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I have done a little research in the last couple of days and while I would love to get a Fluke, I don't think it would ever be used enough to justify the price. I found a Clarke CDM45 for $15. I think it will be good enough. And good enough is good enough.

Tony, I was wondering what that fat stiff wire was for, lol. It's solder The guy I bought my soldering iron from three in some MG chemicals 23 gauge Sn63/Pb37 RA flux yada yada yada. I don't know the difference between solder so I am hoping I haven't screwed up. It sure makes soldering easy having this gauge compared to the big stuff I used on RC electronics.

I'm looking for a small power supply that can live with the chess board. Something not ugly would be nice but I'm not getting my hopes up on that one.

Well, I have soldered all the diodes and capacitors on except on one capacitor. That capacitor is lost to the god of tiny parts that hit the floor. I was going to swing by an electronics store and see if I could get another on. 100N Capacitors SMD is what I would ask for? How common are these?

By the way, I am having a great time so far with this kit. Once I figure out how to setup my multimeter to measure the milliamperes, I'm going to start winding the coils. Can't wait.

Salt Maple wrote:Well, I have soldered all the diodes and capacitors on except on one capacitor. That capacitor is lost to the god of tiny parts that hit the floor. I was going to swing by an electronics store and see if I could get another on. 100N Capacitors SMD is what I would ask for? How common are these?

By the way, I am having a great time so far with this kit. Once I figure out how to setup my multimeter to measure the milliamperes

Very common and it isn't critical, anything from .068 to 1uF plus will do, below that though there will be a little more impedance resulting in a dimmer display. Make sure it's 50v or more though.

I'm going to start winding the coils. Can't wait.

Why the ? What did I do wrong? Should I have wound the coils first? You're freaking me out.

Salt Maple wrote:Why the ? What did I do wrong? Should I have wound the coils first? You're freaking me out.

Nothing wrong, just the idea you're looking forward to doing them......

I'm looking forward to all of it. I have an idea to make it easier too. I am looking for an app to that clicks every second for a set period of time so I can use the click as a wind indicator. One click equals one wind, to start. Two winds a second should be no problem once I get into it. Maybe three if I'm focused

Ha, Ha, Tony said, "...crap..."

So, we paid for and got a lot of "crap" solder in our kits and need to replace with some good stuff. LOL.....

He's so Fun-E....

It's a good thing I've got a couple of rolls of Silver soldier after doing some Arduino SMD play.

Sorry about that....

I'm not sure what the laws are over there but here if I sent you all toxic heavy metals to inhale/chew/bury in the garden I wouldn't last long enough to get the second batch done.

I have a stockpile of 60/40 for my own use but anything sold has to use the legal stuff.

(Note - I'm not sure if the regulations apply to kits but I thought it would be safest to supply lead free solder).

(another edit: Looking through the regulations it appears I could have exported lead solder outside the EU but I would need to make sure each country or state would allow its' import.)

I have my own rolls of kester so I'm good. That lead-free stuff you're supplying will be given away or thrown out. Lead is the (not so) secret ingredient that makes electronics work properly.

******************************** Tony ****************
@Tony - Questions about my Display PCBs:

In the kit I have: I do have 33x pcb boards - 26 are copper colored, 7 are silver colored.

* Why are 8 pcb boards slightly larger in diameter than the others (1 is copper colored and 7 are silver colored.)? * Of the 33x pcb boards four of the copper boards have shallow very fine clean traces compared to the other pcb boards which have wider and deeper cut traces. Are the four uniquely traced pcb boards a different machine or machine tool? Note: They are the same pattern just different cut.
********************************************************

I agree with ....Maple - Fun.
I just finished the board forms last night and this morning. That was 260 pieces of sanding, cleaning, assembling with more than 650 touches to the assemblies. Today, now starting the pcb board forms. I'm going to make all the forms first then take a week(?) to wind. It is 3.456 - 3,520 windings for all the board coils and 1,518 windings for the display pcbs. That is a total, without errors, of up to 5,038 windings. You throw in testing every one - 65x board + 33x display = 98 coils and I think I know why Tony may put out the face - . Me it is just -

@...Maple - I like the idea of a clicker - metronome (phone app?) to count winds. I was also thinking how to hook up my drill and just whiz on the wire. Along with - How to make a length counter. The process would then be: Hook wire, whirrrrr, cut. Hook wire, whirrrr, cut.

Tony - by chance after your tens of thousands of windings - Do you know what length the board and pcb coil wire lengths are for their respective coils?

POWER SUPPLY: Just today - 10/9/12, I got an RC e-mail with an add for a small 150W, 7A bench PSU for $18.59US. It looks very nice. I thought it was $15.xx this morning when I first saw the ad. OR you know you can grab a handful of batteries. Tape them together and wire them series/parallel to get your 12V. Good for single coil tests? The power supply is at HobbyKing: http://p6trc.emv2.com/HM?a=ENX7Cqkj9AFW ... _HhdApYldr

@ ...Ed ---- When done it sounds like your board would go at auction for ~$5K US??? Do not forget to post pictures.