[Elecraft] monday

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Don W3FPR wrote:

I strongly advise against using styrofoam from the craft store to hold the 
parts - it creates static which can damage active components.  It is OK with

resistors and capacitors, but I hesitate to keep any of that stuff near my 
workbench on the off chance that it will brush against something and zap it.

The black foam stuff that sensitive parts are often stuck into is fine for 
holding components.

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I'll certainly second Don's comments about styrofoam. Having it around is
sort of like storing computer floppy disks in a drawer full of magnets, Hi! 

When you inventory (Everyone inventories, right? Even me, sometimes...) do
NOT take the ICs supplied in plastic carriers out of them. Those are
anti-static carriers and you should be wearing a ground strap or touch a
known ground with your fingers just before handling one out of the package.
Touch the ground again regularly or wear a ground strap while you are
working with them. 

The same is true for individual boards containing the firmware chips. I
haven't carefully analyzed the K2 circuits, but it is very common for a
board that has been unplugged from the system to have some inputs to a
sensitive IC "floating" because the circuit is open at the connector. They
are then as liable to be zapped with a small static charge as if you were
handling the individual IC. When you set an assembled board aside, an empty
anti-static bag is a great place to put it. At the very least, handle it as
if it were a static-sensitive IC and ground yourself first. 

Note, you will receive lots of small relays in tubes very much like the ICs.
They aren't static sensitive. 

Also, when looking over the parts it's good to open the bags one at a time.
If you have trouble identifying a part, being able to check which bag it
came from will often help. Of course, you can't do that if you dump the
contents of several bags together.

When I built my K2 I worked on a very small temporary bench. I left the
parts in the shipping bags until they were needed. Yes, it took a little
longer to find a part now and again, but it probably helped me be very
careful to check the value of the part BEFORE I inserted it on the board and
AFTER I inserted the leads and before soldering.

As one other fellow here pointed out, assuming that you have the right part
in hand because it came out of a certain pile is an invitation to error.
Always double-check.

Also, when you check, double check WHERE the part is on the board as well as
its value. It's amazing how a part can seem to move over to the wrong set of
holes! I helped a buddy troubleshoot his K2 recently. It had a weird problem
that I simply could not find, until I finally noticed that two resistors
side-by-side on a board were reversed! I must have looked at them 50 times,
carefully checking the values, before I realized that the values were FB,
but the positions were wrong!  

A capacitor tester might make you feel more comfortable if it'll help you
confirm the values, but the instruction manual has the actual markings
indicated for each part. Bad caps or resistors are exceedingly rare. That
said, I do use an ohmmeter frequently because some resistors have color
markings that are very hard to see clearly.

Take your time. Pay attention to what you are doing. Double, even triple
check your work as you go and you'll be rewarded with a rig that makes sweet
sounds the first time you apply power. 

Most of all, have fun!

Ron AC7AC