Starting to Solder

Will left a comment asking how to begin soldering. There are plenty of basic projects to begin with.

As I said I am away from my computer so I can't demonstrate all of this, but I can tell you.

You can pick up a soldering gun at Radioshack for about ten to twenty dollars. You only need the lowest power iron they have. Check the package to be sure that it was designed for electronics. Be sure to also grab a roll of solder.

Read "Soldering Safety 101" before you begin. I was a few posts ago, and if its not on the front page then it will be in the archives.

One great project to start soldering is called "A Simple and Cheap Dark-Detecting LED Circuit". It is an article on the "Evil Mad Scientist" Labs. See it here: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/nightlight

For this simple project I got most of my parts from Mouser Electronics (mouser.com). Be careful about which transistor you buy. There are many closely related to the 2N3904, so pick carefully.

You might want to make a few of these for practice. This circuit can be a great add-on to future robots that can turn on their lights in the dark either for show or to help it's camera see better.

I recommend you check out Make Magazine (makezine.com) which is full of great projects. They have a blog (blog.makezine.com) which is free to read. I check it almost every day.

I will undoubtedly be posting countless more projects involving soldering, and its a wonderful skill to learn.

Let me know how your project turns out.