My Do It Yourself Laser power meter - picture heavy PART1

[Eudaimonium]

Grounding the copper area is really a HF habit - i used to build things like transmitters for the VHF range, and the habit with those is to have grounded copper plane wherever possible.

In an application like this i think it won't matter at all, its all near-DC running around. The only reason for leaving the pieces of copper is to save etchant. It can be convenient to use a ground plane anyway, especially if they run right past a ground connection anyway.

Actually folks, copper filling is only for the looks, it does not connect to anything.

If you take a look at prototyping photos, where it's printed on sheets of normal paper, you will see that I have printed out two variants, with and without copper fill.

It seemed that copper fill was giving really professional looks and feel, and also , as you stated, save etchant. Took 20 minutes to etch the thing, it was a lot of copper to dissolve.

Gotta love protoprocess though, when you take the PCB from the lamp to the photocover removing fluid, that's epic. One second and all the lines become visible.

Damn magic of todays advanced technology :crackup: Just can't get enough of suprises...

 

[lasersbee]

You have not responded to my earlier question...:cryyy:
Do you do the Photo transferring process at school or are you
setup to do it at home...:thinking:


Jerry

 

[Eudaimonium]

You have not responded to my earlier question...:cryyy:
Do you do the Photo transferring process at school or are you
setup to do it at home...:thinking:


Jerry

What?....

I could have sworn that I answered your question...

Yes I did it at school ,but after being so fascinated, I am going to invest in proper photoprocedure equipement, right after I purchase my soldering station.

BTW, speaking of which Jerry, I decided to hunt down Hakko 936 at the ebay. I found some nice deals, shipping is only problem, waiting for reply from seller. Will continue search.
Thanks for your help!

 

[jaycey]

Wow, wish I had the opportunity to do some of this stuff when I was at school.

Nice work and good luck with your project.

 

[lasersbee]

BTW, speaking of which Jerry, I decided to hunt down Hakko 936 at the ebay. I found some nice deals, shipping is only problem, waiting for reply from seller. Will continue search.
Thanks for your help!

N/P...
Yeah... the Hakko 936 is reportedly a good choice as well...


Jerry
(6700-288-26030-4N-PRO)

 

[Eudaimonium]

Hmm Hakko or Aoyue...

What do people have to say about Aoyue...
AOYUE 937+ Digital Soldering Station - eBay (item 120545542541 end time Jun-17-10 08:12:08 PDT)
International shipping, not so costly ...
And looks kickass.

Anybody has any info?

 

[charliebruce]

I've been planning/considering getting an Aoyue station, reviews have been positive wherever I've looked. I've used a hot-air station from a generic (Aoyue or similar) Chinese brand at school, and apart from long warm-up times on the hot air gun, I have had no problems whatsoever. No experience with Hakko, it seems like they're harder to find on eBay over here.

 

[Eudaimonium]

I've been planning/considering getting an Aoyue station, reviews have been positive wherever I've looked. I've used a hot-air station from a generic (Aoyue or similar) Chinese brand at school, and apart from long warm-up times on the hot air gun, I have had no problems whatsoever. No experience with Hakko, it seems like they're harder to find on eBay over here.

Actually, Hakko 936 is really easy to find on ebay, problem is that ALL of them, with shipping, cost over or near $100, which makes my wallet ache already.

I have totaly decided to get something like THIS, then:
AOYUE 937+ Digital Soldering Station - eBay (item 120545542541 end time Jun-17-10 08:12:08 PDT)

The seller replied within 20 minutes of my inquiry. He said that it's no problem shipping outside, but warned me that only 110V units are available.

I further inquired about 230/110 VAC tranformer - if he can sell one also, with the station together, waiting for reply.

Jerry linked some transformers, but they are from differrent seller, I'd like my shippings and arrival times combined. Would suck if I got the long-awaited and heavily anticipated station, but no trafo to power it. I'd pull my scapl off.

 

[ReNNo]

Why to buy additional transformer if you don't have to?

DealExtreme: $44.32 Kada 936D Digital soldering Station with English Manual (60W 24V AC)

This is also good Soldering Station for its money.
It's like AOYUE you are looking at.
All these cheap soldering stations are clones so it doesn't matter if you buy AOYUE or Kada.

I'm happy with this Kada soldering stations...I think the best you can get for that amount of money.
It's easy to find replacements tips on ebay (you can find any kind of tips and any of them cost $2).

 

[lasersbee]

I would Read the DX Review on that Station......

Jerry

 

[Eudaimonium]

Why to buy additional transformer if you don't have to?

DealExtreme: $44.32 Kada 936D Digital soldering Station with English Manual (60W 24V AC)

This is also good Soldering Station for its money.
It's like AOYUE you are looking at.
All these cheap soldering stations are clones so it doesn't matter if you buy AOYUE or Kada.

I'm happy with this Kada soldering stations...I think the best you can get for that amount of money.
It's easy to find replacements tips on ebay (you can find any kind of tips and any of them cost $2).

I would Read the DX Review on that Station......

Jerry

I am refraining from that, because I've read that the cable is only 60cm and very stiff, and working with that is not my idea of dream soldering station.

Sorry ReNNo.

AOYUE 937+ Digital Soldering Station - eBay (item 120545542541 end time Jun-17-10 08:12:08 PDT)

or
AOYUE 936 Soldering Station - eBay (item 120566955596 end time Jun-06-10 15:16:35 PDT)

That.

Hakko - a bit expensive - out of my range

And yes, brand does matter.
Kada soldering = 10 search results
Aoyue soldering = 60 results

 

[ReNNo]

I would Read the DX Review on that Station......

Jerry

It's long time since I bought that soldering station from DX, so all these review are unimportant for me now.
I'm satisfied.

Only thing that I dislike is short cable and you need to put soldering station close to soldering iron. But this is not big problem when you get used to keep soldering station close to soldering iron.

And about these AOYUE soldering stations.
I don't see that they offering shipping to Croatia.

Look the same...35W is enough for soldering on PCB-s.
But more power is never enough for temperature controlled soldering station.
More power = gets to desired temperature faster.

 

[Eudaimonium]

It's long time since I bought that soldering station from DX, so all these review are unimportant for me now.
I'm satisfied.

Only thing that I dislike is short cable and you need to put soldering station close to soldering iron. But this is not big problem when you get used to keep soldering station close to soldering iron.

And about these AOYUE soldering stations.
I don't see that they offering shipping to Croatia.

Look the same...35W is enough for soldering on PCB-s.
But more power is never enough for temperature controlled soldering station.
More power = gets to desired temperature faster.

Few posts up dude, I wrote that I have contacted the seller and he CAN ship to Croatia.

Why sweating? Fearing that I'll get a better deal than you? :na:

 

[ReNNo]

No, I'm not that kind of person.

I just like "best buy" products, that is why I recommended Kada... because I bought it for myself. If that is not one of the best buy soldering stations why would I buy Kada?

But that is my opinion. Maybe you think different.

 

[Eudaimonium]

No, I'm not that kind of person.

I just like "best buy" products, that is why I recommended Kada... because I bought it for myself. If that is not one of the best buy soldering stations why would I buy Kada?

But that is my opinion. Maybe you think different.

I do.

If I'm already buying, might as well buy the top of my reach.

I don't want to buy something that I'd want replaced, or for what I'd :banghead: and saying "Ah could have spend $20 more and get MUCH better stuff".

BTW, the "Sweating because of deal" stuff was a joke, no need to take it literally

 

[Benm]

Is there any difference between the kada and aoyue 936 station at all?
I figured it was just a re-branded model, but i've never seen the kada in real life.