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| Tricks of the Trade - knowledge for every day life |
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| retiredfeline:
--- Quote from: tooki on October 31, 2020, 04:02:30 pm --- --- Quote from: greenpossum on October 31, 2020, 02:08:32 am ---Used lithium button cells make quick THT LED testers. No current limiting resistor required. --- End quote --- They don’t have to be old. New ones work too! --- End quote --- I think he was just being frugal. |
| DrG:
--- Quote from: Berni on October 30, 2020, 11:48:38 am ---/--/ Pro tip 2: You can also use a hot ait gun to smooth out a hot glue joint into a nice clean looking smooth blob by simply heating it up after it is glued, the surface tension takes care of the rest. I use this a lot for encapsulating connectors on the end of a cable such as 0.1in pin headers, keeps wires from breaking off over time, makes it look smooth and fancy while giving you a good place to grab it when unplging to avoid pulling on the wires. --- End quote --- Thanks for that. Didn't know it and tried it today. Those little two screw terminal blocks do not fit on my breadboards, but they would come in handy if they did. I snipped some jumpers, soldered them on to snipped leads on the terminal block and then "potted" them with hot glue and the hot air gun reflow that you mentioned. Worked well. The hot glue lends some support, insulation and serves as a spacer so the terminal block fits flush with the breadboard. |
| KE5FX:
--- Quote from: jogri on October 31, 2020, 11:15:19 am ---Please don't do this unless you want to experience what permanent blindness feels like. --- End quote --- Sunglasses are just fine for this application, thanks. Specular reflections from the beam are uncomfortable to look at, but not particularly hazardous, except possibly to melatonin production. Blue light is actually pretty safe, optically speaking, because it doesn't focus well at the retina. The 10x-overpowered 532 nm green pointers from the same vendors are a very different story. They scare me. |
| Berni:
--- Quote from: DrG on October 31, 2020, 09:52:44 pm --- --- Quote from: Berni on October 30, 2020, 11:48:38 am ---/--/ Pro tip 2: You can also use a hot ait gun to smooth out a hot glue joint into a nice clean looking smooth blob by simply heating it up after it is glued, the surface tension takes care of the rest. I use this a lot for encapsulating connectors on the end of a cable such as 0.1in pin headers, keeps wires from breaking off over time, makes it look smooth and fancy while giving you a good place to grab it when unplging to avoid pulling on the wires. --- End quote --- Thanks for that. Didn't know it and tried it today. Those little two screw terminal blocks do not fit on my breadboards, but they would come in handy if they did. I snipped some jumpers, soldered them on to snipped leads on the terminal block and then "potted" them with hot glue and the hot air gun reflow that you mentioned. Worked well. The hot glue lends some support, insulation and serves as a spacer so the terminal block fits flush with the breadboard. --- End quote --- No problem. For that application tho there might be a Pro tip 3: You can add kapton tape around the thing to make a mold for the hot glue to flow into. As you heat it up with a hot air station it flows out to fill the mold and make a square shape. Same goes if you are potting something with hot glue that has holes that you don't want it to ooze out of (For example some RJ45 connectors need this or the glue will ooze into the conector and ruin it). Regular scotch tape most likely will not handle the temperatures involved, but can sometimes work for just covering small openings. |
| Kasper:
--- Quote from: Berni on November 01, 2020, 09:24:43 am --- --- Quote from: DrG on October 31, 2020, 09:52:44 pm --- --- Quote from: Berni on October 30, 2020, 11:48:38 am ---/--/ Pro tip 2: You can also use a hot ait gun to smooth out a hot glue joint into a nice clean looking smooth blob by simply heating it up after it is glued, the surface tension takes care of the rest. I use this a lot for encapsulating connectors on the end of a cable such as 0.1in pin headers, keeps wires from breaking off over time, makes it look smooth and fancy while giving you a good place to grab it when unplging to avoid pulling on the wires. --- End quote --- Thanks for that. Didn't know it and tried it today. Those little two screw terminal blocks do not fit on my breadboards, but they would come in handy if they did. I snipped some jumpers, soldered them on to snipped leads on the terminal block and then "potted" them with hot glue and the hot air gun reflow that you mentioned. Worked well. The hot glue lends some support, insulation and serves as a spacer so the terminal block fits flush with the breadboard. --- End quote --- No problem. For that application tho there might be a Pro tip 3: You can add kapton tape around the thing to make a mold for the hot glue to flow into. As you heat it up with a hot air station it flows out to fill the mold and make a square shape. Same goes if you are potting something with hot glue that has holes that you don't want it to ooze out of (For example some RJ45 connectors need this or the glue will ooze into the conector and ruin it). Regular scotch tape most likely will not handle the temperatures involved, but can sometimes work for just covering small openings. --- End quote --- Pumping hot glue into heat shrink works too. |
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