so i am very afraid now. as some of you could read in a bunch of my topics in the last week - i had some major problems with all m midibox projects lately and weird, totall random bugs.
yesterday i realised that the only thing that i have changed in midiboxing during the last weeks is my torch - i bought a new one and suddenly everything god out of control.
all of my soldered din boards seem dead. interconnections are fine though. so it seems the chips are dead. that made me think.
is it possible that my torch might be a chip killer ?
yeah i already changed the subject - of course an iron.
it’s like one of those more professional “stations” where you have a base with an iron holder and a heat-regulator. it has stickers all over it with some passed atests and so on.
i don’t have a meter just a unscaled pot. it has 50 watts but i use around half of it. i am very careful when soldering chips without sockets and try to heat up the legs only shortly.
but i guess temperature isn’t an issue - before that i had a 40watt unregulated iron and no problems with it altough it burned tin like hell.
are grounding problems possible? for example might it be that the plug in my wall is ungrounded ?
nope - got them from another source - mines are 74hc165n
what really grinds my gears is that i had a batch of old 74ls165n which were 100 % compatible and never had a problem with it - and they are all dead too.
how do you test your chips ? with a multimeter ? it’s totally impossible that i wrecked 13 chips…
The ICs are CMOS. Mostly they don’t die from the heat but from static electricity caused by potential differences. So, if your iron has a plug for earthing it, please do it. Before you touch the chip make yourself “neutral” by touching an earth point.
Difficult to explain in english … but I hope you understand, what I mean ;D
it has something like a grounding pin which i’m not sure what to do ? connect to the core while soldering or to something in my room like a radiator?
but still - i mean before that i had this totally simple soldering iron just without control of anything and 40watts which is way too much and i didn’t use sockets then too and what ? no problems at all. i even sometimes soldered something with the core on and nothing happened - eventually sparks when accidently touching the +5v and ground and reseting the core. back then i was like totally impressed about the durability of the core and all the parts of the ucapps system.
but now, as i said - everything goes bogus. ok i have NO IDEA if the 165’s are dead - but i mean i have 4 din plates stuffed with 165’s from different batches and they all seem totally down…
The ICs are CMOS. Mostly they don’t die from the heat but from static electricity caused by potential differences.
good point there, i have to admit that since i moved to a new house i had some grounding problems, time to buy a grounding wrist? (or whatever you call it)
thing is i have 9 over 12 *165 with failing pins..
Anti static wrist/ankle straps (grounding straps, whatever) are nice and all for stopping static transfer from you to the device, but they won’t help the tip of the iron…
Anti static wrist/ankle straps (grounding straps, whatever) are nice and all for stopping static transfer from you to the device, but they won’t help the tip of the iron…
If the tip of the iron is grounded (like mine ;D), it will help!
Good soldering stations have a plug, where you can ground the tip of the iron.
My iron (ERSA) has a german plug but i am not sure if all the different cables going to the main have a ground line, i ll check it out when i ll be back home.
(still: how does it come that nobody had these kind of problems before?)
I have one of those Irons - but in a black case, the cardboard box is identical. I have had no problems whatsoever with the iron killing components.
I’m in the UK and I know the earth pin is going to ground via the mains…
you attach a wrist strap to the back of the base to ground yourself…
it has something like a grounding pin which i’m not sure what to do ? connect to the core while soldering or to something in my room like a radiator?
that would be about the worst thing you could do. You want to make a path to earth that avoids any ESD. Electricity will take the easiest route to ground, that’s why you ground yourself; grounding the core would mean that the electricty heads to ground via the component, tracks of the core leading to ground…
DISCLAIMER: Never, ever, ever, ever work on lethal voltages (pay someone else), dB is neither human nor a good role model. -
This is also why when working on lethal voltages you never ever ever work with two hands - this would mean potential for voltage to go through one arm - through the heart and out to ground via the other arm - this is how people die.
Best practice: Kneel with your RIGHT knee on the ground and use your RIGHT hand - this way any voltage will go through the arm, down the torso and down the right leg to ground, possibly saving your ass.
