We're Gonna Push It To The Limit
The lesson in this project is that our lovely soldering irons are dangerous to electronics. How ironic!
Quite simply, we're going to crank up the heat and literally burn out an LED. Nothing like a little creative destruction.
The setup involve just hooking the components together, because apparently alligator clips are too effective at dissipating heat for the point we're trying to prove here. So I hooked up all the bits, flipped the switch to light the LED, and then began the experiment.
First, I had the iron on it's low 20w mode. I held the iron to one leg of the LED, full on, and watched what happened:
Slowly, the LED got dimmer and oranger. After 2-3 minutes, it was fairly dull, but it seemed to stabilize at that point.
When I took the iron away, the LED immediately started becoming brighter and after 15 seconds or so returned to it's original tint.
Quite simply, we're going to crank up the heat and literally burn out an LED. Nothing like a little creative destruction.
The setup involve just hooking the components together, because apparently alligator clips are too effective at dissipating heat for the point we're trying to prove here. So I hooked up all the bits, flipped the switch to light the LED, and then began the experiment.
First, I had the iron on it's low 20w mode. I held the iron to one leg of the LED, full on, and watched what happened:
Slowly, the LED got dimmer and oranger. After 2-3 minutes, it was fairly dull, but it seemed to stabilize at that point.
When I took the iron away, the LED immediately started becoming brighter and after 15 seconds or so returned to it's original tint.
Then, I flipped the iron to 40w and tried again. This time it took only a dozen seconds before the glow of the LED was reduced to only a tiny red spot of light. Honestly at this point I was expecting it to puff out like it did when I gave it too much voltage back in Project 4. However, I guess the iron isn't quite powerful enough, or the copper wire I had attached was too good of a thermal conductor, because I just couldn't get it to go.
Once again the LED returned to it's normal glow when I removed the iron. The moral of the lesson was that components are fragile, but it seems to me that LEDs (in particular, at least) are surprisingly resilient!
Of course, I have learned this lesson first-hand already. A few years ago, when I first got my soldering iron, I got these awesome little solar-powered robot kits, and after struggling through an afternoon of ineffective soldering, I managed to have completed one robot, which was completely non-functional. After reading around, I realized I had probably cooked one or several of the components, and I didn't even have a multimeter to prove it!
Once again the LED returned to it's normal glow when I removed the iron. The moral of the lesson was that components are fragile, but it seems to me that LEDs (in particular, at least) are surprisingly resilient!
Of course, I have learned this lesson first-hand already. A few years ago, when I first got my soldering iron, I got these awesome little solar-powered robot kits, and after struggling through an afternoon of ineffective soldering, I managed to have completed one robot, which was completely non-functional. After reading around, I realized I had probably cooked one or several of the components, and I didn't even have a multimeter to prove it!
The author of the book writes that it's very important to watch your heat and avoid burning the components in the first place, and I agree! Ick!
It's not all doom and gloom though: The final part of the experiment was to use a copper alligator clip as a heatsink to protect your components. Once again with the iron on 40w, I clipped on the clip and applied the heat. Sure enough, the LED dimmed only a little, and no matter how I moved the iron, I couldn't get it to dim as much as even the results with the 20w application.
While this might seem like a perfect solution, the problem is that the heatsinks can work too well, making the wires cool and preventing solder from melting on them. So it seems like the answer is going to be to just practice soldering a lot and get good at doing it quickly and accurately!
And now with all these little lessons out of the way, it's time to get back to building things!
It's not all doom and gloom though: The final part of the experiment was to use a copper alligator clip as a heatsink to protect your components. Once again with the iron on 40w, I clipped on the clip and applied the heat. Sure enough, the LED dimmed only a little, and no matter how I moved the iron, I couldn't get it to dim as much as even the results with the 20w application.
While this might seem like a perfect solution, the problem is that the heatsinks can work too well, making the wires cool and preventing solder from melting on them. So it seems like the answer is going to be to just practice soldering a lot and get good at doing it quickly and accurately!
And now with all these little lessons out of the way, it's time to get back to building things!