The Mobile Workshopinator

The Transistor Hackerspace is, objectively speaking, a wonderful place. Knowledgeable people, good equipment, the kind of environment where you can ask “does anyone know why my voltage regulator is getting hot” and actually get a useful answer instead of a concerned look. I have been enjoying it tremendously.

There is, however, one problem: it is 15 to 20 minutes from both home and work. Which does not sound like much, until you have 45 minutes of unexpected free time and a half-finished Inator calling your name. By the time you drive there, park, get settled, and drive back — the free time is gone. The Inator remains half-finished. Evil is delayed.

Unacceptable.

The Solution: Portability

A couple of “medium” storage containers from Harbor Freight Tools — on sale for $2.00 each, because Evil does not require extravagance, it requires efficiency — and suddenly the workshop comes to me.

I love Harbor Freight. I genuinely love it. Every aisle is a catalog of possibilities. You walk in for a storage bin and walk out mentally building three new Inators. It is dangerous in the best possible way.

Anyway: the resistors and capacitors already came with their own organized boxes. The remaining components — plus an Arduino with my ArduinoISP Deluxe Shield / ATtiny / ATmega programmer (which I cannot recommend enough, by the way) — fit neatly into the containers with room to spare. The whole setup slides into a single pocket of my laptop bag.

I now have a functional electronics workshop. In my bag. Wherever I go.

Future Expansion Plans

Add a portable soldering kit and a set of mini screwdrivers, and I could set up shop virtually anywhere. Coffee shop. Park bench. The back of a bus. Anywhere with a flat surface and adequate lighting becomes a potential Inator construction zone.

And if I ever need to, say, upload a virus to an invading alien horde — well. I will be ready. You will not catch me scrambling for a USB cable when the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. That is just good preparation.

Evil favors the organized.

– Doof, Evil Scientist and Surprisingly Well-Prepared Traveler, Tri-State Area