Fyp 2: Week 2 :- Final Year Project 2

Study how to make circuits. Research about components that need to used in circuit and collect more information about circuit.

Recommended Tools and Supplies

•  Soldering iron and solder: Just about any 25-30 Watt soldering iron will do. Ideally, the temperature of you iron would be between 600-700 degrees F (for lead-free solder, 700-800 is recommended). 

•  How temperature relates to wattage depends a lot on the iron and some high wattage irons have too high of a temperature. Avoid "solder guns" as these are meant for pipe soldering. Not only can these be too hot, but they work by running high current through a resistive heating element, and this could apply dangerous voltages to your circuit

• For solder, starting out with a lead-based solder, usually called 63/37 (63% tin, 37% lead by weight) or 60/40 rosin cored solder. Get whatever cheaper; there's unnoticeable difference in hand soldering between 63/37 and 60/40. The rosin is a flux that cleans parts so solder will bond with them. Avoid solid wire (no flux core) and acid cored solder (for plumbing, too aggressive for circuits).  

• Needle Nose Pliers: Useful for pre-bending leads, pulling out components during de-soldering, and a lot of other things. 

• Wire Strippers: Two types are shown: the yellow ones can be adjusted to strip any size wire (good for small 28-30 AWG ribbon cable wires) whereas the red handled ones have several fixed hole sizes. 

• Flush Cutters: Used to trim leads close to the board after soldering 

• Clamps: Oftentimes just resting your board on a table will be fine, but the clamps are especially helpful when desoldering parts or soldering wires together. 

• Solder Sucker and Solder Wick: Both are inexpensive ways to remove solder. The sucker is a spring loaded tube that vacuums out solder and the wick is a fine braid of flux coated copper that soaks up solder. 

• Multimeter: Some multimeters have a continuity check that beeps if there is a complete circuit. This is very useful for making sure parts are connected or disconnected when there're a lot of wires and parts. 

• Pink Erasor: (not shown) A pink eraser can be used to rub off oxides from older components and boards without risking damage to the parts.