✧✦Catherine✦✧Jul 10, 2023
does anyone know a technological solution to "hands are too shakey for SMD soldering"? I am thinking of some sort of device you can place your hand on that dampens the tremors
(please RT, would really love for my gf to be able to solder fine pitch SMD stuff)
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧
so far a manual pick & place machine (~hundreds) and Ustar UA90914 (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004749678342.html; ~$25) are the top suggestions; the Ustar device looks really promising!
Jul 10, 2023 at 3:26amWeb
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jul 10, 2023
microscopes/binoculars seem to work so well they even help people with Parkinsons, which I didn't expect so I'll now bump them higher in priority
Show threadJason Petersen (he)Jul 10, 2023

@whitequark so is the idea that the act of magnifying your hands so large in your visual field somehow mediates the tremors?

I have pretty shaky hands and while piano/gaming/typing doesn’t suffers, soldering does and I’m curious about whatever you find!

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jul 10, 2023
@jason yes; it changes the parameters on the feedback loop making it more dampened
Show threadAndrew TergisJul 10, 2023

@whitequark I think you can go a long way by providing a really solid place to rest your hand, fully take all the weight off it, so that only your fingers are doing the actuating. When I get small shakes from over-caffeination, if i'm not at the PnP i'll just stack up a few boxes next to the vice.

I remember from various youtubes that hand / tool support is a vital part of production welding too. Carefully re-arranging the work-piece and the welder feed-lines to offload the static lod

Show threadAndrew TergisJul 10, 2023

@whitequark Over time I found myself subconsciously extending a pinky to touch down on the vice to try and do a similar thing (took years to train myself NOT to drop my pinky right into freshly applied solderpaste...)

The pinky technique always helped a small amount, but the real deal is to fully take all that weight off.

Show threadManawyrm | SarahJul 10, 2023

@whitequark yeah, 100% vote for microscopes, it's absurd how they improve the feedback and control you have.
especially with good light.

the "cheap" 200$ ones are totally fine (although you can buy more comfort for more money)

Show threadGraham Sutherland / PolynomialJul 10, 2023

@whitequark I wasn't aware of the Parkinson's thing, that's really cool!

I can certainly attest to my manual dexterity under a scope being better at higher zoom levels. there's a sweet spot between zoom and working distance, too. if I don't feel constrained by the Barlow lens being close to my hand (in more of a proprioception sense than a literal one) it makes it much easier to get my hand to relax.

Show threadKeith WansbroughJul 10, 2023
@gsuberland @whitequark random suggestion - would something like the Emma watch help? (caution - prototype only, not something you can buy apparently) https://www.emmalawton.co.uk/press
https://parkinsonsdisease.net/news/emma-watch-wearable-device-tremors
Show threadSaaaaayf!!Jul 10, 2023
@whitequark n here i am thinking of diy copper wire lined gloves, would need copper wire, a glove and tape or sew it for more diy xp lol
Show threadHolly A. GultianoJul 10, 2023

@whitequark I pretty much gave up on learning electronics hardware because of fine motor disability, but I did try asking about this in an embedded engineering discord server and they suggested: getting someone else to do the soldering for you, using PCB vices and taping things down, and using a PNP machine. I found this list of "OpenPNP" projects https://openpnp.org/hardware/ that might be a little cheaper.

The gundam model hand stablizer seems really helpful but it might be more for lower frequency hand & arm oscillations, i wonder how much it'd help higher frequency finger osc

Hardware – OpenPnP

Show threadGraham Sutherland / PolynomialJul 10, 2023
@whitequark hand stabilisers are super interesting! I'm pretty steady handed but at that price I might have to try one for the really fiddly stuff just to see how much of a difference it makes.