Surreal wrote:damn. i think i am in.
can someone suggest a good soldering iron? monome priced good ones at 100...that is a little much..but i guess it might encourage me to do other soldering.
and what is a way to become proficient with soldering ? i would like to do this before messing with my 250 dollar kit.
Youtube to the rescue...
This guy shows how to solder two wires together but the same applies to soldering wire to circuit boards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QznAAwL ... ed&search=
This looks to be an OK guide too
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/solder.htm
It'll be easy.
If you want to practice, go to Radio Shack, ask for some breadboard
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search
and some DIP IC (dip as is potato chip dip)
and some ribbon cable
Those plus the LEDs (shown below, Radio Shack will have them too) are all the shapes you'll have to deal with.
*You can also take scrapped electronics, take them apart and just start playing.*
Some solder
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search
avoid lead free solder, ask for 60/40 solder or standard solder
This is a good soldering iron
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search
It has a stand to hold the soldering iron and a sponge you soak in water to wipe gunk off the soldering iron tip, wipe every few solders. Gunk on the iron prevents heat transfer.
This is a cheaper iron, comes with a cheap stand to help keep the soldering iron off the table and putting burn marks in your table
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search
Ribbon cable are wires in plastic case, you separate the wires and strip the insulation off with these
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search
The LEDs they suggest are these guys: (3mm through hole, standard parts)
The only trick with those are knowing that on the red base one side is flat, also, one leg is longer, these two things are indicators of which way they go into the board. More on this later, in the end it'll be 'all flat sides face this way'.
About halfway down this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED
They show how to identify the anode and cathode of an LED. Cathode is the negative end, anode is the positive, people remember this with by saying 'I hate cats' (negative towards cats.) Cathodes go to ground, anodes go to the signal on the microcontroller end, but you won't really have to know that.
I'll post more details once I see the kit, the monomes will include instructions. Trust me, as homebrew kits go, I believe this will be as easy as it gets.
I look forward to what people come up with, new software, hardware tweaks, all that.
The only 'trick' is patience, heat goes from the iron to the two pieces of metal, the metal pieces then in turn heat/melt the solder. Solder should flow just like candle wax in a wick. People get impatient and touch the iron to the solder to get it to flow onto the wire and board. When that happens there isn't a bond to the wire and board, this is called a 'cold solder joint' and they fail over time (something to look for when trying to fix old synths and stuff.)
Oh, for a case, I'm thinking these guys
http://www.tapplastics.com/
There's a store near me. I've used the to make enclosures before, just square pieces of plastic, I drew out the shape, they cut the shapes, I bought their glue, glued it together, taped it up tight, let it sit overnight and it's done. For a nice rounded case they have some kind of molding kits but I have no clue about those.
Oh, also you need a way to screw the boards together, those are called 'standoffs'.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... S:official
With those the boards are connected but you obviously can't have them touch.
I kinda feel like I'm making it seem too complicated, this is just off the top of my head, once I get a kit I will post part numbers and web sites with quantities of each part. I promise this won't be hard.
