Electronics Lab Orientation

Trainer page. Bench checkout for the two electronics benches — not a class, not a scope lab, not a tour of unsorted cabinets. When they can do the list below without you holding the iron, they may use the shop Hakko on their own.

What they must show you

•       Walk the two benches. Point to the Hakko, its stand, the Xytronic 426DLX, glasses, solder and flux, wick, sucker, trash, and where Slack is posted. Cabinets and the rolling toolbox are being sorted — they say they will not dig unlabeled drawers.

•       State the solder rule: shop spool is leaded. No lead-free, acid-core, or plumbing solder on this iron. No food on the bench. Wash hands when they leave.

•       Glasses on. Extractor on and pulling before the iron heats. Nozzle at the joint.

•       Iron stays in the stand except when it is on the work. Set about 650–700 °F. Tin the tip with shop leaded solder. Wipe in the brass wool — no wet sponge. Tip looks wet, not black.

•       Make one decent through-hole or connector joint: pad and lead heated together, solder fed to the joint, solder off then iron off. Shiny cone, not a ball, not a dull lump, not a bridge.

•       Iron off. Tip left tinned. Parked in the stand. Extractor off.

•       A bench supply, if one is out: they turn it on at 0 V, say why they read the display before clipping on, and why they kill the output before they move a wire.

•       Bench wiped. Clipped leads in the trash. Tools back where they were. They know #electronics and #machinedown.

What this checkout is not

•       Not a scope class or a function-generator class.

•       Not Arduino, Pi, Fritzing, or CAD.

•       Not a walk through every cabinet.

•       Not authorization for the solder pot, mini drill press, Dremel, heat gun beyond shrink tubing, or high-current / mains work.

If they want those, schedule a separate stand-up. Do not pad this session until they can probe a waveform.

How to run the session

•       Ask what they actually want to do this month. Most people need a cable, a header, or a kit joint. Stay on that.

•       One bench, one iron. Do not set up a second personal iron “so you can both go.”

•       They hold the iron. If you solder the joint for them, they are not checked out.

•       One acceptable joint is enough. If the first is cold or the pad lifts, they do another. Two bad joints and you reschedule — do not lower the bar.

•       Skip the instrument shelf. A 0 V talk on whatever supply is already out is enough.

•       When they pass, they fill out the LCS Equipment and Membership Certification form so the Director can update their record. Point them at the Electronics area page and the soldering quick-start.

Pass / not yet

Pass: they can heat the Hakko without waving it, run the extractor, make one acceptable joint on leaded solder, shut the station down tinned, and leave the bench clean without being told twice.

Not yet: iron left on the mat, extractor off, drink on the bench, mystery solder on the iron, supply already at 12 V when they reach for the leads, or they start opening unlabeled drawers. Reschedule. Do not sign the form.

After they pass

•       They may use the shop Hakko, the Xytronic 426DLX, hand tools already on the benches, breadboards and labeled parts that are out, shop kits in the lab, a DMM, and a low-voltage supply from 0 V.

•       Heat gun for shrink tubing only.

•       They still ask a lead before the pot, drill, Dremel, heat gun on anything else, or a supply used as a high-current source.

•       They still post in #electronics when something is weird, and #machinedown when the iron or extractor is dead.

•       Scopes, firmware, and cabinet sorting are later. They are not part of this checkout.