As mandated by the Kerala university syllabus, most of us electronics students have to complete electronics workshop, a bit where you actually do the dirty work of electronics, and are required to come up with fully functional circuits, and the tool for the job?... the soldering iron.
For most of us, it meant only one thing…SOLDRON, the company which apparently holds the monopoly in soldering irons. Recommended by everyone and then some. Like any young and eager student- one of the reasons I chose to study electronics was because they taught how to solder (SERIOUSLY!) – acquired a soldron. Unfortunately, the damn thing never did work! Fed up with the “high quality” of the market leader, I went back to thakaraparamb -the local Mecca of all electronics students, where building up a good rapport with the traders can be beneficial (Would you believe I coaxed out the entire instructions on how to assemble a music system out of a shopkeeper!) and the shop that sold me the Iron, the biggest shop there, Vrinda flatly refused to take back my iron! Fed up, I went to every other shop looking for an iron that was not made by soldron. I forget the name of the make, but not the shop I got it from, Caso Fonics. IMO the Best shop at there! At least I got real chummy with the shopkeeper, and I know all of them, and most of them know me too! Unlike the “Were too busy for small folk like you” attitude at Vrinda, the people at caso are much friendlier, and have everything I needed too!
Anyway, the second one was a local make, smaller, and much cheaper,120 vs. the 175 I paid for a soldron In retrospect, it was better it was small. I had some pretty good adventures with it: D. Made a whole bunch of circuits and with a success rate several times over our class average. And the smaller bit made it easier to use too, unless the bulky soldrons, which I found more unwieldy
Even better, the thing had a translucent handle, and had a red LED in it! It was so much cooler than the rest, I for one always knew when it was on, unlike the others who had to actually use their sense of smell ;) only then, another guy came up with one just like mine…confusion… then mine went kaput and his light went off, so I offered to repair his if he loaned it to me, soon mine had a GREEN led and his had the original red one… Repaired, they were the pride of the owners :>
All of this came to a close when during our final stages of the miniproject; the whole thing went up in a bang when one of us sat on it. It took the fuse along with it! And the concerned persons backside! Thankfully, it was around 2 am, and no one else noticed!
Thus my soldering iron lies in its current resting place at frantic’s house. I wonder if it still can be resurrected, probably with a new heating element and more importantly, a BLUE led to show that it is in its third version………I need a soldering iron now, stuff has to be done, let me see.
1) Put an LED on the empty space marked LED on the PCB of my old mouse and do a bit of modding on it :>
2) fabricate headphone extensions for duttan and ashok
3) try to get Ashok’s unused FM/AM board working at my house
4) Repair Sid’s amp’s volume control… (It’s getting noisy!)
5) Do my Main project! My dream, the Om hreem volume control is finally progressing. Me and frantic have some differences on how to use the thing, as a joystick or as a mouse, and the range of the sensors etc…..Frantic, DUDE! We have to order them fast!
Its silly how people get attached to the silliest of things, for most of my classmates, a soldering iron was just something that they had to buy to solder circuits to pass electronics workshop, and then to be forgotten. To me, it was a valuable tool, something that has been with me, through almost four full reels of solder wire, and must have been used more than half the other soldering irons in class combined! Maybe it’s because I spent so much time using it, that I have grown so fond of it. It was like a mechanic’s favourite wrench, an artist’s favourite brush, a writer’s favourite pen, a wizard’s wand…..it will be hard letting go, if I ever have to...