CJACK
I definitely remember HeathKit. My Dad built an electric organ from one of thier kits. That sort of thing would be good for what I am trying to do, but no more heathkit.
BWRR posted:Finally I went looking for the 22uh 250ma RF chokes, all I am finding is SMT parts. Is this correct or am I missing something?
BWRR posted:CJACK
I definitely remember HeathKit. My Dad built an electric organ from one of thier kits. That sort of thing would be good for what I am trying to do, but no more heathkit.
rtr12 posted:
I have been fiddling with this stuff for a few years now and am just now starting to get a pretty good supply of parts on hand. It will take a while to build up your supplies. I enjoy the electronics, following GRJ, Stan2004, PLCProf, JGL, and all the other electronics folks around here just as much as I do the trains. There are some very good folks to learn from here! Good luck and have fun.
RTR12
It is the fiddling with the electronics that has brought me back to the hobby after many years away. There is just something about the combination of smoke, slow speeds and the silly chatter that has awakened a 9 yr old boy that I did not even realize was still inside me. Combine that with command switchs and I get a giddy wanting to understand out how it works.
That was one of the major draws that got me back into the hobby after a LONG hiatus as well. The command control systems and major improvements to the engines, rolling stock, track, etc. was also a big draw.
Yes the combination of that and the resource of this group (OGR) brought me back. Plus I have a group of grand nephews and nieces that are just the right age to get on the floor with. Gives me something to do while waiting patiently for actual grandchildren.
Here;s a couple more Heathkits. The one on the left is a prototyping unit. You can plug in various devices like resistors, caps and DIP type chips. The larger
gray unit on the right is a helium-neon laser. What's cool is it can work with the smaller gray box which is a receiver unit. You can plug a microphone into the laser and transmit voice that will be picked up by the receiver. I tried it successfully at a distance of about a mile.
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Pretty high frequency (PHF) amateur radio 
Too bad Heathkit is no longer around, looks like they had some really neat stuff.
I love the flickering firebox. I have done 5 setups the regular way. And I like your module for tight spaces. One engine I did I could not fit the components in. So I have to remove it. This would be great. Make these and we'll buy em!
I have discovered that the flickering LEDs are very heat sensitive, I have trouble soldering them to the PCB. I have to try lower heat and see if I can do a whole set without cooking one or more LEDs. Obviously, whatever circuitry they use to control the flicker is a lot more heat sensitive than a typical LED or even a flashing LED, those seem to survive my soldering abuse just fine. 
gunrunnerjohn posted:I have discovered that the flickering LEDs are very heat sensitive, I have trouble soldering them to the PCB. I have to try lower heat and see if I can do a whole set without cooking one or more LEDs. Obviously, whatever circuitry they use to control the flicker is a lot more heat sensitive than a typical LED or even a flashing LED, those seem to survive my soldering abuse just fine.
Woods solder? 63/37 elec cond is about .15 uOhmM and Woods is about .43 uOhmM. Should be fine for LEDs? Eutectic too...
Scroll down for low temperature alloys...
Try as I might, I can't see how I can use this efficiently to solder circuit boards! 
It's an interesting idea, I could crank the heat down to about 400F if I could find low temperature solder.
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I looked around, I can't find any low temperature solder at any sort of reasonable price, three feet for $30 is way too expensive!
Yes, I wondered if there was some Woods wire solder. Although for an ingot, one thought was to use a solder pot (160 F would be easy) and just lower the board pad surface down. No idea if that would wet properly...
I couldn't find anything reasonable in an ultra low temperature solder. 63/37 melts at 183C, I'd like to find something that's down in the 120-130C melting range that won't break the bank.
Fly in the ointment, no flux core and the diameter is 0.039", pretty fat stuff. At least the price was more reasonable than I was finding.
Apparently one of the the wave soldering benefits is the get on/get off feature of using a reasonably higher temperature but not over heating the parts. When you have boards made, do they wave solder? Or how is that done...solder paste or powder and heat?
All the boards I get made are surface mount, I actually add any thru-hole components as it's too expensive to get them to do it. They do the SMT with an IR oven I believe.
gunrunnerjohn posted:
What program/place do you use to make these PCB's?
