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mulletchuck

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
1,132
Location
Midwood, Brooklyn, NYC
Today, Jeff's 51x kits showed up!!    looking AWESOME and weighing in at a hefty 51 lbs!!    Christmas in October!!    :D :D

I started working on the racks right away and will post some pics soon, cuz i've got a lot to build:

2 51x PSUs
2 51x Racks
2 ez1073-500s
2 IJR-F76's  (haven't arrived yet)
1 SB4001
1 VP26
1 VP312DI
1 VP528+

Unfortunately

my iron decided to quit on me after about 2 hours.  :-(    First time i'd used it, got it a week ago from Amazon.  Weller WESD51.    It's funny, i found this article on how those devices conk out:  http://linuxfocus.org/~guido/wesd51-blinking-888/  I thought they'd be good soldering irons.

Inside the station is a small circuit board with a PIC microcontroller a display and other components. In lower right corner is a 33uF/35V electrolytic capacitor and a diode which is used to provided a DC voltage to the microcontroller. This capacitor is too small. The value of all electrolytic capacitors drops a little bit as they age. The microcontroller gets then a too high AC component on top of the DC voltage and measures nonsense which inturn causes it to show the "error" as a blinking 888 in the display.
 

So, needless to say, my build is slightly delayed until I can get a hold of a replacement iron.    I ordered a Hakko FX-888, thanks to jeff's recommendation, which should be here in a few days. 

Thanks to JSteiger, Chunger, Robbie, Igor, and ruckus328, all of whom i've been chatting(more than likely annoying) with over facebook/AIM for the past few months about this project!
 
So your iron needs soldering to fix it. Is this the definition of Iron-y?

Good luck with your builds!
 
We have a Weller WESD51 at work that I use all the time. I absolutely love that iron, best one I've ever used by a long shot. Guess I'm fortunate to have never had any issues with it.

mason
 
yeah, that's pretty lucky, MasonAtom.  It was a great iron during the two hours it lasted.  But you should check out that article I linked in the top post.  it might change your thoughts on the unit.  I hope Amazon ships my FX-888 soon.    i hate having all these kits here and no tools to build them with.  ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH
 
Oh man, that's just evil...hope you get back to soldering soon! That is the exact reason I keep a cheap backup iron.

Can't wait to see your progress!!!
 
SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!!!    I took a second look at the manual for the iron and read up on "Iron Does Not Heat Up".  turns out a couple of the wires inside the handle were loose after i opened it up and took a look.  tightened 'em up, and viola!  iron works again.

So far, i've got the card slots on one rack and checked all the pins for connectivity to their proper thru-holes. 

I'll post a pic after i've got both of the Rack units assembled.  However, since this is my first foray into this type of project, how do my solder joints look?

solderjoints.jpg
 
MikeClev said:
So your iron needs soldering to fix it. Is this the definition of Iron-y?

Good luck with your builds!

I had that scenario when the mains trafo in my Weller TCP went after about 30 years.  Had to drive a 50 mile round trip to borrow my mates to fix it.

I like the weller tcp best.  I'm not convinced about all these temperature contolled things.  The TCP is nice and simple.  The first one I had for 20 years before the element burnt out & I got it from a college who had been using it for ages, to which it was donated second hand by a local company, so probably 35 - 40 years before any fault developed !
 
Rob Flinn said:
I like the weller tcp best.  I'm not convinced about all these temperature contolled things.  The TCP is nice and simple.  The first one I had for 20 years before the element burnt out & I got it from a college who had been using it for ages, to which it was donated second hand by a local company, so probably 35 - 40 years before any fault developed !
+1..
Mines now at least 25,had a replacement element in the spares draw for 10 yrs and still havent had to fit it...
The magnetic stat occasionaly sticks on a cold start ,tap the end and the heats on.
Use the same model at work and thats 10 years old.
Won,t use any thing else,and just cant get on with that electronic temp thing .
Weller tcp the techs industrial work horse. ;)
 
So, i'm doing the pin headers and found a nice trick to keep them in place while soldering because the height of the pins for the card slots prevents them from laying flush to whatever surface the PCB is resting on. 

take a business card, fold it in half, slide it underneath the pin headers from the bottom of the board and they'll be pressed up nicely against the PCB.  Jeff suggested I push the pins through their black case and then trim them a bit in case there is a 500-series module with a full enclosure that would otherwise come in contact with them. 

 
Chuck, you don't have to trim them. The length is fine. I probably meant that you need to cut down the longer sticks to 2-pin and 3-pin.

If you install these the standard way, they will clear the back of a fully enclosed module (550A, 550B, etc) by only about .03". Probably enough but better to be safe and push them thru from the rear.

Best, Jeff
 
Well, i ran into some trouble.    The 4th pin on one of those male xlrs became bent and didn't go into the thru-hole.  I didn't notice it until i had soldered all 3 of the primary pins unfortunately.  So, i had to remove the xlr in question and in the process, broke off two of the pins. 

I was able to get them reattached and remounted, but it was a pain in the ass.  Note to self:  check everything that has a tight fit before you solder.    I had to take the broken tip and place it in the thru-hole and then flood both sides with solder until the connection was bridged.  It's ugly but it worked.

here's what my kludge of a fix ended up looking like. 



I hope any other newbies building this heed this warning for being very careful about these male XLRs.  that 4th pin doesn't line up perfectly sometimes and BENDS EASILY.

Here's some more progress for ya, now that all the connections have been tested and OK'd:

 

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Finished the racks and power cables tonight!!    LONG day building...  I won't be able to put in more 8+ hour days on this stuff until after the weekend, as i've a bunch of gigs.    It's official, tho.  I'm addicted!!

 
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