Hackaday Links: April 18, 2010

Remote motion control

This project walks though a method of controlling motors with an accelerometer when the two are physically separated. Two Arduinos are used, with the user interface and the motor control connected via Ethernet. This must be useful for something; maybe it should be the next step once you get your accelerometer up and running.

CNC machine build

[Lucassiglo21] is doing a great job documenting his CNC build. The project has been ongoing for several months. He’s seeing some success with milling simple PCBs along with other millwork projects.

Condom starts a fire

Ever needed to start a fire and had nothing on you but a condom? Yeah, we haven’t either but that doesn’t diminish the fun of this whimsical ‘Condom Hack Pack‘ video. See the uses you never thought of for those rubbery package protectors.

Solderless PCB

Print your component locations on a piece of card stock and populate the board without any soldering? This is quick and convenient for a circuit that doesn’t need to last very long. It uses wire wrapping to connect the components, completing the circuit. [Thanks Frogz]

19 thoughts on “Hackaday Links: April 18, 2010

  1. At one time wire-wrapping had a certain popularity, even though it was still on the fringe, and even NASA used it and had instructions on how to do it.
    I’ve only seen it in a device twice though, and one of those was an ancient tube radio.
    I’m not sure where you’d get the material nowadays, not only the wire and wrapping tool but the special versions of various parts used in electronic with the extended connectors for the wire to wrap on.
    Good luck wire-wrapping SMD part :D

  2. NASA wasn’t the only one. The defense dept. used wire wrapping too (had a friend that used to assemble circuit boards in CO).

    RE: SMT. You use a breakout board with long posts and wrap to that. Lots of prototyping in labs that do not allow soldering are still done with wire wrapping.

  3. Any electronics store sells Kynar wire and wire wrapping tools. If you use wire wrap sockets (also very easily obtainable), the wire wrapped circuit is more durable than the equivalent pcb soldered circuit. Wire wrapping is still heavily used in the telecom industry.

  4. @traitorous8: True. I work on two different military radar systems, and they each have several wirewrapped backplanes. Even some of our older test equipment uses wirewrapped boards here and there.

  5. …why is it i can mail this and it gets posted the next day
    and when i submit over 100 years of popular science(multiple times) and mechanics for free on google, it doesnt get posted EVER(it had to be reposted by some other site and had jumps on the band waggon and posts it) had coulda beat them to it by a month but they didnt read any of my posts
    but i submit a INSTRUCTABLE(btw, i wouldnt go with wire wrapping for the method, i’d soldered wires)
    we still need a forum AND a wiki!

  6. yeah i second the wirewrapping notes, they are useful.
    also can be used in the total absence of mains power for soldering irons etc, so you could be sitting there building a radio after the 2012 solar catastrophe… ;-)

    not that it would help..

  7. oooh, I also second the wiki and forums idea. I am relatively new to electronics and would love to have a solid place where I can ask questions and look up information without feeling like I am constantly being sold a product.

  8. I love using wire-wrap wire for small scale hacks, but I have to admit I’m soldering it on my projects.

    I know my local Rad Shmack doesn’t carry wire-wrap anything anymore, however the web site does.

  9. @pall.e

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