Martin,
Nice to hear from another equipment nut. You are doing the things I am
interested in. Where would I find that cordless soldering gun, and how
much does it cost?
Thanks,
John
On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 10:33:38AM -0600, Martin McCormick wrote:
> I like using perf board and wire-wrap for digital
> projects as well aseven some RF projects. You must solder leads
> to components since component leads are round and do not bite in
> to the wire-wrap wire.
>
> I also have played around with PIC microcontrollers and
> the Motorola 68HC11 which is another embedded controller.
>
> The idea of a circuit description language is a very
> good one. Things like PIC's and other microprocessors simplify
> the construction details since more of the circuit is in
> firmware, but documenting a circuit has been one of my biggest
> problems so one can come back to it in months or years and tell
> what is what.
>
> My favorite soldering tool for small parts is a Wahl
> cordless soldering gun. I also have a bigger gun for the big
> stuff like coax connectors and anything else that sucks the heat
> away too fast for a little iron to work well.
>
> I do have a question. I have occasionally used cotton
> work gloves to shield my fingers when using a standard plug-in
> iron. you can safely, but lightly touch the tip because the
> cotton insulates your fingers but the cotton easily burns
> through and the glove is ruined as soon as the hole burns in a
> finger.
>
> Is there any heat-resistant fabric that feels about like
> cotton but doesn't burn as easily?
>
> If there was something like that , one could use a regular iron
> more easily.
>
> Guns, of course, can start cold so you can touch
> everything, but guns also apply more heat as they warm up than
> an already-hot iron.
>
> An already hot iron, however, can do lots of damage if
> you don't watch where you put it on the work. A normal tip
> temperature is about 700 degrees F.
>
> Another advantage of light gloves is that you really
> don't want to get human finger prints on what you are soldering
> because the solder flux isn't capable of cleaning the oil off
> that well.
>
> I am 56 years old and have been building and tinkering
> since I was in grade school so I am always looking for a new
> angle to try.
>
> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
> Systems Engineer
> OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group
>
> "John J. Boyer" writes:
> >It's nice to see that there are several people interested in building
> >equipment on the list, since what I want to do in ham radio is build and
> >try out equipment. When I was younger I used to build quite a lot,
> >including soldering. I built transistor circuits, but I used a modified
> >version of a breadboard. Nowadays techniques are quite different.
> >
> >I wonder how many of you remember Bob Gunderson of the New York
> >Institute for the Education of the blind. He was fand away my favorite
> >teacher.
> >
> >The Braille Technical Press and later the Technical Files used to
> >publish circuit diagrams. I'm thinking that a circuit-description
> >language like Spice might be used to describe circuits for the blind.
> >Another possibility would be to develop or find a language based on xml.
> >I have been working on transcribing xml to braille for several years.
> >
> >Let me know your ideas.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >John
> >
> >--
> >John J. boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
> >JJB Software, Inc.
> >http://www.jjb-software.com
> >Madison, WI USA
> >Developing software for people with disabilities
> >
>
--
John J. boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
JJB Software, Inc.
http://www.jjb-software.com
Madison, WI USA
Developing software for people with disabilities
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