Creation Station: La Quinta's MakerSpace

Desoldering: An Introduction Please be careful not to burn yourself.      Not everything permanent has to be permanent forever. Our intentions may be that we should solder a part into place and never touch it again, but that didn't stop us from putting the wrong part in place or having the wrong part to begin with. This is where desoldering comes in. Desoldering is the process of removing solder OR components from a solder-situation you'd like to change.  The techniques and concepts involved in desoldering can also be applied to soldering things together and will promote a better feel for what works with soldering in general. Practice may also increase your confidence. Lets take a look! Basic Principles of Desoldering      Lets talk about solder! For the rest of this article we will be referring to the properties of leaded solder. We're not going to get technical here, but lets start out by saying that solder loves to stick to and spre...

3 Examples of Sourcing Basic Electronic Parts A strip of RGB style LEDs, 1 SITUATION 1:             "We need more color and light in our lives!"      A common project for the modern electronics hobbyist is fun, colorful room lighting. There are many ways to come to a solution for this project, but we will only look at one. You can use a strip of APA102 RGB LEDs controlled by an Arduino to produce a programmatically controlled light sequence to fill a room with lights which might enhance other entertainment or be nice to look at on its own. You will also need an adequate power supply of the appropriate voltage (In the case of most APA102 that will be 5v but be sure to double check. Arduino are most commonly 5v). Be sure to buy a high quality power supply. You can also commonly find strips such as these available with a controller and power supply if you don't want to have a whole bunch of fun programming your own lights. These ...