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Start, Tools and equipment,
Voltage,
Current,
Resistor,
Power,
Capacitor,
Inductor,
Diode,
LED,
Transistor,
OP-Amp,
Linear Integrated Circuits,
Digital Integrated Circuits,
Microprocessor,
Relay,
Thyristor,
Transformer
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Tools and
equipment
Soldering iron
If you are going to be involved with electronics you are
going to need some tools. The most important tool will be the
solder iron. Make sure to get a good temperature regulated iron
with a small tip. The tip is especially important if you are
going to solder SMD components. The temperature can be regulated
either with a temperature sensor and a regulator or with a
magnet in the tip. The magnet is used to engage a switch for the
heater and when the tip has reached the specified temperature
(the Curie
point),
the magnetism in the tip ceases, which switches of the current
to the heater. When the tip cools down, the magnetism comes back
and closes the switch again and this mechanism regulates the
temperature. In these type of irons it is the tip and the
magnetic alloy in the tip that decides the temperature of the
iron.
I have found that a chisel formed tip with a width of about 1.5
- 2 mm and a pretty high temperature, about 370°C,
together with an iron of at least 50W, is a good all-round
solution. Don't use a
too long and narrow tip because it will be cooled down when
soldering larger components or soldering to a large ground
plane, which could cause a bad solder joint. Also, the higher
the wattage of the iron the faster it will get hot after powered
on. If you are going to solder fine pitched SMD components, an
even narrower tip can be of good use.
You will also need a
solder tip cleaner to remove oxidization and old solder
residues - Do not grind it off, it will destroy the tip quickly.
Make sure to not leave the iron
on for long period of times when it isn't used since it will
wear the tip fast and of course it is also a potential fire
hazard. Also make sure to have a wet cleaning sponge so the tip
can be easily wetted and cleaned.
It is also a good idea to have a
desoldering tool and/or
desoldering braid.
Cutters
Next to the soldering iron, a
good pair of side cutters is also a very important tool. Or I
should really say set of tools since it is a good idea to have a
couple of side cutters of different size. Don't cut any heavier
materials than the cutter is made for or you will quickly
destroy it. The smallest ones are only made to cut component
legs and thin copper wires.
There are some type of side
cutters that has a mechanism that is supposed to hold component
legs in a grip even after it is cut. Don't bother with these, if
they work, they get too bulky and the extra feather blade just
gets in the way.
Pliers
A pair of long nosed, fine
pitched pair of pliers are also god to have. The thinner the
pliers the better they are to hold something that is to be
soldered since the less metal there is in the tip of the pliers,
the less they will cool the solder joint.
Screwdrivers
Fine tipped screwdrivers with slotted, star shaped, hex and
torx head are useful. Perhaps mostly when doing repair work.
Always try to use the type of screwdriver that is appropriate
for the screw. Otherwise both the screw and the screwdriver will
get destroyed quickly.
Tweezers
If you are going to solder SMD components, a set of tweezers
are indispensable.
 There
are tweezers of all kind of shapes but I almost always use only
one type, which has a straight nose with a flat tip, as in the
picture. By turning it 180 degrees you get tweezers with two
different grip width.
Multimeter
It is almost impossible to do any kind of electric or electronic
work without a
multimeter. With this instrument you can "see" voltage,
current and resistance which is very helpful when searching for
faults in an electronic circuit. The instrument should be able
to measure DC Volts with a resolution down to 1 mV (milli Volt),
DC Current with a resolution down to 1 uA (micro Ampere) and
resistance between 1 - 200Mohm (Mega ohm). It should naturally
also be able to measure AC Volts and AC Current but the
resolution and measurement range does not have to be as high as
for DC. It is also good if the instrument can measure diode
forward voltage drop, temperature with a K-type temperature
probe and capacitance. The input impedance should also be very
high, at least 10M ohm. There are quite cheap and still very
useful multimeters available today, so there is really no excuse
for not getting one.
Other tools
Other tools that can be good to have are;
Hobby knife or scalpel
Magnifying glass or pocket lens
Wire stripper
A bit of luxury tool is the "third hand" which is a kind of
small vice that can be angled in almost any direction. This is
very useful when soldering wires to a connector for instance.
Beside these tools it is also an absolute must to have a good
workplace with good lighting and preferably also good
ventilation for the soldering fumes.
When you test different types of circuits you will need a
solderless experiment board, also called a
terminal panel. This lets you easily change connections and
components until the circuit is working as expected. These can
be kind of expensive but they are well worth their price.
 When
you want to keep a circuit from the terminal panel you can
transfer it to a breadboard, where the components and
connections are soldered in place. There are several different
kind of breadboards but I have found the ones with links across
the holes of the whole board the most useful. These can be
bought in sizes of 100*160mm which will cover most circuits.
They can also be easily cut into smaller boards. At some places
the links has to be cut, this is done with a tool made for just
this purpose or a sharp drill with a diameter of about 3mm can
be used to just remove the copper around one hole. Where there
has to be made connections between stripes, a single stranded
insulated connection wire with an area of about 0.25mm2 is good
to use.
Start, Tools
and equipment,
Voltage,
Current,
Resistor,
Power,
Capacitor,
Inductor,
Diode,
LED,
Transistor,
OP-Amp,
Linear Integrated Circuits,
Digital Integrated Circuits,
Microprocessor,
Relay,
Thyristor,
Transformer
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