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I just ordered a Weller WES51, which is going to be loving great, because I've been stuck with pencil irons ever since I started dicking around with electronics. I ordered it to enhance the enjoyment of my newest project (tube-hybrid headphone amp). I'll be doing lots of point to point wiring and lots of board work. Anyone have tip suggestions for me? Also, where can I get one of those awesome no-water tip cleaners that looks like a big ball of steel wool? Double also, where can I find a huge multi-pack of wire? I need a bunch of stranded wire in varying colors. 16-22ish. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 00:34 on May 13, 2008 |
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May 13, 2008 00:28
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I am truly ashamed for laughing at that.
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Jun 15, 2008 05:19
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I just started and subsequently finished assembling two JAW Wideband boards and one display for them an hour or so ago, and after a pretty long time away from board soldering, good GOD I forgot how much I love it. Populating resistors is just so relaxing. And soldering board mount components? Pure sex.
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Jun 17, 2008 03:25
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How did you guys start learning the basics? I tried to really learn from the ground up a few times with books, but they were never captivating enough for me to keep going. After that I just started learning randomly so my knowledge is spotty at best. My soldering skills are excellent from tinkering a lot and doing "assembly required" board soldering projects. As of the moment, I don't really have any true electronics knowledge. So goons, recommend me a really great book to help me learn electronics. Lots and lots of hands on projects throughout the book is the best thing, as I learn far better and am much more interested when I actually get to do things.
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Jun 30, 2008 01:29
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ante posted:I badly want someone to convince me to spend large amounts of money on more poo poo I don't need Fast to come up to temperature (really really fast), safer (auto shutoff), more accurate temperatures, better more flexible cables, easier to find and change out tips to different sizes. Seriously, it'll blow your mind. Even just one of the $100 Weller WES series is awesome. In related news, I'm building a Nixie clock after years of wanting one. 
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Dec 26, 2009 05:18
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So, I'm quite new at microcontrollers and picked up an Arduino a week ago (and I still get really excited when I make buttons and LED's do things that still seem complicated to me). The ultimate goal is robotics, which I've wanted to do since I was a little kid. What's the general limit of useful update rate for Ardupilot-like navigation with GPS? I see kickass tiny receivers with 20hz rates and it gets me all excited with the possibilities.
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Jan 10, 2010 09:09
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I've been planning on picking up an ardupilot for a while, as I've been into RC stuff for a few years and have a whole lot of planes that'll make incredible platforms for it. I've got FPV gear as well. The only reason I haven't sunk the ~$200 into the board/compatible gps/ accelerometers is I figured it'd be a good idea to learn as much as I can with a basic arduino just so I know what the hell is going on. I know it's relatively plug and play, but I'm trying to avoid jumping in headfirst. I've got some decent RC truck platforms that will happily run outside, which is why I thought GPS, and ultrasonic for object avoidance. The plan is to start out like most people seem to with a little 3 wheeled avoidance platform and move to something more interesting like the aforementioned truck platform.
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Jan 10, 2010 17:38
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I was going to just edit this in, but it started getting long, so doublepost. I'm making a arduino powered water pump/temp and humidity sensor. The object is to pump a second or three of water with a RC pump onto a sheet that's used to humidify a bunch of tarantulas. I want to have a 20x4 LCD readout with the humidity and temp in 2 different places, then 2 pumps that turn on when a humidity threshold is reached. If I can make it do minor logging so I can hit a button and flip through different readouts on the LCD like average humidity/temp, max/min and current stats. A little piezo alarm when various things happen like low water reserve, low temp, etc. The shopping list thus far is; * A second Arduino (so I can keep dicking around with my first one) * Adafruit protoshield for the final design * 20x4 LCD (most seem to use up 6 pins, which isn't too bad) * Temp sensor (2) TMP36 The first problem is the water pump. I don't know if I should use a RC fuel pump, aquarium pump and a relay or a continuous rotation servo running a tiny little belt drive pump. The final option seems easiest, because I've got servos laying around, I just don't know where the hell I'd find a little tiny unpowered pump. The other problem is humidity sensors are amusingly expensive. This one is the best I've found thus far. Are there any problems with these 3 leg style sensors and extending them? They'll probably need to sit about 2-3 feet away from the arduino.
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Jan 10, 2010 20:41
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It looks like sparkfun has atmega328's that are preloaded. The only problem is that I suspect I'll end up wanting to tinker with it a few months down the road (say, throw on some more sensors or something akin to the sparkfun logger shield) and at that point, I'd imagine that I'd need to put on interface stuff to work on programming and I'd really just be building another arduino. It's got to cost somewhere around $30 to do that (guessing here).
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Jan 11, 2010 00:29
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El Kabong posted:To resolder the power jack on my computer is there anything specific I should look for in a soldering iron, like specific tips/watts/etc.? Medium sized tip, 25-60 watts or so. Go to radio shack or sears and buy a cheap iron, or if you plan on soldering something else someday, these are fantastic for the price; http://www.amazon.com/Weller-SP40L-Marksman-Watt-Soldering/dp/B00018AR40/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1263966582&sr=1-9
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Jan 20, 2010 06:50
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Hillridge posted:Is anyone interested in Nixie tubes? As I mentioned earlier in the thread, a coworker has 4 Burroughs B-7971 Alphanumeric Nixie Tubes with sockets that he wants to sell for $100. I'm looking for a new truck right now, so I don't think I'm going to buy them, but they are in great shape and all the segments work. He said he bought them new (this guy is old) and never used them. The sockets were cut out of something, but work fine. If he doesn't sell them in a month or so, I'm interested. I just bought a bunch of IN-18 and IN-14 nixies and as you might imagine, that's pretty much blown through the electronics bugdet for this month and about 5 more months to come.
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Feb 3, 2010 21:14
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Corla Plankun posted:I went out and bought a weller soldering iron when I first read this thread and it is terrible. Unless you want one with dicksucking features and other things, this is really about as good as you'll ever need. http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-Analog-Soldering-Station/dp/B000BRC2XU Heats up extremely fast, has tons of tips available, the stand is awesome, the iron is very light and the cord is unngghh levels of soft and pliable. One of my favorite purchases. e: it's honestly so nice that sit me down in a good chair with that iron and a panavise and I can board solder all day long happy as hell. It's extremely relaxing, and I sorta wish I could have a part time job assembling hobby-level boards for people who don't want to do the work. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Feb 17, 2010 |
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Feb 17, 2010 10:26
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mAlfunkti0n posted:I generally don't work with anything tiny, so what would be a good kit for me? I would prefer to stay under $100. You absolutely cannot go wrong with a Weller WES51 http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-Analog-Soldering-Station/dp/B000BRC2XU
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Oct 28, 2010 06:30
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Shame Boy posted:Oh also if you work on stuff like this often and you don't have a Cliff QuickTest, get one. It makes it very easy to cut power to something in a verifiable, obvious way, it comes with built-in fuse socket, and it's designed so it doesn't accidentally turn on if you bump it like a switch would. For a while they were a little hard to get in US colors, but ever since BigClive has been talking them up they've gotten a lot more widely available, you can even get em' on Newark now: I keep wondering if they'll eventually make one with black/white/green connectors instead of the euro style. e: nevermind! https://www.newark.com/cliff-electronic-components/cl1857/qt1-usa-canada-13a-fuse-quicktest/dp/08AC2593
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Jan 5, 2020 23:57
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Shame Boy posted:So... the one I linked? In my defense, I bought one 6 or 7 years ago and mine is the european color code because at the time it was all I could find. I didn't even click because I had no idea they made US/CA color coded ones.
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Jan 6, 2020 00:16
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So, I want to switch a 30a, 110v normally open contactor with microswitches. Any single switch turns on the contactor, and they all have to be open to turn it off. I'm assuming I could have a 12VDC system of several microswitches wired to a pair of busses, using a DC control/AC switch SSR to switch the coil side of a normal industrial contactor, right? e: drawing at a 2nd grade level for some relative clarity 
Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 16:02
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CarForumPoster posted:Yes. I like SSRs for stuff this because theyre usually optoisolated already. Followup, if I'm running the DC control wire a significant difference (like 50 feet), do I need to think about voltage drop/load on the DC side of the SSR? It's hard to find a spec for that, but I'm assuming that I could pretty easily use 20 gauge wire for the microswitches and just run the DC side at 24v or so and not have any problem.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:19
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CarForumPoster posted:Just test whether the relay turns on or not by putting however much your max run is or measuring the voltage at the end. That said, its easy to find an optoisolated SSR with a BIG input voltage range and almost no current draw. As an example this one has a 3 - 32V input range. Note that you can find big current SSRs and you should consider more than just static current rating (e.g. cooling, duty cycle, in rush current) when deciding how you want to turn on mains voltages. A 3-32vdc is what I was looking at (on Amazon), and didn't find good specs on any of them. That one looks like 7.5ma at 12v, looks like I'll be waaaay good even at 12v. Hard to find specs on contactor coil draw, but it seems like they're only like 30 watts inrush and below 10 holding. Thanks! e: SSR's leak more than I expected and might cause problems letting the contactor unlatch, so I'll spend the extra $4 and pick up one of those common 12v optoisolated relay boards as a backup. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 18:44
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Zero VGS posted:Doing some MacGyver poo poo today, ignition wire on my ebike just broke apart from the crimp connector (metal fatigue I guess), and I didn't have my soldering iron on me but I keep a loop of solder in my wallet, so I managed to solder it back together with a single match from a matchbox: This is impressive as hell but everybody is ignoring this Zero VGS posted:but I keep a loop of solder in my wallet,
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Mar 5, 2020 02:55
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I don't know how we feel about inexpensive 30v/10a DC bench supplies but *man* it's nice having a bench supply.
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Mar 8, 2020 05:56
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I'm using a brushless CPAP blower for part cooling on a 3d printer (and it's great), but I don't trust the reliability of the ultra-poo poo BLDC I'm using (that I had to partially resolder). I just had it flake out and then start working again (which admittedly might have been my fault due to changing a PWM setting on my mainboard) and it's made me gunshy about not being able to easily/quickly get a replacement for it. I don't think it'll explode, but if it stops working I really don't want to wait 2 months for a replacement from China. This is what I'm currently using  The world of brushless motor controllers is weird, and trying to find information on the jump from Chinese stuff to more in-industry parts is confusing. I was close to just spending the money and ordering this Trinamic board (though I'm sure there's a slightly more inexpensive version that isn't so over-spec for my needs) https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/trinamic-motion-control-gmbh/TMCM-1640/1460-1030-ND/4399639 I did just find this though, and I wanted to get a sanity check that this isn't too-integrated for whatever the hell Mikroe/mikroBUS boards are to be used standalone https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MIKROE-2766/1471-1866-ND/7707765/?itemSeq=324955394 https://www.mikroe.com/brushless-3-click It looks like I can just ignore the microcontroller-related pinout, give it ground and PWM, connect the phases on my motor and feed it 24v and have a likely higher quality controller for $20. I can't tell if it requires one of their own microcontrollers and code for clock/parameters/whatever or if it will act as a dumb controller. e: essentially I'm after a BLDC that is dumb but reliable and available in the US that will do 24v, 2a and PWM control without requiring anything odd (like a RC esc). Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Apr 30, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 04:20
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ante posted:RC stuff isn't really that odd. Their terminology is all hosed, but essentially a servo style PPM control signal -> ESC (along with 24V power) -> BLDC is the cheapest / easiest. I'm assuming you can't get anything other than 0-100% PWM output for speed control with some difficulty, I dunno if there are any existing boards somewhere that will do that. If you want to get into the weeds, most cheap ESCs can be reflashed with the SimonK firmware and then should be able to be convinced to work with your PWM signal. https://www.mikroe.com/brushless I looked at this one and got all excited, but on the Toshiba datasheet it's 4v PWM input max. I think I can do 3.3v PWM signal on my mainboard but it would be some reconfiguring. It seems hard to find a RC esc that will do 24v, unless a 6s will handle it. Beyond that, the main thing I'm trying to avoid with the RC stuff is the safe-throttle requirement to get it to start a motor. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Apr 30, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 05:01
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I've got hall sensors, just currently running without them. This is the blower https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Delta-Electronics/BFN0724SS-01?qs=PzGy0jfpSMt1eECFvv3USw%3D%3D I've found a couple controllers that would probably come close to being what I need but they won't handle the RPM. Granted, I'm only running this at like 30% of it's maximum speed but I get the feeling that's still a bad idea.
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Apr 30, 2020 14:36
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Holy hell that video is 14 minutes of solid wall to wall information. I've been dicking together worthless prototype boards since I was like 10 (I still don't know anything about electronics, I've always just bullshitted my way through) and I think every single thing he said was new information.
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May 25, 2020 22:07
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Why am I having such a hard time finding 2.54mm perfboard with a complete copper clad? It's all pad-per-hole and variations on stripboard/etc. There are things that might be what I'm looking for on Digikey/Mouser but naturally it's hard to tell what I'm actually looking at because I'm not cool enough to know what's going on.
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Jul 6, 2020 23:52
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Subjunctive posted:Wasn’t there a video in this thread of a guy etching out different regions of a copper clad board to make things to hang components off of for prototyping? Yeah, he also used solid clad perfboard as a ground plane and to ground together separate boards.
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Jul 7, 2020 00:37
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What's the goto for circuit simulation/schematic design and PCB layout? I've never done real PCBs, only hand drawn/home etched stuff forever ago. I don't know how it normally works, but being able to design a functioning circuit and simulate it and then have software spit it out in a semi-logical way onto a PCB layout that I can then edit would be really cool.
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Jun 28, 2022 14:19
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Most impressive yard sale score of my life, particularly because I rarely ever stop at yard sales.   I think it's actually brand new. Genuine Hakko FR-301. It was in it's original box with everything, tip still had a solder plug. Labeled with a piece of tape as "soldering gun $20" alongside some other general electronics stuff (cracked akro drawer organizers, general detritus). I didn't argue about the price.
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Jul 7, 2022 22:07
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I have another ridiculous project that needs to live in moderately harsh environments and handle rain. I've got a tiny little OLED screen, a momentary button (waterproof panel mount) and a microcontroller. I'm going to 3d print the case, and I can make the case watertight but I'm not sure how to deal with the screen. Poke the screen through the case and gasket it? Conformal coat and leave a hole in the bottom of the case? I know I can seal a piece of plexi and mount the screen behind it, but it's going to be in direct sunlight when I need to read it and that's going to make it glare a little worse.
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Jul 25, 2022 00:36
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It's essentially a trip counter. I need to count the number of round trips of aggregate into a trail on a tracked dump truck. I've been doing it with a little hand tally counter, but the added feature I need is a stopwatch that resets with every count (both to see trip time, but also to see if I've obviously forgotten to record a trip). It doesn't need to make a log file or anything, just needs to keep the count total and time when it loses power. I'm assuming I'll need to add a RTC to make the latter possible. Probably using a feather or something else that will run circuitpython or micropython. A little visor is probably enough, that's a good idea. I might mess around with bonding the OLED directly to plexiglass to try and reduce light bouncing around between them too. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jul 25, 2022 |
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Jul 25, 2022 02:15
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It'll probably be an adafruit trinket M0 or similar. Mostly because I have a couple around and I want to try and work in Micropython or Circuitpython. If I use an RTC, it'll be one of the cheap battery backup modules. That said, I probably don't really need an RTC the more I think about it. I was going to power it from switched power on the machine (hence the desire to have an RTC to retain the count between trips when powered off) but that's not totally necessary. As long as I write the trip counts to memory (I think writing to EEPROM would be easier but I don't think any of the python-capable microcontrollers I have are equipped with anything other than flash) I can just let it run off unswitched battery and throw a toggle switch on the case. Power consumption won't be a problem if I forget to turn it off overnight (or for weeks).
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Jul 25, 2022 23:24
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At least for me, a charlatan who generally gets through weird projects that I briefly hyperfocus on by hacking together example code, arduino has been awful to work with. Buying overpriced boards and modules with great libraries and using Baby's First Language has been dramatically easier. I don't do anything complicated, and it's easy enough that I actually finish ~75% of the stupid problem-solving microcontroller related projects I start. I get that it's slow and can be dramatically more efficient with complied code but that's not even remotely on my radar as a concern.
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Jul 26, 2022 22:51
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ante posted:If you're not buying the TS100 / TS101, TS80, or Hakko FX-888D, then you're just pissing money down the drain on something that will probably break and be poo poo the whole time before it does. This is Weller station erasure and I will not stand for it.
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Dec 26, 2023 21:51
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 16:08 |
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ryanrs posted:1/8" headphone connector? I was going to say "don't bother with a 3 pin connector and just use bullet connectors" but a stereo headphone jack is brilliant.
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Jan 15, 2024 00:37
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