2 Dec
1999
2 Dec
'99
10:57 a.m.
At 01:22 PM 12/2/99 -0800, Zane wrote:
You may have corroded LED sockets, specially since you said it had been
left outside.
I use an old punch card and fold it in half a couple of times till it
fits snugly in the gap and then dampen it with alcohol and work it around
in the slots to clean them. Of course if you had a HP you wouldn't have
these problems. :-)
I agree. I have a Weller and it works perfect. I've been told that they
no longer make the magneticly operated irons so you may have to find a used
one. BTW the number on the back of the tip (7, 8, 9, etc) indicates the
temperature that it regulates at. 7 = 700d F, 8 = 800d F, etc. The local
surplus place has a large variety of tip styles and temperatures so I have
plenty of different ones to work with. I like to use a hot one (800d) for
unsoldering so I can heat the joint up and get the iron off of it quickly.
But I use a 500 to 600d one for general use.
Same here in the
eastern US. FWIW I also have a couple of PACE solder/
desoldering stations but I never use them. Too big and ackward and they
don't work a bit better than the Weller.
Joe
Argh!!
You've got an intermittant connection, and they're the _worst_ to
trace...
Well, once I got the face plate off yesterday I was able to wiggle the LED
itself in its 'socket' and it would come on. When 2 instruments disagree you really should
investigate further. Yes,
it may be that one instrument can't see the pulse (it's just too narrow
for it). Or you might really be seeing noise on a ground connection or
something.
Oh, wonderful. I just took both the scope and the logic probe to both E46
and E39. They both gave the same results, the chip looks to be good.
Something tells me this system is going to drive me crazy! But it means
that what the scope told me a couple days ago is correct.
This machine sounds as though it's full of bad
connections, alas. Have
you cleaned _all_ the edge fingers on all the boards? Have you cleaned
(and tightened if necessary) the PSU connectors. Have you cleaned the
backplane slots?
I cleaned the edge fingers before even turning it on, though I think I'll
clean them again. I'll have to take a look at the PSU connectors. I blew
out the backplane slots with canned air, how can you do a better job of
cleaning them? Has it been stored under poor conditions?
Not since I got it a couple weeks ago, before that I've no idea. I suspect
it might have spent a short amount of time outside as I found a couple pine
needles in it.
>Personally, I use a Weller TCP iron. It's one of the Magnastat
>temperature-controlled ones. It's a lot simpler (== less to go wrong)
>than an electronically controlled iron, and it's Good Enough for
>everything I'm ever likely to want to do with it. I find the #7 tip too
>cold for many things and generally have a #8 in it.
This iron is very popular with serious hobbyists and research/development
labs in the UK, which is probably a good recomendation.