hi all. so yesterday i finished my soldering iron and was able to test it out today replacing capacitors on a motherboard, and it worked flawlessly. I'm still needing to put it in a box or container for protection.
I used a 5v glow plug for a vehicle i found locally, and i used my arduino for an adjustable PWM, and it'll all powered from an ATX psu.
one click on the start button gives me an adjustable heat range from semi hot to 80% power, and a long press gives me full heat power if needed. The long press option is also set up for a hot air surface mount soldering when the fittings and air pump are attached. but i'm still needing to tinker with the hot air accessories and get all that lined out, but it will melt solder.
but what i like about it, it heats up so quickly, i can use it for on demand soldering, and don't have to wait 5-10 minutes for my old soldering iron to fully heat up.
Nicely done and good use of found material!
The glow plug looks similar to the ones used in my old 1982 Chevy V8 Diesel. Those glow plugs were 6 volt! But run at 12 volts on a 30 second timer. A starter solenoid switch was used to control the on/off. One day the switch welded on and several of the glow plugs exploded and were forever stuck in the cylinder head.
Paul
Paul_KD7HB:
Nicely done and good use of found material!
The glow plug looks similar to the ones used in my old 1982 Chevy V8 Diesel. Those glow plugs were 6 volt! But run at 12 volts on a 30 second timer. A starter solenoid switch was used to control the on/off. One day the switch welded on and several of the glow plugs exploded and were forever stuck in the cylinder head.
Paul
that sucks. this was the first time i've ever played around with a glow plug. but it doesn't surprise me you had problems. I've looked at the specs of most glow plugs whenever i bought this one, and most of them need roughly 10 amps per plug. and in your case at double the voltage, with 8 plugs, your solenoid was moving between 120-160 amps, which is more than enough to melt the solenoid.
