If you buy an old used metcal mx500p soldering iron you will never have to think about solder temp again. Temp setting is built into the tips, so you basically buy leaded or non leaded tips or both and your done. The nice thing about them is they aren’t capable of overshoot like some heat control mechanisms and essentially heat up from zero in 3-4 seconds, the thermal transfer is incredible, the stands uses a magnet to cool down your iron as it rests. In my experience my old metcal with old tips out preformed my schools band new JBC workstations (these were very nice also). The handpieces and tips arent cheap but I’ve been rocking mine for years now and no signs of any of the tips slowing down.
im determined to use up these weird lil notstripboards so im gonna make a little four oscillator drone box using look mum no computer’s 2n3904 avalanche mode oscillator. it is working! i tried to salvage a speaker from an old thrift find but i think it was broken, gonna try to find a working one tomorrow. i learned a whole bunch through this process, hopefully the next three go by a little quicker tomorrow
i want to build it over the weekend so i can bring it in to work and show the kids in my class
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had a change of plans and made five atari punk consoles and put em in a box. i think im mixing the signals incorrectly but its not exploding anything so im fine with it. very messy but surprised it all works. the speakers i have arent working, so ill have to live with an output jack. speakers are confusing
lmao i spoke too soon, shout out to skipback on the 404 for catching the moment it popped. not sure what went wrong here but im not too surprised
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I’d sample this pop sound. Sounds awesome!
Some recommendations:
- try to not leave so much uninsulated wires and leads on the top side. I don’t see how you mount the boards but I easily can imagine how potentiometer case shorts some of wires and blows the device.
- wiring on the opposite side of a board makes routing slightly easier and more secure. And this allows to design more dense boards what is important when you’re trying to fit something relatively complex into a small case (proper manufactured PCB are better bit that’s the next level).
- tinned pcbs are much more convenient and not so expensive. Also you can learn solder bridges technique to slightly simplify wiring
- its also good idea to cut all leads to avoid occasional shorts. Mostly, passive components (resistors, capacitors, etc) are too cheap to worry about
- ICs are not easy to desolder and they cost much more than passive components. In general, it’s a good idea to use IC sockets. They’re cheap and allow to replace or reuse IC
- very minor thing, but 556 in Atari Punk Console is slightly easier to manage. It’s literally two 555s in the same case.
There are some photos: non-music device which however illustrates my recommendations, and my Atari Punk Console prototype (unfortunately, I’ve got only a front view, and device was disassembled far ago)
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thanks for the insight! those are all things i decided to be lazy about but the reminders cant hurt. this was definitely a project for doing things wrong and seeing what happens
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I wouldn’t say it takes much more time. It pays later when you’re debugging and tuning your project.
By the way, about the solder bridges. I spent a lot of time and solder until I figured out that key is lowering an iron temperature. I solder 60/40 on 240C and lower it to about 200C for bridges.
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