a challenge is a challenge is a challenge...

my mother, boyfriend and some others have shaken their heads more than once laughing and think I'm crazy to want to make something in a way that makes it way too difficult or seems impossible.

well, I think that sometimes too ;) And yesterday was one of those times.

not even doing anything with wiring itself I got myself another laptop wiring challenge yesterday.
This time with the plugback I added to the plugbase with milliput. When I was filing it, I handled the delicate wires too much keeping them out of the way. As soon as I realized that, one had already weakened too much and fell of, right at the point it goes into the plug...

I didn't even curse or anything, just sat looking at it, this was a bit of a problem. The plug was ready except for some final filing, attached to the wire and I could not transfer to another wire. Not to mention what's attached to it - the result of all kinds of non visible challenges and several failed attempts facing them in many small steps over a long period of time - all glued together & that finally will 'plug' (permanently) into the laptop.So okay..., that kind of sucks, now what?

 

first of all I secured the other wire by giving it a coat of glue hoping the copperwire inside was still intact. And got my microscope and try to fix the other. The use of a microscope while doing something with the subject on it is a challenge in itself. But, had to try since I could hardly see what I was doing even with my trusted magnifying glasses (magnifies 3,5 times which for a lot of things is sufficient, but not for the really small stuff).

it looks professional doesn't it, a microscope? I thought it would be very expensive to have one, but needed it to be able to cut the ridiculously small logo's for the laptop. I found it at a toywebshop for a very nice price! It's a binocular one (so you can look with two eyes, instead of one as with most microscopes), one that's used by watchmakers and seemed the best choice.

first option, glue: wire end in the tiny bit of room in the plug, and get it against the small piece of exposed wire where it broke of and a bit of glue. Not ideal as a solution or a solid connection, but I don't solder, especially not something so small. But it was so tiny that I couldn't get it right and couldn't be sure enough the wires touched each other with the movement of them while glueing. So, on to....
...option two, (micro)soldering: I have had a small and simple solderingtool for a couple of years now, but only once used it to try it out, which was no succes. I know practice would solve that, but never had the chance. And that had been for something small, noway near as tiny as what I needed to do now...

yet I knew it would be the only serious option. So I did and when looking for the solder I knew I had, I stumbled upon very thin solder that I must have ordered once too that was ideal for this job. Long story short: solderingtool doesn't match microscope, haha, the heat of the tool darkens the glasses instantly.

so back to my beloved magnifying glasses. Besides hardly seeing what I was doing despite them, the solder kept sticking to my tool instead of the plug and the wire kept falling out again and again and some more. Breath in, breath out, take breaks, try again, again and again. Not going well.

then I remembered I have stuff that should make soldering easier. Blue flux it's sometimes called, what I have is 'soldering helper' from Aber that the superthin solder is from too and wow, it really helped! It took a while to get the wire into the tiny hole again and more important to have it stay there, but when I got it the soldering it actually went surprisingly well after a couple of tries! It was attached again, sigh of relief! But then I decided to give it a tiny bit more solder to be sure it would be enough, and that of course melted the other solder breaking the connection again... Rookymistake I guess. Once I got the wire in again it wasn't even too long, thanks to the solder helper and it felt pretty strong too (for such a tiny connection). I was so happy but the important thing was....

.....would it have worked? So testing the lights, but didn't work, but wasn't sure if it was in that part or the problem I still had with the rest. Seperately testing reveiled that it díd work!! I did it! I still can't believe I managed to do it! Now just needed to glue the wires to the socket to prevent any more accidents with that part, instead of keeping them seperable that had been the plan. But that dicision was as easy to make as it was to do.

woohoo, another step closer to the finishline!





and for those of you that wondered or have asked: I have no electrical skills at all besides knowing how to attach wire to a dollhouseplug. Didn't know or understood about current, ampères, volts etc, how to wire something. Still don't actually ;) But I'm not scared of a challenge or maybe it's more that I can be a bit stubborn when I have something in my head that I think should be possible, or I want it to be possible (which is what made or makes something possible I guess).

of course I'm very lucky to have a boyfriend who has a background in electronics I could ask for help, that I could not have done without. Starting with my minilaptop and whenever needed he has been so sweet to explain, look up and reading and calculating explainations that to me might as well have been written in Chinese. After some laughing on his part he patiently explained about resistors after I blew up the first 1,5 volts light I wanted to use for my minilaptop connecting it straight to a battery, not bothered by any knowledge of their existence, haha.

he also showed me how to use and connect the lights together etc (this was not too difficult, just be consequent with your + and - and he showed how to tell with leds or bare wire). And the rest I learned of course by just doing and making mistakes. The learning kind but also by stupid things like holding the circuit down with my finger while testing, connecting the + and - and 'poef'! Expensive little buggers those lights, especially the tiny led's, but I guess it's all been learning money that will surely pay itself back in the pride of the endresult and a learningcurve that I can use in futureprojects. No pain no gain right?