This page describes how to reflow solder surface mount printed circuits using a cheap toaster oven. It owes a great deal to Nophead`s Cooking with Hydraraptor blog post. The picture shows Sally Bowyer (Director, RepRapPro Ltd ) preparing components for soldering in the oven. For more instructions on this see the video at the bottom of this page.
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.
Just about any toaster oven will do, as long as its power rating is not too high. The solid-state relay (see below) can switch 5A; power = volts x amps; do the mathematics. We use this solid-state relay from Farnell, and a K-type thermocouple plus thermocouple amplifier (see below). Alternatively you could use the same types of thermistors that RepRap uses for its extruders as temperature sensors - the temperatures are about the same. If you get silly temperatures reported by the firmware (see below) or the warning LED lights, then the thermocouple wires are the wrong way round. Swap them. The neatest thing to do with the solid-state relay is to mount it inside a mains plug patress box. You will then have a general-purpose device that will allow you to control any mains load (up to 5A) with the Arduino. Run the control wires out of the side of the box and connect them to the Arduino: + goes to the Arduino LED (D13 on an Arduino Diecimila), the other control connection goes to the Arduino ground. Note that there is no electrical connection inside the solid-state relay between the control circuit and the mains circuit. The device is optically coupled, so there is no danger that you will get mains flowing through your Arduino (as long as you wire things up right. ). Put the relay`s switched side in series with the cable`s live wire on the way to the live terminal of the socket; run the neutral and earth straight through to...
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The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
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This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
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