Lee Wilkerson

Try retaking the photos. They are out of focus. Some schematics are unreadable.

I think someone has hacked your page. Links are broken.

The first 5 links are broken/hacked.

Awesome idea for re-purposed bricks!

Broken Link: keypress.mp4

Link is broken.www.atmel.com/images/doc0856.pdf

Man, I cannot believe my good fortune to have found your tutorials.You rock as strong as Gibraltar!Thank you! ! !

Hey, Randy, kudos to you for including instruction on how to safely remove an IC from its socket.I have a 1/8" screwdriver, the last 1/2" of which was heated with a torch and bent at a right angle. It works fantastic for extracting these DIP IC's.

I also considered using condensate water. Only two extra things needed would be redirection and (possibly) a small pump to generate enough pressure to mist.Alternative to the pump could be some absorbent wicking thing similar to the type used in furnace humidifiers.

It's a great idea of which I learned decades ago.These misters will always save a lot of money depending on how much water can be evaporated before air saturation occurs.

You probably need to select Common and Yellow, but you probably already know this by now.

You said 'Soldering Gun' and 'lead'. Most people with a soldering GUN will burn up ICs and other semiconductors. I recommend a soldering PENCIL or iron with power rating between 35 and 65 Watts.'Lead' is not a part of this project, however solder is.

For desoldering you need two things: heat and vacuum or wick.For nearly all of my desoldering, I use a small hand-held, anti-static vacuum pump and an iron rated at least 40 Watts. For very large connections, you will need more heat/higher wattage. I count the seconds of heat to stay under 6 seconds (one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.). More than 6 seconds, you will probably ruin the board. Heat until the solder flows in the joint. Quickly substitute the vacuum for the heat. You may need to do this more than once on a couple of joints. Best way is to resolder and then desolder. Sometimes I use needle-nose pliers to rotate/wiggle the end of the wire slightly in the hole to completely break it free. With proper unsoldering technique, the component can be very easily removed without ...

For desoldering you need two things: heat and vacuum or wick.For nearly all of my desoldering, I use a small hand-held, anti-static vacuum pump and an iron rated at least 40 Watts. For very large connections, you will need more heat/higher wattage. I count the seconds of heat to stay under 6 seconds (one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.). More than 6 seconds, you will probably ruin the board. Heat until the solder flows in the joint. Quickly substitute the vacuum for the heat. You may need to do this more than once on a couple of joints. Best way is to resolder and then desolder. Sometimes I use needle-nose pliers to rotate/wiggle the end of the wire slightly in the hole to completely break it free. With proper unsoldering technique, the component can be very easily removed without destroying the board or the semiconductor in question.Practice at least a half hour on something old/ inexpensive before tackling something important/easily ruined.

Good job; good instructable.Regarding X-Box failures:Solder joints never just break. There always is an external reason.Solder joint failures are caused by:1. Cold-solder joints (caused by too little heat on the joint OR by moving/flexing the joint before the solder has solidified).2. Excessive heat and/or flexing of the joint after the original assembly.#2 is by far the most common. Cheap companies don't use enough heat sink to remove the excessive heat from power transistors and semiconductors because they want the circuits to fail after warranty so you will buy another improperly engineered piece of garbage from them. Every 10 degrees Celsius/Centigrade increase in semiconductor junction temperature results in the loss of 50% of the semiconductor's life. That means a mere 20 degrees ...

Good job; good instructable.Regarding X-Box failures:Solder joints never just break. There always is an external reason.Solder joint failures are caused by:1. Cold-solder joints (caused by too little heat on the joint OR by moving/flexing the joint before the solder has solidified).2. Excessive heat and/or flexing of the joint after the original assembly.#2 is by far the most common. Cheap companies don't use enough heat sink to remove the excessive heat from power transistors and semiconductors because they want the circuits to fail after warranty so you will buy another improperly engineered piece of garbage from them. Every 10 degrees Celsius/Centigrade increase in semiconductor junction temperature results in the loss of 50% of the semiconductor's life. That means a mere 20 degrees of rise loses 3/4 of the semiconductor's life. It is this same excessive heat which renders the solder joints to cold-solder joints.Well-designed/well-engineered products will operate 24/7/365.25 for at least the next ten years. Poor designs do well to actually operate until the time you get them home. It's no wonder they all fail within the first 5 years!

DO NOT BUY Radio Shack solder. You will just be wasting your time. The flux is not even inside the spool so some joints and circuit boards will be ruined before the solder wicks into the joint.

Great job, ShadowRoch. Always good to see young people taking interest in such things. This is the same way I learned.I really annoyed a few of the men in my neighborhood when I was young because I was always in their way observing and asking millions of questions. Most of them tolerated me and some even took the time to teach me properly.By the time I was 12 years old, I knew how to sweat-solder copper lines, drive crooked nails, and cut a straight line with a handsaw. To those men, thank you and God bless you.I would add:Torch tips have different heat ratings. You need one which can deliver enough heat to properly melt solder while overcoming copper's awesome ability to sink all of your heat away from the joint. 3/4" pipe takes about three times as much heat per joint as 1/2"...

Great job, ShadowRoch. Always good to see young people taking interest in such things. This is the same way I learned.I really annoyed a few of the men in my neighborhood when I was young because I was always in their way observing and asking millions of questions. Most of them tolerated me and some even took the time to teach me properly.By the time I was 12 years old, I knew how to sweat-solder copper lines, drive crooked nails, and cut a straight line with a handsaw. To those men, thank you and God bless you.I would add:Torch tips have different heat ratings. You need one which can deliver enough heat to properly melt solder while overcoming copper's awesome ability to sink all of your heat away from the joint. 3/4" pipe takes about three times as much heat per joint as 1/2".Different solder paste/flux has different characteristics. Use the proper one for the job.Flux has only one job: to burn the remaining impurities off the surface of the copper which were not sanded off. Once the impurities are burned away you will always make a good joint, but solder will never stick to unclean copper! If you think you have enough flux, you probably need more. Always clean and coat the first 1 1/2" of the pipe with flux paste.If you are doing everything correctly, you will see your solder flow into the joint by wicking action. Immediately remove the heat and hold the joint stationary for about 15 seconds so the solder can properly cool without making a cold-solder joint. Cold-solder joints will begin to leak tomorrow or next week. (Murphy's Law)It takes about 10 times as long to redo a joint you messed up the first time. I am the voice of experience.

MAPP gas is not true MAPP gas any longer. It is an adulterated mixture that will only attain a maximum of about 5% more heat than propane.

*sepArate* What's the point of having a spell-checker if you don't use it?

Cool! (Both ways!) Thank you for the recipe.

I have also used this same remedy.Another method I use is to take about 1 inch of sod from the edges of driveways or sidewalks. Presto! Two birds; one stone.

Awesome mod!Yeah, the spark generated by lawn mower magnetos is usually around 10,000 volts or better. It can jump a one inch gap.

Video is still broken.

Great idea for larger tires, but 3 inch to 5 inch tires usually don't cost that much. Besides, extra rubber meeting any surface means extra friction as rolling resistance. There is already far too much rolling resistance in small tires.

Great ideas.One caution: Step 4 - steel wool will remove the surface from linoleum in one swipe. Only rub the very narrow mark because whatever area you rub with steel wool will lose it's shine and will then be very noticeable in the light.

Wonderful job. Love the additions. I noticed the LED does not shine on the tip of the bit, however. From my observations, it looks as if you just need to trim away a tiny bit of housing...Thanks especially for the note about whacking the batteries.

DIYers do things for the joy of building and the educational perspective. What price do you attach to your education? Just go directly to Amazon or someplace if you aren't interested in building anything and leave DIY to DIYers.

Great 'able.I would offer one word of caution about connecting batteries in parallel. It usually doesn't work out well.

Excellent work! Great 'able! Bravo!I would have used some other less confusing technique for connections. For example: co-axial power connector. Male on one end/female on the other.