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I assumed the AC coupling filter was to make sure it can only pass pulses and not just stick on and burn out the motor or something. I also was guessing the trimpot and the transistor it was driving was for adjusting the range of the allowable input (or maybe how fast a signal it'll respond to?) since it's gonna be in a very noisy environment, but maybe it's more like an adjustable amplification level?
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Jun 9, 2022 05:31
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That trimmer sets a clamp for whatever the input at pin 3 is, and that sets the voltage level where the other 3 inputs cause their outputs to switch I think, so it's like the lower limit for the range of one side of 3 comparators (with a built-in 1-diode-drop offset) It's hard to tell why that is without some info about the rest of the system, but I like to imagine that it's 3 AC phases on the other inputs and pin 3 is either a digital control pin to turn the outputs on and off or some sort of analog control that sets the phase angle where the output switches (briefly) turn on to drive like a synchronous motor or something. That's getting so speculative that I like to think of it as circuit fanfiction, though.
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Jun 9, 2022 13:42
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While modernizing the whole control system is the best long term solution, the component count on that board is so low you could just test each part with a multimeter in under an hour. Worst case is that you might have to desolder and lift off a few pins on any suspect parts or ones that are in parallel with something else to get a good reading. Best case is you find an obviously failed item and just replace that one part to get things running until the modernized controls are ready to drop in.
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Jun 10, 2022 00:17
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Looking at some new soldering irons, and I saw some folks in videos using integrated sucker/iron guns like this. Curious what folks in this thread think of the integrated guns.
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Jun 10, 2022 00:30
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Oh yeah I should have said, it's definitely the caps that have gone. Whether they have taken anything else with them is an open question
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Jun 10, 2022 00:30
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I found someone local that does a lot of recapping of old radio gear and other electronics work. He's got replacement caps on the way, as well as a couple of transistors that tested bad. Hopefully that will get it going until the upgrade is done. Thanks again everyone.
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Jun 10, 2022 02:49
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El Mero Mero posted:Looking at some new soldering irons, and I saw some folks in videos using integrated sucker/iron guns like this. Curious what folks in this thread think of the integrated guns. They're not a replacement for a regular soldering iron, but they can be handy if you've got a through hole filled with solder that is being stubborn. I personally don't think they're worth the cost, but I don't work with through hole stuff much.
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Jun 10, 2022 03:04
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I have no idea where to ask this but maybe someone in here knows. Are rotary encoders designed to be turned while pressed in? I want to have a rotary encoder have a different action if it's pressed like a button, turned like a knob, or pressed and turned at the same time. Could this damage or significantly reduce the lifespan of the encoder? I literally can't find anything about this on Google.
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Jun 28, 2022 04:09
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You can buy encoders with or without a switch built in. No switch is more common but a switch is a configurable option on a fair number of encoder series. Here's digikey's industrial encoders section with built in switch selected: https://www.digikey.com/short/9jmdr28n
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Jun 28, 2022 04:23
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I should clarify that I already have an encoder that can be pressed (technically a commercial product with an encoder - not a thing I'm building myself). What I'm wondering is if pressing and turning it at the same time will/could damage it.
KillHour fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jun 28, 2022 |
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Jun 28, 2022 06:29
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KillHour posted:I should clarify that I already have an encoder that can be pressed (technically a commercial product with an encoder - not a thing I'm building myself). What I'm wondering is if pressing and turning it at the same time will/could damage it. I doubt it will damage it. Might make it wear out faster than normal (since you're gonna have a hard time pushing straight down and turning at the same time without bending the shaft one way or another I'd imagine) but I think it'd be fine for a while 
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Jun 28, 2022 06:36
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It will not. Totally fine to do
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Jun 28, 2022 07:10
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Cool; thanks.
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Jun 28, 2022 10:40
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What's the goto for circuit simulation/schematic design and PCB layout? I've never done real PCBs, only hand drawn/home etched stuff forever ago. I don't know how it normally works, but being able to design a functioning circuit and simulate it and then have software spit it out in a semi-logical way onto a PCB layout that I can then edit would be really cool.
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Jun 28, 2022 14:19
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LTSpice for simulation and KiCAD for PCB layout are popular. Both are (actually, in a non-sketchy way) available for free (KiCAD is open source and LTSpice's one major license restriction is that nobody is allowed to use it to design chips commercially) and have sort-of-gradual learning curves, extensive included component libraries, and thriving communities with tons of tutorial material available online. They don't interoperate seamlessly or anything so the workflow in small shops without a CAD person to figure out the plumbing usually starts with a few small exploratory simulations of tricky bits like switching regulators and moves quickly to ordering boards for evaluation. PCBs are really cheap right now and have fast turn-around, so I don't know of anybody who really sweats PCB-level simulations much, and I know plenty of people who just ordered boards after doing no simulations.
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Jun 28, 2022 16:21
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Just to be clear, simulation and design are completely separate processes, and people don't simulate entire designs end-to-end, they break it up into risky pieces and draw them separately in their respective software. As Stack Machine says, KiCad and LTSpice are good options. Here is a chain of previous discussions on why that is. I understand the temptation to want to simulate a whole board, but it isn't practical or useful for a bunch of reasons. ante posted:You also wouldn't actually want to. This discussion comes up every so often here, and the truth is, if you're simulating, it will only be a tiny subsection of your circuit, and you will be adding/removing/replacing components to more accurately model the electrons, with stuff that isn't in your schematic. It's just not comparable.
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Jun 28, 2022 16:27
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I’d use Altium Circuit Maker nowadays. It’s free and has a modern workflow. Basically a stripped down Altium proper. Also easy to upgrade to Circuit Studio if you want something prosumer with like.. DFM and high-speed options.
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Jul 1, 2022 00:48
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I have been burned by Altium twice now, so I'm leery, but they do have a nice product
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Jul 1, 2022 01:13
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I use Altium every day for work. The new Altium 365 stuff is awful, and they're slowly breaking the old stuff to thrust it upon you. It's pretty clear nobody at Altium has actually used the software to make a PCB in a long time, as the workflow is getting sillier and sillier. I've been meaning to try KiCAD for ages, I'm hoping that it'll get to a point where we're finally free of buggy, proprietary subscription nonsense and have free tools like firmware engineers. Altium is probably still the best tool out there but drat it's easy to hate anyway.
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Jul 1, 2022 04:45
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I’m in the opposite. I’m stuck with Allegro at work and I lust for Altium. Allegro feels like it hasn’t had a UX update since 1992. Avoid.
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Jul 1, 2022 05:03
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I've been using Kicad for a few years. Initially (at least, since my early teens when I played with a DOS PCB app) I used Eagle, but I wanted more layers for a project and didn't want to pay, and their UIs actually feel similar once you figure it out. In that they're both pretty weird and kind of unpleasant from a UX perspective, but once you get used to it it's fine. I did enjoy the mild association with CERN Kicad has, and being able to tell friends that I used the software CERN used for the LHC to design my PCB, but even that was kind of crashy for a while (e.g. some of their functionality only worked when in OpenGL rendering mode, and enabling that made it crash randomly for me), but it does definitely improve with time as people do seem to be working on it, and I'm pretty happy with it overall (e.g. the OpenGL crash has gone). I do kind of wonder what I'm missing with the big pay-for applications though, I kind of imagine they must be magical for the price.
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Jul 1, 2022 05:57
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The gap is closing tbh. My memory of Altium is fading, because in the last four years, I've used Altium (then moved jobs), CircuitMaker (dormant with showstopper bugs for literally 3 years), Upverter (bought by Altium and then dormant with showstopper bugs until they pivoted into something that doesn't make any sense to me), PCBModE (for fun), and then finally KiCad, because I'm tired of getting rugpulled by Altium. Also it was an older version of Altium, so I'm sure I missed out on a lot of new stuff. I know they added tools for visualising flex PCBs in a later version. So that said, they had better multiple sheet handling, usability tools like selection filters, good methods for fanning out tons of traces. Their old formats are forever forward compatible and never break. Any component or object can be added to a sidebar spreadsheet to be bulk-edited. They also had a bunch of stupid useless bullshit I never used, like FPGA integration, some advanced autorouting tools, Spice integration, scripting (actually I used it once but it was in... VB.NET I want to say?), "zones" for organising sheets into logical sections on your PCB, version control (CVS based maybe?), online footprint cloud thing that didn't fuckin' work and once gave me a manufacturer USB footprint that was literally upside down, including the 3D model. Basically they are better for handling enormous BGA systems with lots of layers and lots of components. It's all usability stuff that removes some tedium and speeds things up a little. But for simpler stuff, including 4-layer stuff, honestly, it's not really any better than KiCad. The latest version of KiCad has finally implemented selection filters and individual nets hiding, which were my last two requirements from being willing to call KiCad a "good" tool. edit: can you tell I'm still bitter about that company? 
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Jul 1, 2022 06:21
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Yeah the one thing I remember from the like, hour I spent playing with Altium once was you could make absolutely insane layer stackups, like 64 layers plus the ability to have some of the layers extend out as flex PCB's to connect to other boards with completely different layer stackups etc.
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Jul 1, 2022 06:26
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ante posted:They also had a bunch of stupid useless bullshit I never used, like FPGA integration It's funny you should mention it, the "hobby" project (with a few users) I've been working on for a few years does have an FPGA, and the one thing I keep thinking would be really great would be if Kicad could "know" about that and automatically allow me to just shift around pins that are similarly specced/etc. so I could just make layout simpler instead of having to try some layout, note the way the traces are ending up, then updating that on the FPGA side and then in the schematic side to just get back into the PCB to finish off. The same might be cool of old school TTL chips/etc. of allowing it to just swap out the interchangeable parts of a chip. Of course, Kicad is open source, so if I really cared I could just add this myself 
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Jul 1, 2022 06:33
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Shame Boy posted:Yeah the one thing I remember from the like, hour I spent playing with Altium once was you could make absolutely insane layer stackups, like 64 layers plus the ability to have some of the layers extend out as flex PCB's to connect to other boards with completely different layer stackups etc. I only used this for the first time like last week. It's a little awkward specifying which part of the PCB is flex (you can't reference your existing layers for no good reason), but yeah the layer stack manager itself is pretty good. It handles last minute changes to the stack up fairly gracefully (which is nice when the manufacturer pulls a fast one on you last minute) and the tie in with Altium draftsman stuff is very easy. Controlled impedance stuff works but I wouldn't describe it as graceful. Altium has some awesome features but the trajectory they're on is awful, which is why I'm optimistic kiCAD will catch them and kill them. It's very hard to compete with a free, open source project with an active community.
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Jul 1, 2022 08:46
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I'm fixing an old (West!) German radio and I'm having all sorts of issues. First off, chassis ground is carrying a 60 Hz wave when it's powered on and I have no idea why. Second, the FM frontend seems completely dead. I'll attach a picture of my scope connected just the probe to ground. As for the FM frontend, I was having problems where the FM discriminator voltage would be WAY too high. That high voltage would go down to what it was supposed to be if I disconnected the FM frontend output. So I reattached it and poked around the frontend's output. I probed it with my scope probe and just probing the output with a disconnected probe was enough to drop the discriminator down to what it's supposed to be. So I bought some 47pF mica caps to jury-rig the thing to make it look a probe was always attached. I waited a week for them to arrive. I attached one and the discriminator voltage dropped! So I attempted an FM alignment and discovered that none of the controls did anything. There was no action at all on any station on the FM dial. So I took that 47pF off and the discriminator voltage was down again. The whole dial was dead. The only output from the FM frontend appears to match the ground. The frontend is built like a tank on this radio too, very heavily shielded. I finally opened it up after all this. It's getting its supply voltage. The voltage test points are 10-20% over the schematic, just like the rest of the radio's voltages. This radio has driven me crazy and I don't know where to start fixing it. Please help. Edit: that ground AC went away for about 2 weeks then came back without explanation. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jul 3, 2022 |
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Jul 3, 2022 01:16
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Can you share the schematics? First port of call for fixing old electronics is usually to replace all the capacitors. Splode fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Jul 3, 2022 |
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Jul 3, 2022 06:31
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https://antiqueradios.com/forums/download/file.php?id=317160&sid=67113f649b2b600b6e7fb2710631a263 I already did the capacitors. That was the first thing I did. AM works fine. FM is a dug in tick from Hell.
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Jul 3, 2022 06:48
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Also, who makes a good soldering station for hobbyist use? My Hakko clone just shot craps. Or did I just answer my question?
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Jul 3, 2022 23:29
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A real Hakko Just had this conversation with a coworker, actually. The interface on them is awful, but they are Fine, and of the half dozen different brands I've seen in hackspaces, those are the only ones that survive. Everything else gets trashed. That said, next soldering iron I get will be a TS100, or Pinecil, or whatever else similar thing is out there at the time.
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Jul 3, 2022 23:33
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kid sinister posted:Also, who makes a good soldering station for hobbyist use? My Hakko clone just shot craps. Or did I just answer my question? Hakko is very good quality for the money and will last forever. In particular the 888D is wildly popular for a reason, and this also makes it easy to get both genuine and fake tips for it. This is my personal iron and I like it. However those portable irons like the TS100 or TS80 have loads of functionality and portability for the price. I'm just not sure how long they'd last. If money is no object, I usually get my workplaces to buy JBC irons. They're horrifically expensive but they are simply the best.
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Jul 4, 2022 12:36
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Just to throw this out there, I love my soldering iron which is this: https://www.amazon.com/KSGER-Temperature-Controller-Electronic-Equipments/dp/B07L3HHZSX Amazon says it’s not available anymore since it looks like there’s an upgraded unit for sale now or something. I’m just a hobbyist, but I love it. Heats up in <5 seconds from zero, awesome user interface, great temp maintaining and I love T12 tips, I wish they were more popular. I’ve had mine for 2 years I think? They were really popular for a while, but then seemed to die off. The only thing I worry/worried about is reliability. I had heard that when they got popular there were some clones or cheaper made ones that had all sorts of issues with quality. I’ve opened mine up and it looks good so I’m hoping it’ll last for a good while and I’ve had zero problems so far. A++, would solder again. I’ve been using a tip that’s shaped like a cone with a diagonal slice halfway through it. I love that too… I can solder/desolder so much better now.
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Jul 4, 2022 13:18
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Splode posted:In particular the 888D is wildly popular for a reason, and this also makes it easy to get both genuine and fake tips for it. This is my personal iron and I like it. Oh sweet, my local Micro Center has them on sale for $90. That's even cheaper than Amazon.
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Jul 4, 2022 20:14
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The FX-888D is the best iron you can get at a hobbyist pricepoint. There are better irons out there but they are more expensive pro ones.
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Jul 4, 2022 20:17
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BattleMaster posted:The FX-888D is the best iron you can get at a hobbyist pricepoint. There are better irons out there but they are more expensive pro ones. I have that model and it is excellent. I can no longer blame my gently caress ups on my tools.
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Jul 4, 2022 23:50
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Marsupial Ape posted:I have that model and it is excellent. I can no longer blame my gently caress ups on my tools. I'm still going to blame my gently caress ups on your tools, though.
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Jul 4, 2022 23:53
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I'm a dinosaur so I still use a Weller station. Needs are suited.
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Jul 5, 2022 18:27
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Hey y'all, I'm looking to get into electronics to build myself some midi controller/misc input devices, potentially graduating to building my own synthesizer modules and such. Found some plans online and I think I can put some neat stuff together, exciting stuff. There is one issue however, and it's that I have Essential Tremor, ever since I was a kid. This has made my previous attempts at soldering an absolute motherfucker of an experience, even on relatively easy through hole stuff. I'm wondering if there's potentially a model of iron that would reduce the impact my tremors have on the iron, I imagine a short iron would make a huge difference but I wanted to check and make sure they weren't total garbage or something.
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Jul 5, 2022 19:08
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InternetOfTwinks posted:Hey y'all, I'm looking to get into electronics to build myself some midi controller/misc input devices, potentially graduating to building my own synthesizer modules and such. Found some plans online and I think I can put some neat stuff together, exciting stuff. There is one issue however, and it's that I have Essential Tremor, ever since I was a kid. This has made my previous attempts at soldering an absolute motherfucker of an experience, even on relatively easy through hole stuff. I'm wondering if there's potentially a model of iron that would reduce the impact my tremors have on the iron, I imagine a short iron would make a huge difference but I wanted to check and make sure they weren't total garbage or something. Maybe reflow soldering is a way to go? Apparently you don't necessarily even need a reflow oven, you can just use one of those hot air desoldering irons? It seems like it would reduce the precision needed quite a bit, although you'll still need to apply the solder paste.
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Jul 5, 2022 20:03
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The problem you're going to have with a short iron is the iron length is there to keep the hot bit as far away from your hand as possible, since there's only so much the insulation in the handle can do. I guess if you're only soldering for like an hour at a time it might be fine though...
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Jul 5, 2022 20:04
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