hi... ramblings...making no sense... INCOMING!!!

[koolkat]

My summers are full, I do an engineering camp, I'm hoping to be a counselor/teacher next year (it's really easy, I was a counselor in training this year) and apparently, the pay is fantastic, so that'll be nice. But I've always been to... lazy I guess to get a job during the year, I've just kinda put it off, although I think I may get one this year. Perhaps at Radioshack, the people there often ask me for help when I'm there already, plus a discount would make the prices ALMOST reasonable.

where do you go to for camp?

[myx]

General fyi... macegr - I did pick up the 936. I can't wait to use it. Got it yesterday. I got to open it and smell the new scent of BANNED electronics. But NO I had to be busy all day. I am also cleaning off and reorganizing my bench (read really big door on 2x4 frame). Next step is to clear off the air hockey table as it has been my overflow work bench while building my solar pannel. But I did some reading on it and it seems that most folks who have tried it and bothered to write about it like them over the Weller due to the lack of heat fluctuation and the elements and tips seem to last longer. I really like the stand for it. Nice and solid. I just wanna use it.

Camp? I wanna go to camp. But the only camp I know of for adults is like Space Camp, and I am not sure about that one. i suppose if they threw in some twinkys and poorly made ham n cheese sandwiches it might really feel like camp, but when the real world hits, camp goes away. I actually DID go to band camp. But... it was nothing like what I saw in American Pie.

Ok, another question direction... seeing as this one has meandered all over the place. But when scavenging for parts, do the smd version of the aluminum caps still have the same shelf life issues that their bigger brothers have? 20 years or so. I have a computer that is about to croak and I just happened to see all the smd stuff in there. Never thought to raid the mother board as I have done everything i could to keep it running. But there is like a gagillion resistors and caps and inductors. On the modem board, there looks to be a nice 5v relay... there is so much great stuff. fans, heat sinks. Why would there be a transformer on the network card? And of course the goodies from the hard drives. platters, stepper motors, n last (but not least) some killer magnets. But back to the point. If I am looking for surface mount stuff, is it bad to use the components if they have been pulled and reused?

I have a question I posted on the arduino site I will repost here as there was no response there and it has been a couple of weeks, but I will start a new thread for that.