Hi All,

After loads of tinkering with my JuneBug and my breadboard I decided to do have a go at soldering a project together.

Let's just say soldering is definitely a skill which I definitely don't have.

This is one aspect of electronics I am NOT enjoying.

Any tips? (not soldering irons!!)

Mark

 

Hard to say without more information on what's going wrong, but here are some basics:

1) Clean the parts first. This is close to the most important thing you can do. Copper develops oxide when exposed to air, and this oxide has a much higher heat resistance than the copper itself. Take a second to give each part to be soldered a quick rub with light sandpaper or similar before hitting it with the iron.

2) Make sure you have a clean and tinned soldering iron tip. Use a dampened sponge (not a plastic one) to give the iron a quick rub before making a solder. General rule: clean the tip before soldering a joint, but not after--you want a bit of solder left on the tip between uses to protect the tip from oxidizing in air. Some parts (especially the ends of stripped wires which you are splicing) will also benefit from being cleaned and tinned before soldering them together. Some (all?) component leads these days (for through-hole stuff anyway) seem to come pre-tinned--at least, I've never had to pre-tin them.

3) Put the parts to be soldered together the way you want them to end up, and then heat the joint for a second or two with a firm application of the iron tip before applying solder to the joint. Don't melt the solder with the iron tip, but rather heat the joint, apply the solder to the joint (while still heating the joint) and let the heat in the joint melt the solder until it flows into and around the joint. This whole process should take just 2-5 seconds per joint (usually). You will find that you often have two parts of significantly different masses to be soldered together (say, a low-mass component lead needs to be soldered to a relatively high-mass copper trace or plane). In such cases you will need to channel more heat into the larger mass to bring it to the same temperature as the smaller lead. It might take a while but you'll get the hang of it. You'll find that with pre-tinned parts and component leads you can actually see when it's hit the right temperature: the appearance of the surface of the lead will suddenly change textures, sweeping out from where the heat is being applied. It's a bit hard to explain but you will know it when you see it. Just be careful not to overheat your components, especially semiconductors!

4) Don't apply too much heat to a solder pad on a PCB, or you can delaminate it and the pad will just lift off the board altogether. Then you have to make a tricky patch with a small length of wire.

5) Practice. Then practice some more.

6) Use something (like a helping hands) to hold your work pieces steady so you have both hands free to hold the iron and solder. Makes a world of difference.

There is more information on sites like this one; google "soldering tutorial" for lots more hits.


Keep at it and good luck! You'll get the hang of it in no time.

Torben

 

It's probably better to see it and hear about it. Plug it in and see what video's might show up ?

Good luck, The trick is heat transfer how much how long it's a site and feel kinda thing. Floating a cpu is a hole different thing.

 

Hi Mark,
If you use the wrong solder then it won't work. You need to use 63/37 tin-lead solder with cores of activated rosin flux and it is made for electronics, not plumbing. Mine is about 0.75mm thickness.

If the soldering iron has a dirty or untinned tip then it won't work. A good soldering iron has a tinned and plated tip. I wipe my tip on a damp grooved sponge to clean it.

If the soldering iron gets too hot then it won't solder properly. Same if it does not get hot enough. So a temperature-controlled soldering iron is best.

Don't drip melted solder from up high. Heat the parts to be joined for 1 second then apply the solder to them. They will melt the solder and make a good joint.

__________________
Uncle $crooge

 

I find that heat most easily flows from the iron to the work by means of the liquid solder. If the solder tip is too dry (no liquid solder) it will be hard to get enough heat on the joint.

After wiping the tip you may need to add just a tiny amount of solder to the tip in some cases. Your are not looking for a blob but rather a film of liquid solder over the tip. Experiment a bit.

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Junebug USB PIC programmer kit., USB Bit Wacker, 3v0's Homepage
The 15 Minute Printed Circuit Board! (+drill time)

 

3V0 nailed it here--that's what I was trying to refer to by "tinning" the soldering iron tip. Helps immensely.


Torben

 

Yes, the 63-37 solder or the 60-40 stuff is best. Resin core of course!

Don't confuse 60-40 with 40-60. I saw a roll of 40-60 solder for sale in the electronic tools section at Fry's. Their buyer must have made a mistake. That stuff is for plumbing and eaves trough repair.

Also, for desoldering I find both copper braid (green size) and a good solder sucker to be absolutely necessary. In the last few years I've found that you need a flux pen to make decent surface mount solder connections.

 

There is no one right best way to prototype. I do PCBs because I have a CNC to drill the holes for me. I would never do that if I had to drill by hand. If I were not so cheap I would just send the boards off and have them made. It may yet come to that. It needs to be pointed out (again) that PCB layout with schematic capture is great because you are sure the layout matches the schematic.

Maybe go with home made PCBs for surface mount parts. If you get good at layout you may get by with just a few jumper holes.

I agree that point to point can be a mess but some people pull it off. Several people here do a nice enough job. For PCB patching I use wire wrap wire. It is very thin and tends to lay flat on the board. The thicker the wire the uglier it seems to get.

There is the strip board type stuff that Nigel and Audioguru use.

There are some people that do boards on CNC mills but as I understand it the resolution is not as good as with a chemical etch. Not too sure why could even be wrong.

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The 15 Minute Printed Circuit Board! (+drill time)

 

Screw that. Get yourself some 60/40 or similar solder paste in a syringe and you'll never look back. Solder paste is basically powdered solder in a rosin flux matrix. It's the same stuff that electronics manufacturers who build SMD boards use; only they use robots to apply paste the pads at high speed. Then, you just carefully sit your part so the leads lay on the pasted pads and heat it with an air pencil, or just stick the whole board in a 400 F oven for a half a minute.

 

Baste at regular intervals to keep leads juicy.

 

yeah, get a technician to do it!

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I will have another crack at it this week.

I am basically using a £14.99 soldering iron (nothing frilly), what are the benefits of one of the more expensive units?

Thanks again

 

I've always had good luck with Weller soldering irons, I have a temperature controlled fine tip iron. Good tips make a difference too.

__________________
Bill
Smart Kits build Smart People
http://www.blueroomelectronics.com

 

Thanks Bill.

As an update I have taken the advice on board and had another crack today.

I am pleased to say that there has been a definite improvement, nowhere near professional but a million times better than a few days ago.

Thanks to all.

Mark

 

Uniform heat. Maybe less chance of lifting pads and traces. Some work requires more heat then others, allows you to pick temp. Looks cool on your bench.

__________________
search engine for electronic parts
Junebug USB PIC programmer kit., USB Bit Wacker, 3v0's Homepage
The 15 Minute Printed Circuit Board! (+drill time)