![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tech frustration
Oct. 25th, 2009 08:41 amI suspect that I should come up with some kind of electronics icon. (This isn't a request, I generally prefer to make my own icons, a policy I've only made two exceptions to.)
I guess I haven't posted about having ordered and then received my Aoyue HR2738, hot air rework station with attached soldering iron and fume sucker. But I did. And I couldn't immediately play with it because of busy (and needing to reconfigure the work space - my little desk has now been moved into the common area to become dedicated electronics space, the microscope bench / breadboard is now flat against the outside wall, etc. etc.)
But, finally yesterday I had some time to put it through its paces, and a project to work on (further repairing my phone*) a space to work in, and I was pretty stoked.
However... so I'd set everything up according to the instructions. (Yes, I even read the documentation. Maybe that's the problem.) I put in my 1mm tip. I turned on the device, and then the soldering iron and fume sucker. And got an error.
So I turned off the iron (and fume sucker) and tried to hunt down the error. (Not very helpful. The soldering iron has one error. It means there's something wrong with the soldering iron.) Meanwhile, the iron continued to heat up, until the tip was molten. Yeah, seriously. Last time I'd been playing with metal that looked like that, a forge, hammer and tongs were involved. So I turned off the whole device, and unplugged the power cord from the back for good measure. There were also a few very small wisps of smoke from the main box.
Once everything had cooled down I took the back panel off the main box. And indeed, on the board attached to the panel was one very fried component.
I'm really wishing I'd gone with plan A, where I played with this right after I got this instead of setting up the whole area - I mean, I'm still pretty sure I want one of these, really I'm surprised how much I like it for something that doesn't actually work, I just want a functional one. But there's a chance that if I'd fried it on the first day, I'd have gotten a replacement by now.
I have written sad, sad mail to Sparkfun. (Okay, most of it was a detailed description of what happened and what component failed. Still. Very sad.) Wah. Weekends.
* Yes, I thought this phone was dying many months back. And it's a WinCE device, and I was kind of sick of it... but the more repair work I do on it, the more fond I become. And I'm cheap. And hey, if I ever do kill it, I can use its components for flat mount practice.
I guess I haven't posted about having ordered and then received my Aoyue HR2738, hot air rework station with attached soldering iron and fume sucker. But I did. And I couldn't immediately play with it because of busy (and needing to reconfigure the work space - my little desk has now been moved into the common area to become dedicated electronics space, the microscope bench / breadboard is now flat against the outside wall, etc. etc.)
But, finally yesterday I had some time to put it through its paces, and a project to work on (further repairing my phone*) a space to work in, and I was pretty stoked.
However... so I'd set everything up according to the instructions. (Yes, I even read the documentation. Maybe that's the problem.) I put in my 1mm tip. I turned on the device, and then the soldering iron and fume sucker. And got an error.
So I turned off the iron (and fume sucker) and tried to hunt down the error. (Not very helpful. The soldering iron has one error. It means there's something wrong with the soldering iron.) Meanwhile, the iron continued to heat up, until the tip was molten. Yeah, seriously. Last time I'd been playing with metal that looked like that, a forge, hammer and tongs were involved. So I turned off the whole device, and unplugged the power cord from the back for good measure. There were also a few very small wisps of smoke from the main box.
Once everything had cooled down I took the back panel off the main box. And indeed, on the board attached to the panel was one very fried component.
I'm really wishing I'd gone with plan A, where I played with this right after I got this instead of setting up the whole area - I mean, I'm still pretty sure I want one of these, really I'm surprised how much I like it for something that doesn't actually work, I just want a functional one. But there's a chance that if I'd fried it on the first day, I'd have gotten a replacement by now.
I have written sad, sad mail to Sparkfun. (Okay, most of it was a detailed description of what happened and what component failed. Still. Very sad.) Wah. Weekends.
* Yes, I thought this phone was dying many months back. And it's a WinCE device, and I was kind of sick of it... but the more repair work I do on it, the more fond I become. And I'm cheap. And hey, if I ever do kill it, I can use its components for flat mount practice.
