I also make circuits either found in Elektor or my own.
 
How would you best describe your space and how do you use it? 
In a 14 m² space, all the walls are covered. Three walls are for the storage of components, old equipment, documentation, etc. One wall is for electronic equipment, tools, and the work table. In the center, a table is anything that is in my hands that I want to put down.
 
When you designed the workspace, what were your requirements and goals?
I wanted my tools and components to be only a few steps away. Also, I wanted a deep table to support small tools, handheld equipment, and the circuit under consideration.
 
What about your technical interests? What sort of projects do you work on in your space? Are only interested in industrial measurement?
I make circuits that I designed during my career, used for monitoring or control in chemical plants. There are still clients interested in spare parts or repair. For my personal projects, I like building audio amplifiers and associated equipment. I built my first amplifier in 1969, described in Radio-plans. It was for my wife’s birthday. This amplifier ran 15 min before burning. I decided not to abandon it.
 
Can you share some information about the equipment and tools in your workspace for industrial measurment as well as DIY electronics?
I have the minimum equipment to work mainly with analog circuits:
 
  • 4 power supplies
  • 1 signal generator
  • 1 frequency meter (Elektor)
  • 1 table precision multimeter
  • Several hand-held multimeters
 
I sold my two old oscilloscopes and changed to a USB ’scope with a PC from PicoTechnology. I also have three development boards for microcontrollers and a circuit programmer (recent).
 
What is your favorite or most useful tool?
The oscilloscope is the most useful. Although a USB scope is not so quick for immediate viewing, it has the advantage of allowing for post examination of the curves. For me, it's irreplaceable for writing my tests reports.
 
What’s next for your workspace? Do you have any plans?
Of course, I read a lot of magazines to be informed on the market new things. For sure, my area suffers from an inadequate lighting. This might be the next improvement.
 
Do you have a favorite electronics-related project? What did you build?
The more complex equipment I designed is a position controller for the stem of a hydraulic actuator (driving a high-pressure valve). Not so complex really but interesting since the behavior of hydraulics is sometimes unpredictable. For this one, I made a 0 center bargraph with 41 LEDs for monitoring the servo valve current.
 
An industrial measurement project: hydraulic valve controller
The hydraulic valve controller

What are you working on right now?
My current project is a variable frequency three-phase supply able to drive the asynchronous motor of my high-speed drill machine. Three PWM control signal are delivered by a microcontroller with a phase shift of 120° between each. Then the signals should drive three MOSFTET half-bridges. At this moment, all the tests I have run led to one or more MOSFET burn-outs. I'm trying to understand the location of the design failure.
 
Most engineers and electronics enthusiasts have dream projects. Do you?
One thing I have had in my head for a long time is to make my own precision distortion meter (for audio tests). I am not sure it will see the light of day.
 
Do you have any advice, tips, or encouragement for other engineers or makers who are thinking of putting together a workspace?
Be careful with the lighting of your workspace. It's important for working without suffering.
 

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