[QUOTE=Tw34k;44387660][url]http://www.ebay.com/itm/141043540165?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649[/url]
[url]http://www.ebay.com/itm/130839929399?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649[/url]
I keep a handful of each of these in one of my bins and even a few at work. At this price they're almost disposable.[/QUOTE]
Ah yes, those things are rather damn useful xD
I wonder how many you would have to buy to get them under £1 each...
Does anyone have any resources on using Bluetooth to communicate with smartphones? Specifically how to do media control? (like play, pause, back and forward)
I'm looking to buy a soldering iron, I'm like on my third iron because I keep breaking them :v: I THINK I've worked it out this time so I wanna spend around £20-£30 for a decent one, I was silly and brought a Soldering Gun then realized I can't really use it for PCB so cancelled my order and am now looking for a good iron, I'd be open to using a butane one but not sure of the risks.
[QUOTE=jamie1130;44392537]I'm looking to buy a soldering iron, I'm like on my third iron because I keep breaking them :v: I THINK I've worked it out this time so I wanna spend around [B][U]£20-£30[/U][/B] for a[B][U] decent[/U][/B] one, I was silly and brought a Soldering Gun then realized I can't really use it for PCB so cancelled my order and am now looking for a good iron, I'd be open to using a butane one but not sure of the risks.[/QUOTE]
Good luck
[QUOTE=Leestons;44392578]Good luck[/QUOTE]
I could just get a butane one, they were around £15 and looked pretty good?
[QUOTE=jamie1130;44392968]I could just get a butane one, they were around £15 and looked pretty good?[/QUOTE]
Butane ones are only really good for heavy jobs or in places where an electrical supply is difficult.
Something like this: [url]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351023865943[/url] is really the lowest price quality station you can get.
Don't cheap out or you'll regret it.
[QUOTE=jamie1130;44392968]I could just get a butane one, they were around £15 and looked pretty good?[/QUOTE]
I don't think butane irons are temperature controlled. You'll be dealing with overheated parts and detached PCB pads/traces.
[QUOTE=jamie1130;44392537]I'm looking to buy a soldering iron, I'm like on my third iron because I keep breaking them :v: I THINK I've worked it out this time so I wanna spend around £20-£30 for a decent one, I was silly and brought a Soldering Gun then realized I can't really use it for PCB so cancelled my order and am now looking for a good iron, I'd be open to using a butane one but not sure of the risks.[/QUOTE]
I don't know how much the shipping is to the UK but hobbyking sells a pretty decent stupidly cheap station: [url]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__32515__Soldering_Station_with_Adjustable_Heat_Range_with_EU_plug_EU_warehouse_.html[/url].
Just don't expect to be soldering to massive ground planes with lead free solder (which you should avoid in general).
[QUOTE=ddrl46;44393567]I don't know how much the shipping is to the UK but hobbyking sells a pretty decent stupidly cheap station: [url]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__32515__Soldering_Station_with_Adjustable_Heat_Range_with_EU_plug_EU_warehouse_.html[/url].
Just don't expect to be soldering to massive ground planes with lead free solder (which you should avoid in general).[/QUOTE]
It's just $17.47? Holy jesus, I wouldn't even want to plug that thing into an outlet. I'm glad I got a good old used Ersa soldering station from eBay for about 50€. At least, I don't need to be worried that it'll electrocute me because somebody was being lazy at the factory and the thing still passed QC.
Dave Jones (eevblog) just posted his review of this station:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdV7XBae74[/url]
[QUOTE=alexaz;44394261]Dave Jones (eevblog) just posted his review of this station:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdV7XBae74[/url][/QUOTE]
Dave actually chooses to use a proper, genuine Hakko tip on that cheap Chinese knockoff station and does all tests with that.
I can tell from my own experience with super-shitty iron tips that you'll probably have to get one as well, jamie1130... because the tips of the crappy "plug-into-wall" irons I bought just melted away and never really worked from the start, while the tip that came with my Ersa iron has a nice coat of solder on the tip that protects it and lets me actually heat up joints without waiting for an hour.
[QUOTE=jamie1130;44392537]I'm looking to buy a soldering iron, I'm like on my third iron because I keep breaking them :v: I THINK I've worked it out this time so I wanna spend around £20-£30 for a decent one, I was silly and brought a Soldering Gun then realized I can't really use it for PCB so cancelled my order and am now looking for a good iron, I'd be open to using a butane one but not sure of the risks.[/QUOTE]
No wonder you keep breaking 'em if you never pay more than that.
Does anyone know where you can get high temperature plastic tubing that is fairly heat insulating?
Ive been thinking of building a high power reflow gun to replace a soldering iron... don't know why... but yeh. Anyone have any interesting ideas?
I haven't had any problems with fake tips from ebay to be honest.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Xeln2oh.png[/IMG]
So I'm building a robot from a kit I bought. I'm supposed to solder a few transistors onto the board. As you see each connection/hole/whatever is really damn close to each other. How the hell do you solder that.
[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;44382873]Try using an Opamp and a potentiometer to feedback.[/QUOTE]
Still not sure how I'd do this but I realise I'm never going to make a half decent power supply out of these regulators.
Sorry about your merge Swebonny.
i think i messed up a bit, took a knife and separated them while heating the joints... hope i didn't fry the transistors :v:
[QUOTE=Swebonny;44396445]i think i messed up a bit, took a knife and separated them while heating the joints... hope i didn't fry the transistors :v:[/QUOTE]
You solder it by not applying too much and by keeping the joint heated proerply. The solder will then flow nicely into place.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NU2ruzyc4[/media]
[QUOTE=Leestons;44396444]Still not sure how I'd do this but I realise I'm never going to make a half decent power supply out of these regulators.
Sorry about your merge Swebonny.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://i.stack.imgur.com/OZDQw.png[/img]
U1 is a voltage reg by the way.
Thank you nuttyboffin, very much appreciated!
[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;44398870][img]http://i.stack.imgur.com/OZDQw.png[/img]
U1 is a voltage reg by the way.[/QUOTE]
That will not work unless OA2 is a true differential amp, plus R1 will drop voltage before the regulator which isn't exactly a good idea unless R1 is very small which means you will also need voltage gain, plus there are also additional losses from the Rds of Q1, effectively you are putting two regulators in series.
Here is a quick design I made with dual voltage and current limiting.
[img]http://puu.sh/7PwBV.png[/img]
This uses low side current sense to eliminate the need for a differential amp (there are pros and cons for either method), R3 is the load and R1 the shunt resistor, R5 and R4 are used to help prevent oscillation by reducing the slew rate.
This works fine as long as Vin is less than your op-amp maximum, in practice you'd usually use CMOS rail to rail op-amps which are rather low voltage so you'd need an attenuator on the inverting input to U1 as well as a separate supply for the op-amps, or maybe a voltage divider depending on their operating current.
Thanks for the help, ordered one of these: [url]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111262341809[/url] I'll post what I needed it for when I finish it :)
[QUOTE=jamie1130;44402676]Thanks for the help, ordered one of these: [url]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111262341809[/url] I'll post what I needed it for when I finish it :)[/QUOTE]
That is actually the one I just bought for my desk at work. I think its great for the price. (like $44 US)
Yay a picture!
[t]http://i.imgur.com/RMR2UAA.jpg[/t]
So we just recently moved to a new bigger building at work and while rummaging through the old site I found some old IP phones with 2 X 40 character VFD displays in them.
A little bit of wall trim and wood stain from the hardware store and a few man hours later I have this nice little display I keep on my desk to put all sorts of quirky messages on. It also lets me work on my sub par programming skills when I'm bored with nothing to do.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/XBilvbV.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/v4lvlrD.jpg[/t]
It's using a shift register so the VFD only needs three I/O pins, the unit has a variety of sensors on board including temperature, humidity, light level, and a RTC for time and date. I also added a button to allow you to scroll through pre programmed messages on the fly.
I've wanted a screen for quite a while but I have absolutely no use for one.
Loving the little android.
Shift registers are black magic.
[QUOTE=Nightrazr;44413202]Shift registers are black magic.[/QUOTE]
Shift registers are trivial.
[b]This[/b]
[img]http://i.stack.imgur.com/oUDHL.png[/img]
is black magic.
[QUOTE=chipset;44414226]Shift registers are trivial.
[b]This[/b]
[img]http://i.stack.imgur.com/oUDHL.png[/img]
is black magic.[/QUOTE]
I'm going to be completely honest: I have no fucking idea what those things are or what purpose they serve.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_element_filter]And after a quick Google reverse-image search[/url], I'm still "HADURR!".
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