I have just been sent a PanaVise JrPanaVise Jr and a few other goodies thanks to Daniel from Element14.
From young age I've just soldered stuff on a solder mat, propped up as required, I did try a small plastic vice in the past but it was not really working so I went back to my old ways. Fairly recently I started using a simple crocodile "helping hands" and that got me thinking about a proper PCB Vice and how that might speed up soldering and make my task easier.
The PanaVise Jr is just one option in a wide range of interchangeable clamping options from PanaVise. There are even people who have made their own accessories. The catalogue also helped me identify the strange disk that was in the bottom of the box, a speed handle.
The primary use for the vice will be to assemble printed circuit boards. This week I needed to assemble a right angled micro USB connector so I thought I'd give the vice a go on that.
It griped the small connector firmly but without crushing it. The vice is pretty easy to use and the speed handle did make a difference when closing up the vice from a wide setting to a small setting. The flexible head meant that I could simply flip the vice over to solder the other side of the connector rather than needing to remove the item and reclamp, so that saved time.
The heavy base meant that the vice was stable and it made my little soldering task a lot easier and quicker. I am now a convert and will be using this for all boards and connectors in future.
To test my cable, I used a breakout board and the old connector that I'd chopped off.
The new cable in place, which will allow the compass to be powered from an external supply rather than an internal Lipo and hence allow it to travel on a plane with me to Prague.
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