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
>