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Hi. I'm jon.404, a Unix/Linux/Database/Openstack/Kubernetes Administrator, AWS/GCP/Azure Engineer, mathematics enthusiast, and amateur philosopher. This is where I rant about that which upsets me, laugh about that which amuses me, and jabber about that which holds my interest most: *nix.
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Soldering Station...check!

Posted 07-29-2015 at 12:53 AM by rocket357

Got a new Weller Soldering Station recently, so I've been pursuing my interests in electronics and computer hardware. After spending 20+ years in the software side of the house (both as a programmer and as a sysad/engineer), I've finally started to really understand the hardware side of the house (well, I have much to learn, but it's starting to come together).

My first order of business has been to build out a desk variable power supply with a 480 Watt Antec PSU I had laying around. I have it all prepped, I'm just waiting on a few parts to arrive before I can take it for a spin. Once I have the bugs worked out there, I'm going to build out a chip-only ATMEGA328 project (basically, an arduino chip without the board...I'll be building the board myself). I've started collecting ICs from the various dead electronics I have laying around, and I've managed to identify some of the through-hole stuff (I need new tips and a desoldering strip or pump to remove the surface mount stuff). Some of the opto-isolators in another Antec PSU I've sacrificed to build the variable power supply are really neat ideas...they allow one circuit to control another without any electromagnetic flow between the two. Perhaps my "hardware infancy" is showing, but that's really cool stuff to me.

And who knows, with the rise of the IoT, perhaps knowledge in this side of the house will come in handy in my career or projects.
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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    I've been doing quite a bit of soldering over the last couple of years. All through-hole stuff, mostly add-ons in kit form for my Raspberry Pis. I first learned how to solder as an apprentice (electrical) instrument maker, many decades ago. Bigger stuff then than now, but the same techniques apply. I haven't got a variable temperature soldering-station, just an Antec 25W iron.
    Posted 07-29-2015 at 07:39 AM by brianL brianL is offline
  2. Old Comment
    I "learned" to solder at a very young age by watching my Dad repair electronics and build various things. I remember very vividly him building an electric motor when I was around 6 years old...he took it outside to the car and hooked it up to the battery of the car. I can still hear the sparking and whizzing sound it made when it sprung to life.

    No professional soldering here, just hobby stuff...but it's still fun all the same.
    Posted 07-29-2015 at 07:57 AM by rocket357 rocket357 is offline
  3. Old Comment
    Yeah, I enjoy it more as a hobby than I did when it was work.
    Posted 07-29-2015 at 09:28 AM by brianL brianL is offline
 

  



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