What tool or technology do you reach for most often as an engineer?

Like the old joke: "Q: How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?   A: None, that's a technician's job."

Picture of my high-tech hotplate. The tape holds  a thermocouple down if I bother to use it but more often I just put the board on the al. sheet, turn the power on, wait for the solder to melt, turn the power off then wait 60 seconds and lift the board off.

I've just ordered a v. cheap (£75) solder dispensing machine from Alliexpress and if it's any good I'll buy a hot plate from the same place -  roughly £100 including delivery.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/T-946-MCUP-Hot-Plate-PCB-Preheater-Preheating-Oven-800-W-180-x-240-mm/1719031204.html

MK

Of course the clever engineer would tell some else about the problem wind them up and let them solve the problem ...

Michael Kellett wrote:

 

If you have more time and less cash you can make your own boards but I haven't done so for many years now.

I generally still make my own, partially that's down to usually only needing one or two, partially that I really can have them in a couple of hours after completing the layout.  I always try to use as much smt stuff as I can - drilling holes is tedious.

Much like with soldering irons, you really need some decent equipment to do it right.

What sort of hot plate do you use?  I have a decent hot air tool, but have been looking at hot plate things recently and finding them somewhat pricey.

Obviously the point to make here that with a temperature controlled iron more power is good since we only use what is required.

"Power is nothing with out control" ....according to a certain tire advert ...good line BTW!!

except for removing bits from boards.

Unless you are starting form scratch, then removing and then replacing is probably when most of us 'get our feet wet'

Presumably you have a commercial hot plate, or did you steal and hack the wife's one.??

Mark

Yes, definately do the hot plate bit first - otherwise all the other bits wriggle about and get cooked

I've never really been into the hot air torches except for removing bits from boards.

MK

Nice work.

I'm presuming you did the Hot Plate bit first?

I'm sure there would be great interest in doing something like that and how a novice can do similar work.

Even just soldering the 3 chips feeding the sockets would be useful to a number of people.

I bet that if element14 were to send you one of these (Tenma smd rework unit part No 2062633) you could do a really good video and more people might buy one to use.  element14Dave

mark

Hello John,

Go for the temperature controlled iron for anything/everything. The Ersa one I mentioned is very nice but a bit pricey  - I've used  a few cheapo ones and they have been OK.

I prototype on pcbs - I hardly ever use through hole parts except for bodging or where necessary for power/mechanical reasons. You can get prototype (2 layer or 4 layer) pcbs very cheaply and quickly from one of many pcb pool type services. I use PCBTrain but there are others. If you have more time and less cash you can make your own boards but I haven't done so for many years now.

Most modern chips (micros, switching power regulators etc) just don't work on breadboard,stripboard or with though hole caps and Rs. Analogue bits might work Ok but none (few) of the nice modern chips come in through hole packages.

One day I'll try to make  a video of hand soldering a surface  mount board:

Here's a picture of one I did last week:

All hand soldered with an iron except for the little PSU switcher on the left beside the inductor which was flowed on a  hotplate (becasue it has several pads underneath).

MK

For troubleshooting, nothing beats the human brain. Instead of wading in, you use the direct evidence, personal experience and applied theory to devise a strategy and track down the problem. As they say, power is nothing without control.