This one page handout by Mitch Altman and Andie Nordgren teaches the basics of soldering in a simple and easy to understand way.
I’m very, very familiar with this comic, for reasons that I hope to reveal soon.
Enjoy!
Soldering is Easy, by Mitch Altman and Andie Nordgren.
Click the image to open a full size version or visit Andie’s site to download a PDF version suitable for printing.
Jan Wante made this gorgeous Wifi Radio with a modern look. It is based on my original Wifi Radio tutorials.
Not content to simply duplicate my work, he added a few creative twists of his own, including a custom handmade case made of alucobond, MDF, and real wood veneer that gives his finished radio a nice, modern look. Inside, a hacked WL-520gU wireless router running OpenWrt runs the show and an ATmega microcontroller programmed with BASCOM interfaces with a rotary encoder and graphical LCD display.
The very impressive result is shown in this video:
Nice work, Jan!
Today, while I was tweaking the microscope that I use for surface mount soldering, I realized that I have collected quite a bit of hard to find information about this circa~1975 model 569 American Optical StereoStar Stereoscopic Zoom Microscope (say that three times fast!).
So, I made a wiki page and put it all online. StereoStar owners, rejoice!
While I was visiting Portland last month, I made a quick stop at SurplusGizmos in Hillsboro.
SurplusGizmos is what an electronics store should be, and it’s the kind of place that I love to visit. It’s also the kind of electronics store that is completely nonexistant in Austin (oh, my beloved HSC, how I miss you), but I digress…
You can usually tell a good surplus electronics store by the pile of junk outside the door (usually with a sign on it that says “Make Offer.” I’m not kidding:
Inside SurplusGizmos, you’ll find aisles full of electronic components like resistors, capacitors, connectors, random semiconductors, fans, motors, and miscellaneous surplus stuff. Paradise!
AVR microcontrollers! Forrest Mims books!
They have cabinets with drawers full of electrolytic capacitors! Yes! This is what a real electronics store is like!
This way, resistors by the foot!! This ain’t no Radio Shack!
Aluminum by the pound!
Interesting pieces of surplus equipment sold for pennies on the dollar!
They have a huge selection of “solder samples”, printed circuit boards that are used to…
Actually, I’m sure what they are for. I think they are used by the PCB manufacturer to test their process, but can someone comment about what solder samples are for, and why you always get one or two when you order a full panel of PCBs?
Anyway, there were LOTS of them. Hundreds. Looking at these panels reminded me of Dave Jones’ PCB Design for Manufacture video. Lots of examples of v-scoring, tab-routing, fiducials, etc.
I picked up a few to use as coasters/wall art/whatever.
Apparently SurplusGizmos has some deal with Oregon Scientific and gets customer returns of their weather monitoring equipment. It seemed like if you spent the time to collect all the right parts, you could build a complete indoor/outdoor wireless weather station for a fraction of the new cost.
I wish I could have spent more time there, but my time was limited and my luggage space was small. Next time!
If you’re ever in the Portland area and want to see what a “real” electronics store is like – check this place out.
I took lots more photos, many of which are available on Flickr.
Oh, and SurplusGizmos is listed on the surplus electronics wiki. If there’s a good electronics store in your area and it’s not on the wiki, add it! Help keep these small, independently-owned electronics shops alive!
While I was visiting Portland last month, I had a chance to check out a DorkbotPDX meeting.
This meeting was unlike any other Dorkbot I have seen before (in San Francisco and Austin). Instead of formal presentations, everyone shows up at a cafe/coffee shop called Backspace (that serves beer!) and brings a project to work on or show and tell. And, instead of meeting once a month, they meet every other week!
It was awesome.
I didn’t get to take very many pictures, but I just uploaded a few photos to Flickr.
