DIY Wavebox Tutorial from start to finish!

My first attempt was an absolute failure.

sorry to hear that.. but don't get discouraged

I'm going to take it completely apart and start over again.

atta boy!

I tried to take the shortest route to everything which ended up in a big crisscrossed mess that is next to impossible to even follow.

may I suggest printing out the diagram and pre-wire everything on a breadboard? If your project works, then it's time to transfer to a real board. I would solder the connections one by one and then (using a yellow marker) highlight the connection on the paper that you just soldered. That way you can be sure you aren't missing something.


Hey - what do you expect? It was my first project.

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Lesson Learned: Use the space of the board AND jumpers to keep things separated, neat and easy to follow.

Yes, utilize the vastness of the board - you're not trying to assemble a tiny cellphone here. It's a good idea to not cramp up your components in one spot.


I'm confident that my next attempt will be much better.

That's the spirit


I wasn't going to post a photo of it but what the heck. Should be good for a laugh or two and a great example of how NOT TO do electrical projects.

When I saw your first pic I said "wow that looks SO PRO!" but you're right about the second pic :lol:


At least it didn't blow up on me.

congrats
:beer:
 
Even though I did look, I couldn't find a solderless breadboard locally or I would have done it that way first.

I just ordered one online. While I wait for it to come, I'll take this apart and see what parts are salvageable. Good thing that most items came in multi packs.
 
The main problem for someone like myself (first timer) doing this is soldering the 555 timer because it comes with such short leads on it. Everything else comes with long leads that are easy to work with.

Is there a trick to soldering this?

OR - can I solder longer leads onto this piece before putting it on the board so that when I put it on the board I could spread the leads apart more on the backside giving myself more solder room?

The only problem I see might happen doing this is that it might be hard to get the timer on the board if I extend the leads. Might have to drill the holes in the board out just a bit to get them to go in the holes but that wouldn't be a big deal.
 
The easiest wa to solder the leads of the 555 timer, since they are short and you do not want to apply too much heat is to put the chip in a socket. This way you can solder the socket while it is in the proto board and then you simply insert the 555 into the socket.
 
The picture attached will give you an idea of what you need.

9366IC_socket.jpg
 
So it's like an extension?

Those pins are longer than the 555's?

Why don't they just come with longer pins. That seems like the most logical solution to me.
 
I have seen ones with longer legs, I think they used to have them at Radio shack. Well the main benefit to them is that they prevent from overheating the chip when soldering, as the chip is not in the socket during the soldering process.
 
AHH - So being this was my first soldering job, I more than likely burned the chip up and need to buy another one rather than trying to salvage the one I used.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14180248#post14180248 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stolcpart
(snip) Well the main benefit to them is that they prevent from overheating the chip when soldering, as the chip is not in the socket during the soldering process.
Click to expand...

Do you have to worry about heat ruining just chips? What about resistors and capacitors?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13038327#post13038327 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xtm
Thank you Captain Q! After I built the project, I just realized that our old buddy 555 actually has a big brother named 556 (no, not 556 from the SoCal forum, lol) It is a dual timer in one IC... perhaps I can use it on our next prototype... hmm... DIY 7095 Multicontroller? ;)
Click to expand...

xtm, -or anyone else for that matter- can we use the 556 or even other ICs with more 555 in them to control several pumps, but in a controlled manner (ie: do not let each 555 do 'its thing' regardless of what the rest of the 555s are doing at that moment, but rather synchronize the 555s somehow in a pattern)

Have you come across any DIY schematics doing such 'fancy' controlling? I am looking to be able to control (as above in a controlled manner) roughly 4-5 6055s
 
OK - so do you really think I was going to have the patients to wait for my solderless breadboard to arrive?

NOT

SO - we are making another attempt at this project. I figured that I would give myself lots of room to work with by adding longer leads on to the 555.

Cameras are great for checking your work with. My eyes don't see anything like this.

So here is the OLD board that I really screwed up on.

BAD.jpg


So we went from that to this.

This is the first side that I tried to add some longer leads on.
Not the cleanest but I don't see a problem with it - do you?

Side_2.jpg


And then for the other side of the 555. A bit cleaner. I guess practice really does make perfect.

Side_1.jpg


There seems to be a drop of rosin connecting the middle two pins. Rosin isn't conductive is it? If it is - I have a problem.
 
Is the Controller being modelled after 7091, or 6091?

Those being tunze part numbers. The 6091 is the controller that is used on the tunze wavebox's.
 
Well my second attempt was a failure as well.

Guess I'll have to wait for the solderless breadboard after all.

I did figure something out though. (I think)
Some folks have asked about adding a timer or switch to turn off the pump for feeding, etc. When I unplugged my Tunze single controller I noticed that the pump remained ON. Doesn't this mean that adding a switch within the controller wouldn't work?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14183308#post14183308 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralfragger101

This is the first side that I tried to add some longer leads on.
Not the cleanest but I don't see a problem with it - do you?

Side_1.jpg


There seems to be a drop of rosin connecting the middle two pins. Rosin isn't conductive is it? If it is - I have a problem.
Click to expand...

The "waxy stuff" is not electrically conductive so you should be fine. Looking at the pics, you need to solder the pins directly on the holes so that the components "stick" on the board and they won't jiggle.

again, I suggest printing the diagram on a paper and tracing the connections with a yellow marker as you solder the components - so that you know exactly where you're at.

Wait for the breadboard, you'll thank yourself!
 
I am waiting on the breadboard now.

I understand that having the wires actually soldered to the board itself would firm it up and take away any "jiggle" but it won't change whether the component works or not - would it?

I have no clue why my second attempt didn't work. I did have a diagram that I traced off as I made connections. Everything is there and there are no "shorts" anywhere.

I did make minor changes to the original shopping list because "that's what they had" but I read that "close" is OK earlier in the thread as well but no one actually confirmed that my differences were OK even though I posted them earlier.

The differences in mine are:

Using 2 - .22uF caps instead of a .47uF cap
Instead of a 20k resistor I've got a 22k resistor

The guy at Radio Shack was also saying something about the 500k pot but gave me something that he said should work.

The package that he gave me says:

500k-ohm
Volume Control with Push Switch

The back of the package says:

For use with 16mm dimmer potentiometer with push switch.
37 detents
500k ohms
2 watts
20% tolerance


Could any of those differences make the thing not work?
 
You can use the protoboard to build it and test it. Then when it works solder it. Its a lot easier to troubleshoot on a protoboard.
 
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