For the last eight months I’ve been working from multiple locations. I prefer to travel light, but that’s not easy when hardware development is involved. If I take minimal tools, it’s inevitable that an SMT rework will come up and leave me without the right tools. My first thought was to have everything in a couple of equipment cases, but this weekend I took things to another level and fully integrated a full SMT lab, including stereo microscope and an oscilloscope into a couple of cases. Set-up takes let than 1 minute. Apart from the equipment, total parts budget is under $50.

This build packs a lot of really cool equipment into a portable format (each case is about 18”x13”x6”). Apart from the obvious, a couple of things I’m very happy with are the instant work-surfaces, and a +12V central rail that powers various items inside the cases.