Scott,
The San Francisco Light house has had at least one soldering class
I don't know if they plan more. It was a weekend and you got a fancy kit of
iron and tools, all up for $300.00 bucks
Screaming deal if you can get to S.F. Check out the web site, think it's
lighthouse.sf.org
Wave soldering is only for printed circuit boards and although i've heard
some blind folks claim they have designed boards, I'm doubtfull.
Fortunately manufacturers are still producing some stuff in "through-hole"
form factors, but it's moving more too surface mount. If that trend
continues we'll be out of luck.
Wire wrap is quite accessible with the use of a continuity tester, but
unless it's done to some very rigid specs, it isn't all that reliable.
and is impractical if you have a lot of parts other than chips.
Tom Fowle
On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 08:40:45AM -0400, Scott Granados wrote:
So speaking for my self here, I???d pay you to learn that skill if you???re===========================================================
offering to teach.:)
That???s always been a weakness of mine, I???ve had the soldering done for
me. Luckily there???s a couple skilled electricians in the family but still
to do it independently would be fantastic.
One thing I am familiar with is wire wrapping. I know of several blind
folks who build electronics with wire wrapping very successfully. As I
recall even some very high end mixing consoles used wire wrapping instead of
solder to avoid cold joints. The only other way I could think of doing it
myself was with a wave soldering machine but these are major money or at
least were and probably complete over kill. I???d love to hear more on this
topic, great question by the original poster!
On Aug 19, 2017, at 8:14 PM, Rich Morin <rdm@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have helped several blind people to learn basic soldering skills, using
some techniques taught by Jonathan Miele. The basic idea is that you fix
all of the components into position, then wrap a tiny bit of solder around
the place where you want the connection. Finally, heat up the connection
with the soldering tip. If all goes well, some of the solder will attach
itself to the wires and make the connection.
However, molten solder will also drop off onto your work surface, other
parts, etc. This can cause assorted problems, such as short circuits, so
you'll need to check for (and tidy up) stray bits of solder.
You can increase the robustness of the connection (and your chances for a
successful result) by bending some relevant parts of the wires in advance.
For example, to connect the end of one wire to the middle of another, you
could (using needle-nose pliers) make a hook on the end of one wire, then
wrap it around the other wire and crimp it slightly. To connect the ends
of two wires, make two hooks and crimp them together. Tinning the leads
first (ie, coating them with solder) can also improve your chances.
Be cautious about using random solder that you may find. Modern solder is
lead-free, but old solder often won't be. You want rosin-filled solder,
because acid-filled solder (used in sheet-metal work) will corrode wires.
A good setup and some tooling can be a great help. I use an adjustable
jig with spring clips, a fan (to blow away fumes), and a heat-proof pad
(to catch falling solder and keep it from damaging the work surface). I
also have several pairs of cutters, hemostats, pliers, etc.
A temperature-controlled soldering iron is very nice to have. It won't
overheat your parts or the solder and will handle both small and large
wires. Use the lowest setting that works reliably. FWIW, I bought this
one a while back and have been very happy with it:
Aoyue 469 Variable Power 60 Watt Soldering Station
with Removable Tip Design- ESD Safe
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MCVCHJM
Finally, I have a half-hour timer that shuts everything down if I forget
to unplug things. (Leaving an unsupervised, 700 degree iron running is
a Bad Idea!)
Having said all of this, I wouldn't recommend soldering as a practical
life skill for most blind (or severely visually impaired) people. There
are a lot of prototyping setups that you can use for experimenting with
circuits. If you have a particular problem you're trying to solve, feel
free to get in touch, off-list, and I'll try to offer useful suggestions.
-r
--
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin rdm@xxxxxxxx
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume San Bruno, CA, USA +1 650-873-7841
Software system design, development, and documentation
===========================================================
The raspberry-vi mailing list
Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/raspberry-vi
Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
-----------------------------------------------------------
Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the Raspberry Pi
Foundation.
This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the views
and attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this list do not reflect
those of the Foundation.
Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013
===========================================================
The raspberry-vi mailing list
Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/raspberry-vi
Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
-----------------------------------------------------------
Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the Raspberry Pi
Foundation.
This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the views and
attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this list do not reflect those of
the Foundation.
Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013
