About us
We are mostly an investment firm trading used test and measurement equipment.
Since we've accumulated quite a bit of tribal knowledge servicing our own stock, we might be able to repair, upgrade or modernize your units. Contact us for free consultation/evaluation.
The owner has expertise in rapid application development specializing in industrial automation software, signal processing, mathematical algorithms, data visualizations, proprietary data format conversions, and will consider consulting projects on a case-to-case basis.
If you have trouble spelling "humgar", think of it as a the first 3 letters of each word in "Humble Garage". Like HSBC, we'd rather not have it officially stand for anything so to leave room for your imagination.
from the owner
I started electronics as a hobby when I was in high school, knowing firsthand how miserable it was to work without test and measurement equipment: hours after hours were spent shooting in the dark, just to figure out something simple. Everything changed after I saved up and bought a used oscilloscope. Life with electronics became so much easier once I've set up a small home lab.
I kept trading up for better gears; bought more and more to learn about various measurement techniques. I was impressed by how well-thought-out HP (now Agilent/Keysight) designed their equipment when I got a chance to open them up while attempting repairs. The accomplishment of turning trash into gold has been an addictive hobby ever since and is now a business.
Because of how humgar LLC got started, unlike dealers, we own the units that we sell and cared for them (including necessary preventative maintanence like recapping and replacing BGAs) as if we are the end-user.
We provide generous technical support, warranty and return policies to our paying customers. The bottomline is that we want the equipment to serve your intended purpose. This is what sets it apart from buying my home lab's bench unit.
owner: a littie bit about myself
I went to UW-Madison for Electrical Engineering (EE), second-majored in Math (applied), and got my Bachelor's degrees in 2.3 years. Then I went to Stanford University and got my Masters and Engr degree in Electrical Engineering. My speciality is signal processing, the most math-intensive field in EE.
My thesis is an invention: a mechanism/algorithm orchestrating a bunch of independent adaptive filters to improve performance and characteristics, using the century-proven LMS algorithm to beat itself at its own game. If it sounds recursive to you, it actually is.
I was a teaching assistant for signal processing, electronics and biomedical engineering classes, and the rest of my graduate school tuition was paid by software development for the medical school. (Bio/Med was well-funded back then)
In short, my hobby is electronics, my schooling was EE/math and software engineering paid my bills (before starting this business). Picked up a bunch of soft-skills such as technical communication, public speaking, basic business training at Stanford University, though I wanted to be an academic when I first got started.
I might take consulting projects like once or twice a year for fun, given that trading is a lot more profitable on the time spent. In addition to math, algorithms and software, I can design, build and setup the electronics (especially sensor) interface side as well if needed. Explain to me what your project is looking for and I'll make the call. Will give significant discounts if you happen to buy test and measurement equipment from us as part of your integration and automation project I'll work on.
My personal webpage can be found at wonghoi.humgar.com and a blog on signal processing, test and measurement equipment, MATLAB, software (C, C++) can be found at wonghoi.humgar.com/blog.
sell to us
If you have unknown test equipment in unknown condition that you don't have the time and expertise to do the homework, and do not want to wait for years, selling piece by piece slowly to cash out, contact us and we can make you an offer!
