Published November 8, 2020 © CC BY

Soldering Station for Humans

A soldering station for simple soldering irons, portable, smart, built by robots.

IntermediateWork in progress8 hours667

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Orion Development board (Makeblock)

https://www.makeblock.com/project/makeblock-orion

2 Relay Module

https://www.amazon.co.uk/2-Channel-Optical-Coupling-Protection-Expansion/dp/B01DM8N4A4

Fumes absorption fan and filter

https://www.tme.eu/en/details/dp200a2123xst/ac230v-fans/sunon/dp200a2123xst-gn/

Me touch sensor

https://www.makeblock.com/project/me-touch-sensor

Audio module (Makeblock)

https://www.makeblock.com/project/me-audio-player

Soldering iron

take your pick or use existing one

5v Power supply

Outlet

Based on where you live it looks more or less like a piggy snout

Led Light strip (neopixel based)

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-WS2813-RGB-LED-Strip-Waterproof-60-LED-m-1m.html

CNC cut MDF

Story

1 / 6

Description

Hello there, CAPTCHA solvers, I am Zura the prototyping robot! Today at work I had to assemble a Soldering Station for the lesser precise beings in the workshop, the humans.

The features request from the error-prone bags of meat for the Soldering Station were:

- Make it portable so we do not carry each tool when we change tables

- Add light so we can see the electronic components. (get some IR already pff)

- We want to push only one button to start the soldering iron, fumes absorption fan, lights

The features I added just because I know them so well were:

- Stop the soldering iron supply when it's not being used, the tips don’t grow on trees, you know?

- Some light audio motivation to make sure they remember to put the heat shrink BEFORE the soldering or just work faster!

Details

Ok, so with this in mind I gathered the components from around the workshop from projects that were in progress but unsupervised:

Orion development board that is basically an Arduino Uno clone with some big easy to use ports
Touch button to allow those without telepathic powers to start the thing
Relay board for both Fan and Soldering Iron
Audio module for motivating the human
Fumes absorption fan and filters
Soldering iron, Soldering mat, and third hands for the ones with only two
Power supply for the low voltage stuff
An outlet for the soldering iron and main plug for the whole thing
LED lights - Neopixels cuz the whole thing needed some zazz
CNC cut MDF

I had some help from our friends, the robots from BalkanWave for the enclosure. I wanted some cool ass octagons and some ridges to place the LED lights and at the same time, I am thinking of maintaining the overall dimensions so I can stack more of these stations neatly when they are not being used. Something like this https://www.tinkercad.com/things/iiWZFVsH058-tools-box-stackable

Once I had the enclosure I painted it black and yellow to suggest to the humans that it's an area they should proceed with caution, the smell of burned skin is a bit too common in our workplace. After that, I started wrapping up the electronics, I like to freestyle and just arrange them where they fit and according to the shorter distance from where they are needed to keep it neat and clean.

The development board was just laying around but any Arduino Uno spin-off will do, basically, I control the relays, audio module, and LED strip and receive commands from the button.

The connections were dictated by the capabilities of the development board and you have clear labels of the ports in the code if you want to follow allong, I won't go into super details since you can use whatever you have on gripper (or hand if you lack grippers). Be advised we are working with AC mains that tend to make beings twitch when touching it.

The system works like this: You touch the button, the Soldering Iron starts heating up, you are notified via both color and sound when it's ready to use and the light goes full white so you can do your stuff. Once done you either press the button again to close it or just forget about it and it automatically closes after 10 minutes of inactivity.

When working to keep you on your toes random audio bits are shouted at the worker to motivate him/her and probably burn their fingers. Since I have finished the project we had one less fire in the workplace and the humans took a liking to the machine and finished soldering tasks faster. If you don't believe me just watch this video:

I would say it was a satisfying project and it's going to be the birthplace of more crazy prototypes. Stay tuned for more hardware adventures!

Zura OUT!

Code

Arduino Main code

#include "MeOrion.h"
#include "MeAudioPlayer.h"
#include "Wire.h"
#include <SimpleTimer.h>

MeRGBLed rgb(60);
MeAudioPlayer AudioPlayer(PORT_4);
MeTouchSensor MeTouchSensor(PORT_7);
MePort output(PORT_6);

SimpleTimer timer;
int timerId;
unsigned long time;

int ledState = LOW;         // the current state of the output pin
int buttonState;             // the current reading from the input pin
int lastButtonState = LOW;   // the previous reading from the input pin

// the following variables are unsigned longs because the time, measured in
// milliseconds, will quickly become a bigger number than can be stored in an int.
unsigned long lastDebounceTime = 0;  // the last time the output pin was toggled
unsigned long debounceDelay = 50;    // the debounce time; increase if the output flickers

/*
  Sounds
  1 - soldering station online
  2 - heating up the soldering iron
  3 - soldering iron at optimal temperature
  4 - dont forget to put the heathsrink first
  5 - hey you forgot the soldering iron on
  6 - dont forget to hidrate: you not the soldering iron
  7 - bye! go outside and play now
*/

boolean started = false;

long soldering_iron_heat_time = 120000;

void setup() {
  rgb.setNumber(60);
  rgb.setpin(13);
  rgb.setColor(0, 0, 0);
  rgb.show();
  MeTouchSensor.SetTogMode(0);
  AudioPlayer.PlayerInit();
  AudioPlayer.setMusicVolume(100);
  delay(100);
  AudioPlayer.stopMusic();
  delay(100);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Started");
}

void loop() {
  timer.run();
  checkButton();
}

void checkButton() {
  int reading = MeTouchSensor.touched();
  if (reading != lastButtonState) {
    lastDebounceTime = millis();
  }
  if ((millis() - lastDebounceTime) > debounceDelay) {
    if (reading != buttonState) {
      buttonState = reading;
      if (buttonState == HIGH) {
        ledState = !ledState;
      }
    }
  }
  if (ledState == true) {
    if(started == false){
      started = true;
      start_station();
    }  
  }else{
    stop_station();
  }
  lastButtonState = reading;
}

void start_station() {
  rgb.setColor(255, 255, 255);
  rgb.show();
  AudioPlayer.playMusicFileIndex(1);
  timerId = timer.setTimeout(5000, soldering_station_online);
  timerId = timer.setTimeout(soldering_iron_heat_time, solder_iron_optimal_temp);
}

void soldering_station_online() {
  AudioPlayer.playMusicFileIndex(2);
  output.dWrite1(LOW); // turn soldering iron on
}

void solder_iron_optimal_temp() {
  AudioPlayer.playMusicFileIndex(3);
  timerId = timer.setTimeout(7000, start_fan);
}

void start_fan() {
  output.dWrite2(LOW); // turn fan on
}

void stop_station() {
  timer.deleteTimer(timerId);
  output.dWrite1(HIGH);
  output.dWrite2(HIGH);
  rgb.setColor(0, 0, 0);
  rgb.show();
  AudioPlayer.playMusicFileIndex(7);
  started = false;
}

Credits

Zalmotek

26 projects • 50 followers

#totallynotrobots doing prototyping

Soldering Station for Humans

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Description

Details

Custom parts and enclosures

Enclosure CAD files

Code

Arduino Main code

Credits

Zalmotek

Comments

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Soldering Station for Humans

Soldering Station for Humans

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Description

Details

Custom parts and enclosures

Enclosure CAD files

Code

Arduino Main code

Credits

Zalmotek

Comments

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