Our friends at element14, who sponsored today’s Electronics Tools Gift Guide, have offered an awesome giveaway to MAKE readers. It’s an SPC Technology 4004 Soldering Station, with digital read-out. It retails for 153.51, but it’s going to one lucky MAKE reader.
To be eligible, just tell us in the comments below what sorts of electronics projects you like to do, or would do, if you had a fine iron like this! Eligible entries will close at 10:30am PST tomorrow and we’ll announce the winner shortly afterward. Good luck!
Element14 Special Offer
Element14 is offering a 15% savings on gifts for the electronic enthusiast by using voucher code HECK15. Check out the other cool tools in their element14 Holiday Guide, including Akro-Mils toolboxes, the Fluke-233 DMM, and a Weller Butane Soldering kit.
Important Note: If you comment below do not forget to deselect “Email me if someone responds” underneath the comment entry form. Otherwise, you’ll get hundreds of comment entries emailed to you!
UPDATE: The winner of the soldering station is infinitychic36. Congrats! Email sent.
I would like to have the soldering iron so I can start making my own hardware. My PhD program has been been so very boring lately, and I really could use a jump start like this.
I like to make guitar amps.
I would use it to wiring up the guitars I seem to keep making
Hi,
It’s been over a decade since I last touched a soldering iron, but now that my daughter is 10 years old I think she’s mature enough to handle a soldering iron with supervision.
I’d like to show her how to build small electronic projects, and see if her interest in computers extends into electronics.
Thanks!
Get the youngest started on some more complicated kits and eventually move to doing some arduino projects. Plus the eldest could borrow it and finally do something with the Lilypad she bought when she was earning her BFA in Textiles.
Well I would use it to assemble all of my prototypes. So far I have a midi controller, datalogger, 2 different usb to serial converters 3.3 and 5 v and a bunch more I cant think of to list.
I would also use it to assemble my few development tools with headers that still need to be installed. (pic32 io expander for instance) My 7.99 radioshack iron’s tip is just too dull to not make a mess of it.
Would use it to work on my weather station for my dad.
I would use it for various projects that have been piling up in my to-do list since the start of the semester. Persistence of Vision HDD Clock, LED Cubes, TV-B-Gone, a squellete, mostly kits and projects I see on Make, Instructables, and other websites. I’ll also probably end up using it for future projects for school, as well.
I absolutely love hacking toys, so the soldering station would do a good job soldering resistors, pots or capacitors to electronic trash.
I recently rewired the keyboard of a knitting machine and my next step would be to make the carriage of the machine motorized with reed relays at the end so it would knit all by itself.
Ooh, I’d start by actually finishing my Arduino color clock project instead of leaving it all breadboarded.
science projects!
It would be built into the lab aboard my sailboat (Nomadness), and used to conjure Arduino-based projects that collectively form the ship’s nervous system (with wireless browser and local/remote voice UI). Boards will be “etched” with a small CNC router, and I’m looking forward to geekery at anchor!
Been wanting to do some High Altitude Baloon photography, but with the twist I’ve seen once of having a gondola that can direct itself back to my launch site, so I don’t have to go chasing it all over creation.
I would make the most amazing LED programmable displays ever!
I’m working on yet another pen plotter and my soldering station just broke!
First I’d learn how to use it, then I’d make LED light toys.
I am 61, disabled and on SS. I do repairs on older Heathkit products. Modifications to Heathkit products as well as repair computers. This is to supplement my SS income. My old iron does not show temp and is getting old and obsolete. This would help me greatly. Sure would like to win it!
I’m currently working on an analog display based on an Arduino and Ethernet Shield. It’s going to use the PWM capabilities of the Arduino to drive three analog meters. I’ve already coded the web server end of the project. I’m going to have the following displays:
1. a timer that indicates the percent completion of the work day.
2. The number of incomplete tasks from my Evolution client in Linux.
3. The needle will point to the time of my next appointment again from my Evolution client (which syncs to Google Calendar).
The Arduino will grab the numbers from my web server and convert them to a PWM current to drive the analog meters. With most of the coding done, I just need to solder everything up. However, my soldering iron is old and has oxidized pretty badly. I cannot find a new tip for it locally, so I would love to get this iron and finish up the project over the holidays! Here’s a post on my web site detailing the project a little more:
http://neerk.com/index.php/blog-mainmenu-2/neerk-posts/262-arduino-based-analog-desk-display
Essentially, it’s an open source, custom built version of the now defunct Ambient Dashboard.
My family recently worked together on a TARDIS quilt ( http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=365904.0 ) with a flashing light on the top. My wife did the design quilting, I designed and fabbed the circuit, and our 7-year-old daughter soldered it all together. The next one, a lilypad bioluminescent jellyfish, will require much finer control with the iron.
I would use it to see what I can do with making spectacular LED cubes.
I like working with microcontrollers! If I had this soldering iron, I would use it to make my own Arduino compatible board, my own design AVR projects, and much more.
I’m planning on posting my upcoming projects on my website.
Continue working on our Arduino controled robot tank with my son.
I am going to be making five optical theremins and one real theremin for the upcoming family reunion.
This soldering iron would make the task much simpler.
Since I’m currently looking for work, I’ve had time to fix some of the old equipment around the house that needs mending. Either old electronics or the stuff my young son keeps breaking. We’ve got an old and basic soldering gun, but an upgrade like this would be appreciated.
Also, I want to teach my son to start tinkering and good tools would make that go a lot easier.
Not to complain to much because i have got by with it for a while now, but my soldering iron is a piece of junk. I would like to have one that can hold a consistent temp.
I’d be able to finally fix my wife’s electronic piano that has a bad component.
I’ve always been interested in electronics, but never had a soldering iron except when I borrowed from friends, with this solder kit I’d learn how to properly solder, and make awesomeness.
It was announced that my family is going to have a homemade Christmas next year. I have a few ideas of things that I could make with this beauty of tool.
I currently have two “top of mind” projects this would be a great help with.
First, I’m working on a fairly simple underwater remote operated vehicle that I’d like to use both to hunt for shipwrecks, and to aid in exploring the underwater world with my kids who are both currently too young for scuba.
Second, I have a great idea for a “sense hacking” project that would provide the user with an intuitive sense of which direction magnetic north is in, without having to look at a screen or manually interact with a conventional user interface.
With those projects out of the way, I might also take a stab at some high altitude balloon video projects… possibly even one that launches from 100 feet or so underwater.
I build guitars, and I’m now soldering pickups and pots, wiring up amps, etc with an old junk iron. I’d love to win a “real” soldering station for Christmas : )
I would use it to make an EEG unit (likely OpenEEG), which I’m planning as the basis of several devices (to record sleep, as a meditation aid, as an alarm clock, for a lucid-dreaming device, “hallucination machine” as featured in Make previously), plus any other new thing I can think of making a brain do.
For giggles, I want to hook it up to a servo that turns on a laser pointer, just so I can say “brain-controlled laser” as often as humanly possible.
Ive had a bunch of SMD components just waiting for me to start putting together, but I always tell myself I’ll do it some other day, due to me not having a good iron. If I won this, i’d be thrilled!
My little sister is getting me the Arduino Starter Kit for Christmas that I’ve really wanted for awhile. The main projects I want to play with initially are LED light stripping. The goal is to have a completely programmable light system for above and below my kitchen cabinets. They will be RGB of course to achieve the full range of colors. The LED strips themselves cannot be connected to a breadboard/controller without soldering the connections. I therefore have this pretty intense need for a soldering station so I can get started on these projects. I’m too excited to wait any longer!
I’d use it to make my steampunk jewelry.
My boss at work requires a whole bunch of random stuff be shoved under his door since I work at night and he’s not there.
I need to make him a little door chime that plays the AOL “You’ve got mail!” sound whenever he opens his door, and it has to fit under the door since I can’t get in. So clearly, a soldering iron is required to make this bit of electronic prank.
I may attempt bonus points by only having it play the sound after something is dropped in. Hm.
Death ray and/or other super villainous projects.
Not all makers arre good guys and not all villains very well funded. Help a villain be super.
I’m building a home library and am working on an Arduino-controlled system that will manage LEDs embedded in the library shelves and give me the ability to raise/dim lights, light up a book’s location, etc. I have a lot of soldering ahead of me and this would help a great deal. I plan on writing up an article when finished and submitting it to Make!
Hey! I’m a new graduate and I’m looking to learn more about the world of microcontrollers and electronics.
A station like this would greatly aid me in my continuing education! I’m thinking a nerdkit would be a good place to start, along with something like this
Here’s hoping!
My local non-profit robotics club could use some good tools!
Totally! A cupcake though. Even with a free iron I can’t afford a thingomatic.
I have several Amatrue Radio projects to do. Building a digital mode (PSK31) interface, and a QRP tranceiver. The smaller the better.
I’m thinking some lightweight heating systems for cold climates.
I would use it for a variety of projects though most of them would revolve around electric guitars and basses. I build basses as a hobby and would like to get more into the electronics side of them by building preamps and other effects. I’m currently starting to wind my own pickups so it would be a tremendous help there over the $7 one temp iron I currently have.
I would also use it to help build tools that I would use to aid in my bass building addiction which would include a gauss meter, pickup testing utilities to graph resonant frequency of pickups and a cnc to help in the building of the basses themselves. A number of these small devices such as the gauss meter would most likely be built using arduino boards as a platform
I have a pile of all rocked-out Wah-Wah pedals, that just want to rock for a little bit longer…they want to add some funk to just one more groove, to get that “just-so” tone for that one song,(you know the one) to add so much more soul to just one more guitar solo!
We could call it “Make a Wah Foundation.”
I’m just starting to get into electronics (it is my major after all) and I’m teaching myself bit by bit how to do everything rather than wait a semester and learn it in class. I’ve never had the oportunity to take E&M classes at all, so some of it is confusing, but the internet, and especially MAKE is super helpful.
I’ve got some projects in my PROJECTS: TODO notebook: a little mini sound mixer on my todo list, as well as a Minty Boost, a dimmer box for my high school, and a headphone amp. I’ve got a decent enough multimeter, but my soldering iron is a not-so-good $10 Radioshack one. (What? I was young, naive and on a budget.) A nicer soldering iron that doesn’t take 15 minutes to heat up would be nice.
I just graduated from EE and have been limping enthusiastically along (inspired daily by Make on my RSS feed, of course) with my $10 Radio Shack iron and produced an iron man arc reactor, pumpkin light, color organ, CRT remote-controlled fishtank and some other projects. But I just can’t do any fine work with surface mount components or microcontrollers.
I would really like to make my entire apartment controllable from a remote laptop and stuff, and a quality soldering iron would be a really helpful tool!
Yay Makers!
A garage-door remote sensor and switch, an anemometer, a solar heater pump controller, and many more!
Current project is a powder coat oven.
Previous projects are a things like motion sensor for my garage lights, timer controlled double valve for my water softner. I tend to also be fixing lots of things lately too – my sons mp3 player, 200 disc CD changer…etc.
I’d fix my son’s magic wand that has been sitting on my desk in pieces for over a month.
I’ve mainly been using a RadioShack butane-powered iron, and I love how portable it is and how quickly it heats up. However, it’s wholly inappropriate for surface-mount soldering (did I mention it shoots fire out the sides?)
I’ve been trying to make a multi-cell lithium-ion battery charger for some time now to install in a wheeled robot so that it will able to recharge itself (and properly, none of that constant-current crap). I have all the SMT components and a PCB done in Eagle, I just need an iron capable of putting it all together!
I would use this soldering station to assist me in a a scrolling marquee that reads text messages/tweets.
This would be the perfect starting block for my circuit table.
with the soldering Iron, I would not only be able to do my side projects (such past projects as a strobe light, led light organ [project inspired by Collin's post on Makezine.com] and smaller ones) I would be able to do my school projects (elec engineering)
I would also mean that I wouldnt have to drag all my side projects to school and have profs frown upon me doing non-school projects in the lab
Sorry last sentence should read:
It would also mean that I wouldnt have to drag all my side projects to school and have profs frown upon me doing non-school projects in the lab.
there is no edit button
I will make a temperature controller for my DIY homebrew mash tun.
I want to merge a bluetooth controller with a USB thumb drive and add the software similar to DropBox. This way I can have two thumb drives which, when each inserted into a USB drive (computer), will synchronized their flash memory automatically. This way a computer can drop a file on the one of the thumb drives, the software will copied it automatically to the other, and the second computer can see and retrieve it. This will make a virtual sharing space, without the need for wifi, cables, or an internet connection.
I want to start teaching some basic electronics to kids in my comunity (BEAMbots, APC and similar projects).
I’m doing a wiimote mod, and will be doing some surface mount soldering!
I’d use it to solder the electronics on a model Polaris Submarine.
I would go back and clean up the dirty solder jobs on my latest creation, an rgb led strip backlit macquarium.
I make a number of costumes and puzzles, but not having the equipment or experience to make electronic components to them, I’ve always been limited to what I could do mechanically. With a soldering iron I’d be able to teach myself to use and add micro controllers which would add a whole new dimension to my projects.
I want to introduce my son to the world of circuit fabrication, but have been making do with a huge and inefficient Sears soldering gun. He can barely even hold it.
I’ve been looking for a soldering station, but have been overwhelmed by the number of units out there. What should I get?!?!?
My oldest son is one of the youngest members of his high school robotics team. He has expressed interest in building some of the things he’s seen on Make and elsewhere. I currently make things with my Arduino Mega and would love to be able to give him a decent soldering station of his own in our work area.
I have a bunch of LED projects I would like to try, but one in particular is a Daft Punk-esque LED table that lights up in response to the beat of music. It would be awesome to be able to solder up something decent with this sweet piece of equipment since my current device is beat and holding me back from completing a lot of work.
I would love to have this to help me with my Halloween projects. Winters in Wisconsin are long and cold and it will help keep me plenty busy!
I’ve been avidly building CMoy Pre-Amps, Minty Boosts and an Ice Tube Clock with a $5 cheapo Soldering Gun. I’ve been pondering upgrading before moving towards building Arduino-based projects and other Home Audio experiments.
This is an amazing Soldering Set and it would delight me to no end to have such a master tool at my disposal!
I would make an army of beam robots and take over the world!!
My son has an interest in Robotics and is a whiz at anything mechanical, but has very little hands-on experience with electronics and soldering. Would like to use the station not only for his use, but I also like to take old non-working consumer electronics items and repair them for reuse. A solder station would make all of these things much easier.
Cheap equipment is tempting and I have the burns to show it. My current iron has a tiny pistol grip for a child’s hand. It’s cute if nothing else.
Its carny hand-sized grip leads to burns. Burns lead to cussing. Cussing is a part of hacking, but I don’t like burns. Burns hurt. And burning flesh smells.
Burn me no more. Please.
ALL OF THEM. That may sound like a cop-out answer, but there are a lot of projects I’d like to do, but working with surface mount components is… tricky without a temperature controlled iron. I’ve long held that there’s nothing a person can’t make without the proper tools and so, with this tool, I would RULE THE WORLD.
I find myself repairing just about everything that breaks at my studio, from speakers to LCD displays, with a TERRIBLE soldering iron.
Plus I am starting to dabble in robotics and component recycling. So a nice soldering iron would help.
I love to make small devices that use lights and/or sounds to amuse and entertain myself and others. Things with LEDs and shift registers and arduinos and such to make cool things happen.
With an iron like this, I’m sure that my process would be easier and that I’d get More Done.
I’m still looking for a nice and cheap eighties Mercedes, that will eventually be converted to be running on veggie oil. There will be quite e lot of electronics involved, as the end result will have a (hopefully) beautiful temperature sensing and heating of the fuel going in to the engine. A soldering iron is something needed, as my current one is, well, very bad.
- Have some really cool computer case mods to work on
- Teach my kids to solder – using quality tools
- Learn to repair robots so I am useful to our future robot overlords
I think I’d start with an Atari Punk synth and then move on to some crazy Arduino toys. This would make the greatest prize I’ve ever won!
After about 35 years of hacking, kit building and repair, using pretty much the same 25watt iron, I t hink its about time to seriously consider a station. I know an item like this would make building with smaller items so much easier, but to be honest, I just could never budget the extra cost these stations were asking. Maybe nows is the tim! lol
I’d make lots of stuff for use with my Arduino or Lilypad. Maybe a speed sensor for an RC car, or an IR intervalometer for my camera (to replace the servo-driven one I just made). So many possibilities!
Were I to score this beautiful tool, I would do the following.
First, I would sit down with my 8 year-old daughter (and, later, my 4 year-old) and take lots of stuff apart. We have a pile of things: a coffee maker, an old DVD player, a satellite dish, and old PC.
Second, I’d build things with my daughters. Blinky bugs, Throwies. Aruindo controllers for our chickens. Garduino controllers for the vegetable garden. (I’d also start teaching them to code.)
Third, I’d also take my teaching to campus and use Making to get my college students excited about learning through tinkering. This approach has great (untried) potential, from a formal pedagogical perspective. (Not that I like being formal…)
In summary, one SPC Technology 4004 Soldering Station will help me excite the next generation about Making and learning through creating and destroying.
That is all.
J
I would love to have this to solder the connections from my Netduino to my garage door remote so that I could finally finish my project. It would allow me to open my garage door with just my Android.
Yeah I have one of those monstrosities where you pull a trigger and a u-shaped piece of copper glows red at the tip. I have had the thing since high school. Its time to get something with a slightly finer tip and a controlled temperature.
If this beautiful instrument, the SPC Technology 4004 Soldering Station, were to be awarded to me, I would do several things soooo much better than I could do now.
First, I would be able to spend more time teaching my daughters (8- and 4-years-old) about tinkering and making. We have a pile of things to take apart. On the top are a coffee maker and an old DVD player. There’s also an old PC in the pile. We’d build blinky bugs, throwies, and Garduino devices to help us grow plants to put in the vegetable garden in the spring. (The Arduino work would let me introduce the girls to coding, too!)
Second, the SPC Technology 4004 Soldering Station would help me infect my college students with the joy of making. It’s amazing how ignorant they are about how things work. Tools like this would give me that extra ‘umph’ to develop a MakerShed on campus for students and the community.
In summary: the SPC Technology 4004 Soldering Station on my corner of the world huge impact.