
Ask HN: Your last soldering project - moepstar
So, lets get this thread started :)<p>A little bit of background: I like soldering. A lot. It is - in some strange way - relaxing to me (i don&#x27;t have to do it professionally; that very well may play a role...)<p>Maybe, just maybe, i (and you) find a new project worth doing via this thread...<p>So, my last soldering projects where:<p>- the Objective2 Headphone Amplifier -&gt; http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nwavguy.blogspot.de&#x2F;2011&#x2F;08&#x2F;o2-details.html<p>- Nintendo N64 RGB Mod -&gt; http:&#x2F;&#x2F;retro-magic.de&#x2F;N64_RGB_PAL (sorry for the german link)<p>What was your last soldering project?
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EJTH
Soldered some random crap (10-axis gyro/magnetometer/ accelerometer combo, a
BT Serial module, an ultrasonic sensor and an arduino nano clone to a piece of
perfboard and called it a robot :-)

Making the client software was the fun part though :-)

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paulrpotts
I enjoy soldering quite a bit. I'm an embedded software engineer so I
sometimes have occasion to build prototype boards. I will order through-hole
versions of microcontrollers for this even though the final products will have
tiny surface-mount versions. Strictly speaking, I could do most of what I need
to do on breadboards, but I have found it both useful and fun to transfer
breadboarded circuits to stripboard. I work part of my week from home. At my
office I have access to lighted stereo microscopes and other expensive tools
for surface-mount soldering, but at home I just have a couple of irons, a
Hakko and Radio Shack. At work we use lead-free solder; at home I use old-
school lead 60/40\. I have tried to switch to lead-free solders at home but I
hate them; the poor wetting and the way they burn up the iron tips. Leaded
solders are very forgiving; often times you don't have to get a blob of solder
perfectly placed, and it just flows into the right shape. Lead free, not so
much, at least in my experience. I know I can do things with extra flux and
all that, but with leaded solder I generally don't even need to apply extra
flux to get good connections.

The last project I built for work was a little development board built around
and Atmel microcontroller. The last project for fun was a flashing LED
Christmas Tree kit. I have built a number of those and I am teaching my kids
to build them. I also sometimes make other little LED toys for my kids, things
with 555 timers or programmable unijunction transistors and RGB LEDs.

My skills at surface-mount soldering are still pretty laughably bad although
using the tools in my office I have managed to solder some tiny surface-mount
resistors. One of my co-workers has been mentoring me a bit in how to do that.
It would be pretty much impossible to do in my home office without the stereo
microscope and Weller with a super-tiny tip.

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camoby
40 pin GPIO header to a Pi Zero. That was enough;)

