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Step 6Diodes, Transistors and ICs
Diodes and transistors generally come packed in the SOT package. This is the "small outline transistor" package, with three leads.
So a device with three leads sitting on the board might be a diode. It might be a transistor. Or it might be an integrated circuit, like a three terminal voltage regulator.
A bit of probing with the multimeter (hold the thing down with a croc clip) will usually tell you whether it is a diode, or npn or pnp transistor. Small canisters could be used for storing them.
A thing with many legs is usually an integrated circuit. Or a resistor array.
I find that using a vintage IC involves poring over data sheets, finding components, and much design work, and that the end result is some gizmo which does some ancient job poorly, which is why that board ended up in the junk. The effort is just not worth it. But I do keep the ones I remove, because they might come handy one day - to build into a sculpture perhaps.
So - start desoldering, and have fun.
So a device with three leads sitting on the board might be a diode. It might be a transistor. Or it might be an integrated circuit, like a three terminal voltage regulator.
A bit of probing with the multimeter (hold the thing down with a croc clip) will usually tell you whether it is a diode, or npn or pnp transistor. Small canisters could be used for storing them.
A thing with many legs is usually an integrated circuit. Or a resistor array.
I find that using a vintage IC involves poring over data sheets, finding components, and much design work, and that the end result is some gizmo which does some ancient job poorly, which is why that board ended up in the junk. The effort is just not worth it. But I do keep the ones I remove, because they might come handy one day - to build into a sculpture perhaps.
So - start desoldering, and have fun.
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its a hot air gun for working with surface mount components.