This is amazing. (or maybe I'm easily impressed)
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/model-railroad-engine-gets-a-tiny-oled-rollsign-while-showing-off-tidy-protoboard-skills/
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
that's some good soldering he did there !
Boy! Does that bring back memories when I was an electronics tech a few years back working on prototype circuit boards - especially skywiring to microcontrollers. Hand-soldering 0402 & 0603 components was my life.
I smiled to myself when I saw the modified locking tweezers used as an "extra hand" to hold the prototype perf board and microcontroller during solding. That's why have two sets of locking tweezers in my hobby tool arsenal at home, along with a pair of quality needle-nose and broad-tip tweezers from Techni-Tool. Over the years they have earned their keep and then some.
Yea, the video demonstrator has some very good handskills. I wish they had given the AWG size of the magnet wire being used to wire the components. I've been using 34 AWG (0.0145" OD) magnet wire for wiring up 0603 SMT LEDS on my brass locomotive headlights.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Solding small SMD stuff is not for me, I can barely see it, magnifier or not. But if there's room, you can run it with a stock Arduino - the Nano or Pro Mini without the pins attached are pretty small.
That's the same thing Geoff Bunza did to make a working animated storefront display in a TV shop, I mentioned this in another thread recently. The tiny OLED displays are the TV 'tubes' and can display actual images from period correct TV shows, sitting in a storefront window while a crowd gathers to watch the then-new color TVs. Sound not needed, because the scale viewers, and you, are outside the shop looking in through the windows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0heqOsjYQw
(if I built this scene I'd almost have to have Yes "Machine Messiah" playing in the background, alas this is an early 60's scene, not suitable for my 1956-ish layout. But I could make a B&W one)
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
After reviewing the video again, I'm 99-44/100s positive the soldering iron is connected to a hand-operated manipulator arm. When the soldering tip comes in and pulls away, there is some subtle side-to-side horizontal movement, which is indicative of a manipulator arm. Still, it's some very nice design work.
I appreciated the reinforcement of the long side of the on-off slide switch (6:34-6:42). I think I would have added some on the short side, as well, since the force of turning the slide switch on & off will run parallel to the long side.
Sorry for the critique. It's an occupational hazard in my line of work.
I haven't watched it yet, but that's also a common way to get small SMD parts on a board - even 'cheap' versions of the automated machines to place parts are not cheap, take up a lot of room, and you still have to train them for each new job. But there are 'manual' *** nd place machines which amount to an air pickup (suction) and a stabilizing frame so that you can precisely pick up the part and locate it on the board without relying on how steady your hand is.
A common hobbyist thing to do is convert a toaster oven into a reflow oven - then you don;t have to try and get a soldering iron tip in all those tight spaces to solder each part, you place each part in solder paste which holds it in place, then heat the whole thing to flow the solder. You can;t just bake them, because the solder paste generally requires a fairly precise temperature ramp to flow properly and not tombstone a component (one end melts (or freezes) first, and the solder causes the part to lift off the board and stand up, like a tombstone) and also to make sure the components aren't subject to temperature beyond their allowed ranges.
Yeah, I'll stick to making through hole PCBs, I can solder those with no problem.