LED Leads & Transistor Leads are rusting away.???

[gary350]

Didn't you understand when I said that your simple circuit alternates the LEDs and lights continuously, wasting battery power but my LED circuit blinks each LED brightly but uses 1/33 times the current that yours uses?
I see an LDR on one of your circuits. Doesn't it turn off the circuit in daylight?

Have you tried replacing the cheap old-technology batteries with new modern Name-Brand ones?
Guess why Sunbeam batteries are cheeeep? Old Sunbeam batteries are garbage from you-know-where and sit in The Dollar Store for years before being sold.

Where is your circuit drawing? I will build it.

 

[schmitt trigger]

Your application would be an ideal application for the LM3909 Led flasher IC. A single D cell would last for almost a year.
Unfortunately, it has been obsolete for a long time. And not sure the ones being sold on Ebay are legit.

 

[audioguru]

Here is my 3V chaser circuit that blinks around and around all the time:

 

[Visitor]

Doesn't this discussion, including that fact that alternate-flashing LEDs is the same as having a single LED on 100% of the time, come up every time the batteries die?

 

[audioguru]

The transistor multivibrator circuit that simply alternates the LEDs is very old so it was used with two huge old #6 dry cell batteries that could power it for ages.

 

[gary350]

Here is my 3V chaser circuit that blinks around and around all the time:

That is a lot of parts to flash 1 Red LED.

I have been using Lowe's plumbing solder no one sells electronic solder around her. I should check Ebay. What is a good price for solder?

I need to do testing, replace fixed resistors with variable resistors then check battery amp load readings.

I need to test a circuit with 2 AA rechargeable enelope batteries.

 

[DerStrom8]

That is a lot of parts to flash 1 Red LED.

I have been using Lowe's plumbing solder no one sells electronic solder around her. I should check Ebay. What is a good price for solder?

I need to do testing, replace fixed resistors with variable resistors then check battery amp load readings.

Refer to my post back on the first page:

Careful about what flux you use while soldering them to the perfboard. Some fluxes, if not cleaned well, will continue to eat away at certain metals. Try no-clean flux or, even better, thoroughly clean the board after soldering to remove all flux residue.

Plumber's solder generally has acid flux and CAN NOT be used for electronics. It will eat through the leads like there's no tomorrow. You NEED to use proper electronics flux, otherwise your leads will just keep rusting.

 

[shortbus=]

Plumber's solder generally has acid flux and CAN NOT be used for electronics. It will eat through the leads like there's no tomorrow. You NEED to use proper electronics flux, otherwise your leads will just keep rusting.

And he wants us to believe that he really built the Tesla coil he shows pictures of. Don't know about his Lowes but the ones around here sell rosin core solder.

 

[audioguru]

That is a lot of parts to flash 1 Red LED.

I do not have a simple circuit that flashes 1 or 2 LEDs. The circuit I posted blinks 10 LEDs one-at-a-time around and around in a chase circle a few times, then it pauses for a couple of seconds before chasing again. Part of the circuit blinks each LED for only 30 milli-seconds which is a short duration to save the battery power but is long enough for our vision to see its full brightness. Another part of the circuit times the chasing and pauses it, again saving battery power. Its two AA alkaline cells last for 3 months and it operates continuously day and night.

I have been using Lowe's plumbing solder no one sells electronic solder around her. I should check Ebay. What is a good price for solder?

Do you live on the moon? Everywhere you can buy electronics rosin-core solder. Ebay sells fakes and garbage.

I need to do testing, replace fixed resistors with variable resistors then check battery amp load readings.
I need to test a circuit with 2 AA rechargeable enelope batteries.

I found ornaments for Christmas, Easter and Halloween that use a colors-changing LED and I added them to solar garden light rechargeable circuits.
Energizer uses the Eneloop chemistry and are also made in Japan, maybe in the Eneloop factory. Energizer Ni-MH batteries cost less than Eneloop but perform the same. Duracell sells Chinese Ni-MH batteries now with poor spec's.

Walmart has battery price errors. Their online batteries cost much more than in the store.

 

[Visitor]

Kester 44 may cost a little more, but you know what you're getting and it's consistent.

 

[gary350]

I use to buy solder at Radio Shack for 30 years. Radio shack is out of business. Industrial electronic supply might have solder. I have not looked at Walmart maybe they have solder. Lowe's have the lowest price solder it costs less than hardware store and it is rosin core. I would like to have the small diameter solder like I use to buy at Radio Shack this big diameter solder is slow to melt with the pencil solder iron. These are old tag says 50/50 lead & tin Rosin core.

 

[audioguru]

Old electronic solder was 60/40 and new is 63/37. Both are far from to 50/50 plumbers solder that needs the high heat from a torch to melt.

 

[Visitor]

Unless you're using one of these irons,

throw away the plumbing solder and get some quality solder. You can find cheaper solder than Kester, but Kester is a known and proven good solder that won't let you down. This picture is from Jameco Electronics but any electronics distributer will have it. NOT Lowe's, NOT Walmart. NOT ebay.

Get the real thing and save everybody a lot of grief.

[/U]

 

[gophert]

Lowe's does carry "electronics solder" and it works fine if you have a hot soldering iron for lead-free. But I strongly recommend the 60/40 (really good) or 63/37(even better) - but lead-containing solders are not available at Lowe's. .

**broken link removed**

 

[gary350]

Lowe's does carry "electronics solder" and it works fine if you have a hot soldering iron for lead-free. But I strongly recommend the 60/40 (really good) or 63/37(even better) - but lead-containing solders are not available at Lowe's. .

**broken link removed**

Very small roll of solder for a high price.

 

[gophert]

Very small roll of solder for a high price.

High price is a question of quality and needs. The days of $2.99 rolls of solder at the local RadioShack are long gone.

 

[DerStrom8]

This is my favorite no-clean solder wire:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Kester/24-6337-8801?qs=m5JL4TdtMhxK%2FLz%2FSetXww%3D%3D

It is fairly expensive but it'll last you quite a while.

 

[JimB]

Very small roll of solder for a high price.

If my google-foo is working correctly the reel of solder shown by Visitor contains 1lb of solder, and since the diameter of the solder wire is 0.031" there will be a very long length of it.
How much solder do you need to make a joint?

On the other hand, the two reels of solder which you show probably have the same mass of solder but a much shorter length of wire because of the much larger diameter.
It seem to be the type of thing used by followers of the philosophy "The bigger the blob, the better the job!"

JimB

 

[Visitor]

High price is a question of quality and needs. The days of $2.99 rolls of solder at the local RadioShack are long gone.

Actually, Radio Shack is trying hard not to be dead. Don't know how long they may survive as a mostly online store. A 1 pound spool of Radio Shack solder costs more than the Kester 44 I posted at Jameco.

 

[gophert]

Actually, Radio Shack is trying hard not to be dead. Don't know how long they may survive as a mostly online store. A 1 pound spool of Radio Shack solder costs more than the Kester 44 I posted at Jameco.

I didn't mean to imply The Shack is long gone, I just meant our OP's understanding of inflation seems to be non-existent. Your post of a $29 pound of solder (at Radio Shack) proved my point.