Quick heads-up: I'm NOT looking to discuss essential tremor as a medical condition; I really have ZERO interest in going down that road, so please skip the medical talk.

I just want to know if anyone living with it has found simple, non-medication ways to tone down the shakes enough to keep doing delicate work—specifically soldering and placing tiny electronics components.

Please don't bother with wild guesses or telling me to "just Google it." I've been doing that for two years already!

Anyone with actual hands-on experience?

Thanks!

 

I have a friend from the college that also has tremor since early age. He went to doctors but no one could find a solution or the cause. He is living with this yet. Sorry if I can't provide a solution or a cause by this case, but it offers information that various doctors couldn't find it too.

 

My mother developed a hand tremor as she got older. I noticed that the amplitude and frequency depended on what she was lifting, an intertial load increased the amplitude and reduced the frequency. Imagine an error amplifier providing feedback and controlling the muscles. If the error amplifier gets degraded (slows down) then a delay in the feedback loop would result in oscillation, and the load on the system would affect its amplitude and frequency. I hear you saying "why didn't you go help her?" but the physics and bio-mechanics were a lot more interesting. So, in theory, (I didn't try it) you should be able to elimiate the instability of the system by changing the compensation components. So that probably means strapping springs and masses to your arm.

 

Hey Agustín; I had battled that with much shorter distances from fingertips-to-soldering iron tip; modifying tools / tool handle insulator lengths and locations. Perhaps adding mass-weight to tools can work for some.
Is your writing affected too ? Fingertip to pencil tip being much shorter may give you a clue if this sheeet can be overcome
When poor vision adds up to the tremor, the end to our activity is near. Am trying to hire a "photocopy of me" to continue some projects and nobody is into electronics. All Nintendo kids

(this does not work) :

 

My mother developed a hand tremor as she got older. I noticed that the amplitude and frequency depended on what she was lifting, an intertial load increased the amplitude and reduced the frequency. Imagine an error amplifier providing feedback and controlling the muscles. If the error amplifier gets degraded (slows down) then a delay in the feedback loop would result in oscillation, and the load on the system would affect its amplitude and frequency. I hear you saying "why didn't you go help her?" but the physics and bio-mechanics were a lot more interesting. So, in theory, (I didn't try it) you should be able to elimiate the instability of the system by changing the compensation components. So that probably means strapping springs and masses to your arm.

Resting the forearm against the bench seems a good start (pretty much what I do, before clicking the mouse) but my hand is the loose end so hard (impossible?) to control.

 

My mother developed a hand tremor as she got older. I noticed that the amplitude and frequency depended on what she was lifting, an intertial load increased the amplitude and reduced the frequency. Imagine an error amplifier providing feedback and controlling the muscles. If the error amplifier gets degraded (slows down) then a delay in the feedback loop would result in oscillation, and the load on the system would affect its amplitude and frequency. I hear you saying "why didn't you go help her?" but the physics and bio-mechanics were a lot more interesting. So, in theory, (I didn't try it) you should be able to elimiate the instability of the system by changing the compensation components. So that probably means strapping springs and masses to your arm.

What offers resistance to movement is exactly what you missed, the dampener.
It's F=k*v.
So you can move, but not fast.

 

What offers resistance to movement is exactly what you missed, the dampener.
It's F=k*v.
So you can move, but not fast.

It was included in "compensation components"!
Couldn't think of a resistive thing you could strap to your arm.

 

It was included in "compensation components"!
Couldn't think of a resistive thing you could strap to your arm.

Dissipative*

 

So perhaps adding mass (lead weights?) to the item being used (soldering iron, tweezer) might reduce the tremor amplitude.

 

So perhaps adding mass (lead weights?) to the item being used (soldering iron, tweezer) might reduce the tremor amplitude.

Interesting thought.
Similar to when one has an unstable feedback loop which refuses to be tamed, the brute force approach is to overcompensate to really slow down the loop response.
If that means Agustin that you’ll only be able to solder one or perhaps two components per minute, you are still accomplishing something.

 

Unable to insert into post # 4.
I put together this 15W soldering iron in a piece of CPVC pipe and a 5V tip from canibalizing a Weller BP860MP, and a tiny push switch (blue). Allows much better control/handling.

 

"Anchoring" the hands helps and I've even heard of putting additional weight on top of the hands as well. Socks full of sand or lead pellets kind of thing. I did ask my doctor about it and was given non-selective beta blocker Propranolol which is a common treatment. Didn't help much with the tremor if at all but brought my heart rate down so no real help there. I really detest working with SMDs even the 1205s. Using a hot plate or oven with ball solder paste seems to work better than trying to solder them with an iron which for me is an extremely frustrating exercise in futility with very poor results. Put a speck of normal solder paste down to hold the SMD in place and position it correctly then with a small needle nozzle applicator put down the ball solder paste on each end to be soldered to the trace and cook till melted and let cool. Getting old sucks...