What I learned from soldering
· 2 min read
Somewhere between the garage and home, the notion finally made sense. I found the radio at a flea market and could not leave it there.
The short version
Nothing here requires a bench power supply, though it does make things easier. The result is not perfect, but it is candid. Some of this will be self-evident; some of it took me years.
A multimeter answers most questions before an oscilloscope is needed. I keep a short list of things to try next; soldering is near the top. I tested the cheap version first. It did not last.
Getting started
There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. Thanks for reading, and for the kind observations that keep arriving. You can get remarkably far with a soldering iron and some patience. I like microcontrollers that shows the marks of how it was made.
In February the light changes, and so does the work. I keep a short list of things to try next; measuring things is near the top. Repairing things teaches more than building them from scratch. The trick, if there is one, is to leave plenty of room for slip-ups.
Before and after
In December the light changes, and so does the work. Somewhere between the hackerspace and home, the notion finally made sense. I shifted my mind about firmware twice while writing this. This began as a quick note and slowly turned into something longer.
I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. For a long time I treated soldering as an afterthought. The board worked on the second revision, after one very self-evident fix.
- Give measuring things a full autumn
- Write down what you change
- Stop before you are tired
- Write down what you change
I tested the calm version first. It did not last. The enclosure took longer than the electronics, as usual. Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I found out them.
microcontrollerspower supplies