2020 Goals - Soldering an Eggfinder

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SecondRow said:
So the local maker space had an open build night the other day. I took the kids and we toured it. After a brief intro, they gave me a board and some parts and let me use their soldering station. I only had time to put three resistors on, because the kids wanted to build something, too. I took the board home, checked it on my multimeter, and the connections for all three were good! And all three were physically in there strong - I tried wiggling them and they didn't move. They're not pretty, but they work. So, some success.

I've ordered a couple practice board from Amazon, including the Gikfun boards linked above. I'll start with some through hole practice boards and then move on. I also joined the maker space, so I'll do most of my work there until I get comfortable. There's a retired EE who likes to help teach.
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I'm in the Atlanta area, also. Where's the maker space you're referring to?
 
Moving in the right direction. I found this Sparkfun beginner flashlight kit for a couple bucks. Resistor, LED, switch and battery holder. Took about 10-15 minutes (and most of that time was trying to tin the tip properly, trying to figure out if I needed to clean the tip, and wondering if the temp was too low).

My technique definitely needs work. I kept pulling the iron away from the joint before removing the solder. I got the solder stuck to the joint twice. :rolleyes:

Anyway, here’s the finished product:7393C2FB-C265-4C63-9F7F-F77B73AEA26B.jpeg

The wire cutters I have could not cut the leads very close as you can see. What do you use?B2CC35C4-D8F9-4987-89EA-B9F90ACBC7E3.jpeg

Now the moment of truth:8D99664C-F1FA-4B7F-A5F1-50A963BBFB2E.jpeg

Let there be light! I feel like a god. My kids now think I’m some expert soldering wizard.

Next up is a Velleman crawling microbug. All through hole components, but significantly more. There are some connections that are pretty close, so I’ll have to make sure not to create any bridges. image.jpg
 
John Kemker said:
I haven't flown with anyone since before 9/11. Last launch I attended was the LDRS held in Orangeburg in 2000.
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Sounds like you’re due. LPR once a month in Alpharetta. A bigger field for LPR in Dawsonville maybe 8 times a year. We have a new high power field in Taylorsville, but it won’t get a lot of use. I think the next time we’ll be there will be February or March.
 
I finished an Eggtimer Quantum this morning & it works. :) This is my 3rd one. I hosed the first one, succeeded with the second one, & bought a 3rd one during the Holiday Sale as I want a working pair for redundancy.

This time though I used my stereo microscope and my hot air solder reflow gun & solder paste to mount all the surface mount devices. Did all the componets on the top first, all at the same time and then all the ones on the bottom at the same time. It was the easiest & quickest assembly I've done so far. I even did the "legs" on the Wi-Fi module this way.

I used my soldering station for all the through hole componets.

I love the hot air method.
 
SecondRow said:
Moving in the right direction. I found this Sparkfun beginner flashlight kit for a couple bucks. Resistor, LED, switch and battery holder. Took about 10-15 minutes (and most of that time was trying to tin the tip properly, trying to figure out if I needed to clean the tip, and wondering if the temp was too low).

My technique definitely needs work. I kept pulling the iron away from the joint before removing the solder. I got the solder stuck to the joint twice. :rolleyes:

Anyway, here’s the finished product:View attachment 401528

The wire cutters I have could not cut the leads very close as you can see. What do you use?View attachment 401527
You don't need to send a pile of cash on tools. Just grab a pair of small flush cutters for a couple of bucks at most. Through hole stuff is essentially "cheating", grab a cheap SMT kit and you'll know firsthand just how easy it truly is..
Now the moment of truth:View attachment 401529 Trough hole stuff is essentially "cheating", get an SMT kit and have at 'er... Guarantee you can do it, seems way more intimidating than it truly is..

Let there be light! I feel like a god. My kids now think I’m some expert soldering wizard.

Next up is a Velleman crawling microbug. All through hole components, but significantly more. There are some connections that are pretty close, so I’ll have to make sure not to create any bridges. View attachment 401530
Click to expand...
 
Huston, we have a problem. Posted a "Like/Quote/Reply twice now and neither has shown up?
 
Don't worry, Wallace, I've got some SMT practice kits as well. I'm going to get to those as soon as I get a little more confidence. I think some of those joints I did are a little messy.

What's so bad about cheating? :angel::haironfire:
 
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So it's been about three weeks since I last posted anything on this thread, but I've been making lots of progress. First up was the crawling microbug. It crawls towards light sources with the phototresistors at LDR1 and LDR 2. The LEDs are its eyes. You can vary the speed of each motor (which operate as its legs) and the sensitivity of the photoresistors.
UBMZ7649.JPG EYHW6946.JPG
Here are some pics of my solder joints. Don't laugh at the joints for the motor. Or go ahead and laugh - they're ugly. I had no idea how to do it properly. The instructions made it look like you were supposed to make a fillet by running the iron down the spot where the motor and pad meet. But that didn't really work for me. So I doubled down and added more solder until I had the mess you see before you. JGAF9853.JPG OANR7531.JPG RYMR6088.JPG Anyway, it worked, so I was happy with it. Feel free to give me any constructive criticism. This was done a couple weeks ago and I think I've gotten better since then. GYSH0187.JPG I've got some more projects that I'll post tomorrow. It's getting late.
 

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Nobody said they have to look pretty. But, nice work. Most of the through hole stuff looks really nice, you're looking for that nice, clean/shiny surface. Don't concern yourself with the "fillet" looking deal, you'll not find such nonsense in anything practically designed. I say you're ready to tackle some SMD stuff...
 
Soldering to those motors takes a LOT more heat than you would use for the electronics... either a larger iron, or a bigger tip if you have a temperature-controlled workstation. You need to use a rosin-core flux too, and never use the same tip with both rosin-core and no-clean flux. I'm kinda surprised that the heat doesn't melt the endbell on the motor...
 
cerving said:
Soldering to those motors takes a LOT more heat than you would use for the electronics... either a larger iron, or a bigger tip if you have a temperature-controlled workstation. You need to use a rosin-core flux too, and never use the same tip with both rosin-core and no-clean flux. I'm kinda surprised that the heat doesn't melt the endbell on the motor...
Click to expand...

Yes, I used a small conical tip which I now realize was too small.

I also did not understand the differences in types of solder when I walked in to Micro Center. The solder I bought is 0.02" 63/37 no-clean water washable flux. At the time, I just grabbed the first one I saw.
 
Next I built a digital clock, but I didn't take any pictures of the joints. It works, and the alarm is incredibly loud and annoying. IMG_1411.JPG

Then, I built what the Chinese manufacturer had the nerve to call a 16-sound "music" box. :D It works fine, but I wouldn't call the sounds that come out of it music. The sounds change depending on the position of the four switches at the bottom. The one board on the right was mounted perpendicular to the main board, which made for an interesting solder, but I think it turned out alright.

You'll notice a diode missing from D1. It was bad, either from it being cheap junk or me burning it out from too much heat. It was causing a problem with the sounds where if you set switch S4 to on, switch S3 would automatically be set to on, even if it was off. So I wan't able to hear three of the sounds. I took it to some of the experts at the maker space and they diagnosed the problem. I got a spare diode and attached it to the back, and now I get all 16 annoying sounds.

After success on all the through hole projects, I decided I should try the SMD practice board.
DTQF1210.JPG GPTH4395.JPG ICUA9412.JPG JNBA6753.JPG SULW4207.JPG
 
First off, I'm just gonna say that surface mount went way smoother than I thought it would. I did this at the maker space in about 3 hours total, where they had good tweezers and a lighted adjustable magnifier. Those tools were essential for me.

Most of the board was just practice. The six column on the left and right were for different sized resistors and capacitors: 1206, 0805, 0603 and 0402. I put those on first -- well -- I put on all of them except for the 0402 parts because nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh too small. Maybe I'll do them later, but since the Eggfinders don't use anything that small, I don't feel like it right now. Checking the circuits for each column at T1- T5, I had closed circuits for all of them. Success so far. So on to the middle section which is a kind of counter with lighted LEDs. The LEDs around the circle light up in order and the ones in the corner stay on for half a revolution and then off for the other half. It looks cool, but more importantly, it works. All in all, I connected 60+ resistors, almost 30 capacitors, 2 ICs, 15 LEDs, 4 diodes and 4 transistors. And everything works. So I think I'm ready for the Eggfinder and will be ordering it very soon.

Again, feel free to comment on the soldering job. I know they're not all pretty and there were times I thought maybe I used too much solder. I'd like to know your thoughts. Thanks.

The board MSAC1742.JPG EITA6517.JPG HMOM2523.JPG MNYC2727.JPG MSAC1742.JPG YAIH8322 (1).JPG PPOE7825.JPG QBVT1909.JPG TNLV2477.JPG UIZJ5166.JPG
 

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It looks pretty good to me. Note the solder "bubbles" on many of the 0402 parts... that's because they're using the standard SMT pad footprint which is designed for reflow soldering in an oven. Most of the SMT pads on Eggtimer's boards have an extra .025" or so added to the end of the standard SMT pads, to allow the solder to flow out past the leads on the component. It's easier for hand soldering than the standard pad footprint.
 

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