The Monochron
Once I saw the Monochron website, I knew I had to have one. I love building stuff—I managed to even build one or two Heathkits before they were shut down for good, and a few years back I built this monster. And a clock that plays Pong? Awesome. (Although I feel bad for the guy on the left- he keeps getting his butt kicked. I mean, they even keep resetting the other guy’s score when he gets to 60 and he STILL loses.)
So, after a brief backordering delay, I had this in hand:
Now, the first thing you need is a nice soldering iron. Since my favorite iron, which I’ve had for years, seems to have gone missing along with a box of stuff I had in the basement, I ordered a new one. It’s exactly like the old one. It’s a Weller WTCPT and it’s the best there is, I think. I couldn’t bear the thought of going back to a non-temp controlled iron. If you want to build stuff like this, and you think you’re going to do it, say, more than once a year, bite the bullet and get one- you can find it online for between $120-150. Ironically, novices should benefit much more than pros with the expensive temp-controlled irons- novice solderers tend to leave the iron on the joint WAY longer than is necessary.
(One more note about the iron: I like to replace the stock tip, which measures about 1 and a half mm at the tip, with a conical tip like the PTS7, which is about .4 mm at the tip—especially for surface mount work.)
So we start populating the board:
MAD SOLDERING SKILLZ:
Almost done! Now to attach the screen.
And… success!
It’s extremely simple to put together. In fact, it took me longer to get it in its enclosure than it did to build. One tip, if you build this: Take a drill bit just a hair larger than the holes in the screen’s circuit board to them to enlarge them. They’re just a bit too small for the supplied screws, and the acrylic case is very fragile- you don’t want to have to put any more load on it when assembling than you need to.
Here it is, completed and chilling on my desk. I love it!
