OgopogoSalsa
Newbie level 3
Greetings Edaboard !
My name is Tyler and I am new to the board and electrical design in general.
I am attempting to build a 'simple' AC 120v circuit that will allow me to control the power flowing through a ceramic heating element.
The idea is based off a cheap variable temperature soldering iron I tore apart. Upon destruction I found that the circuit uses a potentiometer with a triac and diac to adjust the power to the ceramic element.
I have some ceramic elements I bought from HongKong via ebay and don't have any info on what power ratings they can handle. The elements have four wire leads coming out of the ceramic package which is considerably diferent than the two leads coming off the soldering iron element... this confuses my feeble little mind.
What I am looking for is help with finding resources to design/build a replica of the circuit. I hear Spice is the program of choice to design electronics?
What other resources are recommended for the begginer attempting to design/build ones first circuit?
Tools at my disposal are: soldering iron, multimeter, bread board, small amount of ca$h, internet.
Many thanks to those who help, I'll be posting pics of the frankinstiened soldering iron, hongkong elements, and general stuff I am playing with tonight...
Smile on
-Tyler
My name is Tyler and I am new to the board and electrical design in general.
I am attempting to build a 'simple' AC 120v circuit that will allow me to control the power flowing through a ceramic heating element.
The idea is based off a cheap variable temperature soldering iron I tore apart. Upon destruction I found that the circuit uses a potentiometer with a triac and diac to adjust the power to the ceramic element.
I have some ceramic elements I bought from HongKong via ebay and don't have any info on what power ratings they can handle. The elements have four wire leads coming out of the ceramic package which is considerably diferent than the two leads coming off the soldering iron element... this confuses my feeble little mind.
What I am looking for is help with finding resources to design/build a replica of the circuit. I hear Spice is the program of choice to design electronics?
What other resources are recommended for the begginer attempting to design/build ones first circuit?
Tools at my disposal are: soldering iron, multimeter, bread board, small amount of ca$h, internet.
Many thanks to those who help, I'll be posting pics of the frankinstiened soldering iron, hongkong elements, and general stuff I am playing with tonight...
Smile on
-Tyler