Wellllllll - Safety 1st!!! Do learn to be safe around electronics and electrical stuff!! 2nd - you will burn stuff up or blow stuff up (safety glasses are recommended just as in any shop situation). Don't let that get you down because it happens - just be prepared for when it does. Have a remote "OFF" switch for electrical power because when something does decide to start smoking you will want to be able to shut it off without having to expose yourself to possible dangerous voltages. There is a variable transformer that is referred to as a variac (which stand for variable AC) that is a great asset to have on hand. variac | eBay
Thanks a lot, c2cthomas, jer, walt, and mike... I recently bought a little Weller iron (pen style, no temp control), and I have a 'gun' style one that must be at least 35-40 yrs. old, but I never had any issues with it when I used it about 15 yrs. ago...just don't know where it is at the moment. So I've done a little bit of soldering...um I've got pretty much all the basic carpentry/woodworking tools. Oh, and my kids were given a little electronic-workstation toy with a big book of simple schematics that's proving to be educational (even though I'm older than the recommended age), and, thanks to your links, I just started reading learningelectronics.net. I'm moving currently, but that includes setting up a new/bigger workspace, so I guess I'm wondering about this desk-power supply or station or whatever? This is some sort of unit (I could potentially build) that would control the power going to my workstation? Like to adjust the current and/or keep me from shorting out the whole house? Where could I find plans and parts? And and oscillator would be great, I've always thought they looked awesome! Seriously, though, does it do everything a multimeter do? I've been reading another forum about meters and pricing... What are your thoughts as to the prices of these two or three pieces of equipment? Thanks again, and sorry for rambling... Daniel
Here is one example of units you can find around the 'Net. I haven't built this one so I cannot vouch for it personally - it's only intended as an example of something you can DIY and gain a piece of Test Equipment as well as learning a bit of electronics to boot.
http://electronics-diy.com/power-supply-lm317-2n3055-0-28v-6-8a.php
Check out the function generators here. Electronics-DIY.com - Electronic Schematics Test
A function generator is an oscillator with some "extra" functions - like being able to generate square waves.
Multimeters measure voltage and current - oscillators generate a signal. Two very different things. 😉
The site I linked you to are DIY projects and will save you $$$ compared to buy new gear. Every now and again you can find used equipment that doesn't cost much and might be worth considering. I purchased some of my equipment used (O'scope) - some new (solder station - DVM) and build some (power supplies).
Daniel....One of the first things I learned is, electronics uses the pen style soldering iron. There's lots of tutorials, including tangentsoft, Colin Cunningham (a real character and great stuff!) on you-tube and ++others who prove you can do a lot with a simple no-frills pen iron. A fun short web research project would be to learn about soldering irons and soldering!
After I got my soldering station, i went to radio shack, spent about $5+ on a small perfboard (empty circuit board), some resistors, capacitors, chip sockets, LEDs. All picked at random. And a small spool of solid wire. I soldered these components and wire pieces to the board. I quickly learned basic soldering. Later, I got the $10+ radio shack de-soldering iron...and took the stuff off the board. I have since used the de-soldering iron on my projects! Oops!
I'm still trying to figure out how to properly remove solder flux (the residue left over from soldering) from the board...got the 99% isopropyl, the brush...but still not satisfied with the results...crawling along...!
BTW radio shack is very convenient...but it's pricy and limited stock...compared to the big electronics supply houses.
c2cthomas... I have never seen the electronics-diy site. Its great! So much stuff out there...
Walt
After I got my soldering station, i went to radio shack, spent about $5+ on a small perfboard (empty circuit board), some resistors, capacitors, chip sockets, LEDs. All picked at random. And a small spool of solid wire. I soldered these components and wire pieces to the board. I quickly learned basic soldering. Later, I got the $10+ radio shack de-soldering iron...and took the stuff off the board. I have since used the de-soldering iron on my projects! Oops!
I'm still trying to figure out how to properly remove solder flux (the residue left over from soldering) from the board...got the 99% isopropyl, the brush...but still not satisfied with the results...crawling along...!
BTW radio shack is very convenient...but it's pricy and limited stock...compared to the big electronics supply houses.
c2cthomas... I have never seen the electronics-diy site. Its great! So much stuff out there...
Walt
I have an uncle who was one of the top electrical engineers at Ford Motor Copmpany is also a Ham radio operator and I remember many times how POed he would be and tell me about his bad day at work, Because the collage grad's straight out of school were burning $100's of meter movements because they did not know Ohm's law or how to use it.he,he 🙁
Thanks to them I now can recite it upside down and backwards and it is the most used electronic formula I have needed to date! 🙂
The solderless breadboard is the best thing ever since the Re-invention of the wheel.
When it comes to soldering irons it is also good to have different size tips aswell.
It make thing so much easier when working with IC's to have a needle tip rather than a regular one and always keep a metal file and some emory paper on hand to clean and dress the tip with as well.
If the tip is not clean you will never get a good solder joint and just destroy the parts you are working on with heat in the long run.
If you don't have a varible wattage one, It is good to have a few different ones around to choose from depending on the jobs heat requirements.
For signal generators I have used transistors, opamps and the LM555 timers aswell as the icL8038 and the exar XR2206 with great sucess.
But if you can afford it, one already done and calibrated in a nice box is super, But I went many years using my bench built model as well. 🙂
There are many supply circuits available to the hobbiest not much different there.
I did design and build a monster supply once that used a transformer from a Personal computer UPS that didn't work any more.
It was similar to the one that c2thomas mentioned only mine used 4 or 5 2N3055's for output regulation and produced 40 at 15v and to 60 amps at 9v.
It turned any large spool of wire I had laying around into a large very powerful electromagnet!
I sure had a lot of fun with that thing as it to was variable 0v to 20v and it never got hot or burned up,it was quite heavy duty.
I had also made a 30 step .5v per step bargraph display that monitored the output voltage.
It is was cool but it got lost some how in my move from Fla. to MIchigan.🙁
When I worked on TV's we had a wall type light switch on the bench and was wired directly to the power strips on the bench so that in case of any catastrophic failure we could just hit that switch very quickely too shut every thing down before something bad could happen.
I used to play with with rf stuff and I was tickled when I finaly got my hands on a decent frequency counter so don't waste the extra money on a meter with one built in if you plan on experimenting outside of the audio range.
They are very easy to build mine was a kit that used a 28 pin ICM7208 chip from Intersil.
The Kit was from OPTO ELECTRONCS,INC .
I'm not sure if they are still around but the had alot of cool kits back in the day,
You are better off going for the L/C measurement capibility's instead that is already calibrated from the factory,this is something that I badly wish I had right now!
Always Remember saftey first and the one hand in the pocket method when messing with voltages over 50v to 90v and higher,I won't dwell on this but it is something that cannot be expressed enough! 🙂
I will look up some more links of stuff shortley that you may find usefull as those already presented is a very good start!
Keep on DIYin' everybody!!!! jer
Thanks to them I now can recite it upside down and backwards and it is the most used electronic formula I have needed to date! 🙂
The solderless breadboard is the best thing ever since the Re-invention of the wheel.
When it comes to soldering irons it is also good to have different size tips aswell.
It make thing so much easier when working with IC's to have a needle tip rather than a regular one and always keep a metal file and some emory paper on hand to clean and dress the tip with as well.
If the tip is not clean you will never get a good solder joint and just destroy the parts you are working on with heat in the long run.
If you don't have a varible wattage one, It is good to have a few different ones around to choose from depending on the jobs heat requirements.
For signal generators I have used transistors, opamps and the LM555 timers aswell as the icL8038 and the exar XR2206 with great sucess.
But if you can afford it, one already done and calibrated in a nice box is super, But I went many years using my bench built model as well. 🙂
There are many supply circuits available to the hobbiest not much different there.
I did design and build a monster supply once that used a transformer from a Personal computer UPS that didn't work any more.
It was similar to the one that c2thomas mentioned only mine used 4 or 5 2N3055's for output regulation and produced 40 at 15v and to 60 amps at 9v.
It turned any large spool of wire I had laying around into a large very powerful electromagnet!
I sure had a lot of fun with that thing as it to was variable 0v to 20v and it never got hot or burned up,it was quite heavy duty.
I had also made a 30 step .5v per step bargraph display that monitored the output voltage.
It is was cool but it got lost some how in my move from Fla. to MIchigan.🙁
When I worked on TV's we had a wall type light switch on the bench and was wired directly to the power strips on the bench so that in case of any catastrophic failure we could just hit that switch very quickely too shut every thing down before something bad could happen.
I used to play with with rf stuff and I was tickled when I finaly got my hands on a decent frequency counter so don't waste the extra money on a meter with one built in if you plan on experimenting outside of the audio range.
They are very easy to build mine was a kit that used a 28 pin ICM7208 chip from Intersil.
The Kit was from OPTO ELECTRONCS,INC .
I'm not sure if they are still around but the had alot of cool kits back in the day,
You are better off going for the L/C measurement capibility's instead that is already calibrated from the factory,this is something that I badly wish I had right now!
Always Remember saftey first and the one hand in the pocket method when messing with voltages over 50v to 90v and higher,I won't dwell on this but it is something that cannot be expressed enough! 🙂
I will look up some more links of stuff shortley that you may find usefull as those already presented is a very good start!
Keep on DIYin' everybody!!!! jer
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For the solder flux I use denatured alcohol or acetone. Both flammable so be careful. A pump type dispenser is also very handy and can be purchased cheap from flea bay under the area for nail polish remover dispensers. Most nail polish remover uses acetone for its base.
pump bottle | eBay
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Here are I few links for How to make a bench supply's.
The first two are typical linear type supply's and is what I Had sugested in the first place and would be what I would use for developing audio circuits.
The rest are links on how to convert a PC supply into a killer bench supply.
I have never tried to use one on audio circiuts as they can be abit noisy but with some extra filtering the could be a very cheap and viable Alternative.
Maybe some one who has tried this can jump in on this one.
There tons of articles on such conversions.
jer
DIY Bench Power Supply - ADWiens.com
How to Build a Bench-Top Power Supply
Use a PC Power Supply as a Bench Supply with the ATX PS Adapter
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/sho...wer-Supply-for-10-Computer-Power-Supply-HowTo
The first two are typical linear type supply's and is what I Had sugested in the first place and would be what I would use for developing audio circuits.
The rest are links on how to convert a PC supply into a killer bench supply.
I have never tried to use one on audio circiuts as they can be abit noisy but with some extra filtering the could be a very cheap and viable Alternative.
Maybe some one who has tried this can jump in on this one.
There tons of articles on such conversions.
jer
DIY Bench Power Supply - ADWiens.com
How to Build a Bench-Top Power Supply
Use a PC Power Supply as a Bench Supply with the ATX PS Adapter
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/sho...wer-Supply-for-10-Computer-Power-Supply-HowTo
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Here are links to some function generator circuits the last one has a ton of cool stuff.
jer
1Hz to 2MHz Function Generator Kit with XR2206
nuxie1.com - Function Generator
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110324221443AAiYsTp
DIY Function Generator
Index of /diy/Schematics/Oscillators LFOs and Signal Generators
jer
1Hz to 2MHz Function Generator Kit with XR2206
nuxie1.com - Function Generator
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110324221443AAiYsTp
DIY Function Generator
Index of /diy/Schematics/Oscillators LFOs and Signal Generators
alcohol is great for fresh flux right after soldering, but when it hardens, I find only acetone cleans it properly... Due care has to be taken with component side of board as spilling acetone on some plastics will melt them, and it can also take colour bands off some. I find most electronic components resistant to it though, just be carefull of wire shrouds etc. Just soak a tip on a kitchen towel and scrub your board with that.... not on a carpet, the white fluff from the towel scraping pins messes everywhere.
I have never heard of using such solvents before I have always used a wet towel or old dish rag or wet sponge to keep the tip clean.
You learn something new everyday! 🙂
jer
You learn something new everyday! 🙂
jer
As I seem to say everytime, 'Wow.' Yous guys is so edjamacated! Really, an oscillator *produces* a signal? Ha! Do I win an award for most obvious amateur or anything? I always thought it was just to give you a visual of whatever was plugged into it. 'One hand in my pocket'? Okay, that's about all I can absorb and respond to right now, off to check out some of the links...and review Ohm's Law...
The one hand in your pocket method is for just in case you slip and get a jolt or a good poke the current will flow down your body to ground through your leg and feet instead of across your chest and cause cardiact arrest in case you are holding the chassis or something that is considered a ground.
jer
jer
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