For me, a quite place with amble work surfaces and storage is essential. Equipment necessary for testing and building circuits and models is important. A good computer with software is however the first critical step. This is my lab from last year.
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a digital oscilloscope is important to catch transient phenomenon.
a Microscope: SMD was a limit bu now we have.... BGA!
3 soldering station: one 120W for the big soldered components, 60-40W medium and 25 for the precision working
LCR metter: it is useful to measure ESR, impedance Z...
a "third hand?" (i dont know the real name) it used to hold the PCB to be stable and easy to work on it
a desoldering pump
DDS: we can simulate signals.
(interresting to have it) a simple protocol analyser.
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