Hello.
I completed my first MR-16 today, with 2 more from the co-op waiting to be assembled. This was my first time soldering, and it was actually enjoyable! A bit frustrating at times (I installed the jumper blocks upside-down), and had to re-do a bunch of joints, but all in all a great learning experience.
In my assembly, I ended up with a couple of careless errors. First, I didn't install one of the .1uf capacitors, the right-most one directly above the 8-pin chip. Second, I put the 1k resistor in the 180 resistor's spot. And third, I have nothing in the 1k resistor spot. I'll go back and fix everything before powering it up again, of course.
I had the device powered up for about 15 minutes, and channels 1-3 functioned perfectly, testing with both Vixen and the Lynx DMX Deck . No DMX activity light though. The 7805 got fairly warm, but never too hot to touch. Is it likely that I caused irreparable damage to any of the components by running it in its current form?
One other quick question, regarding solder. I'm using a small adjustable 50-watt soldering station (You are not allowed to view links.
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Login). There's no temp gauge on it, though, only an adjustment knob that's marked in 20% increments. I'm using the Kester lead-based solder that has been recommended in numerous other threads. I did most of my soldering with the knob around 60-80% mark, and turned it up a bit for some of the bigger parts (spade lugs, mosfets, etc.). Is this too hot?
Thank you very much in advance. And thanks for the wonderful community.
-Greg