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is a 20W soldering iron enough

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mdanh2002

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I recently purchased a 20W soldering iron, something like this **broken link removed**

However on first try, I found out it has problem melting 1mm solder lead. The tip is simply not hot enough. At some point it seems that the surrounding area near the tip can melt the solder, but not the tip itself. Does this indicate that I have faulty unit?

Also which soldering iron is best to solder on a motherboard? My Relisys RWT200EM thin client (see this **broken link removed**) has a motherboard with an empty IDE connector. I read somewhere that if I solder an IDE connector to it and connect a hard disk, it should get detected. I have taken a few photos here:

Front of empty IDE connector:
**broken link removed**

Back:
**broken link removed**

I try both the 20W soldering iron and a brandless soldering iron that I always use to solder on veroboard, but they aren't hot enough to melt the existing solder for me to put the pin headers in.

Any advice? Thanks.
 
I use this:
**broken link removed**

It's great...can do heavy conductors or surface mount just change the tip and leave the temp control set.
For lead free solders I have it about 3/4 fullpwr...mark temp setting with a sharpie...!!
 
Motherboards are multilayer boards with heavy ground planes and power layers. Thay can be hard to work with even for experanced solderers.
You will need high heat for a short amount of time, to even try without burning the board. Sometimes preheating the board with a heat gun helps, but you may never get the solder out of the power and ground holes. Working with lead free solder makes the hole thing even harder.
Practice on an old board before you destroy your MOBO. I would recomend you try and find someone with soldering expereance, This is not a good starter project, unless you dont care for you MOBO. Andy
 
My soldering experience is limited to soldering veroboards and home-made PCBs. These boards have big holes and very easy to handle. In the website I provided, I think the author is lucky enough to have a board with empty holes (no existing solder on ground holes) - he just inserts the PIN headers and starts soldering. Desoldering on my board seems to be a nightmare.

I have a damaged P4 motherboard and have tried to practice - but again the cheap soldering irons that I have around are not hot enough to melt the solder on it. Not sure why...

Also from the motherboard it seems that some IDE pins are unconnected. Does this suggest that the IDE slot on my motherboard is just a placeholder and it wouldn't work even if I successfully solder the connector, or am I missing something here?

Thanks for any advice.
 
You may what to get one that dose not have the solder in the holes, I saw some for like $10. Andy
 
I have an old selectable 15/30 watt pencil and using the 15 watt setting it has done just fine on motherboards for removing and replacing components, You need a good clean tinned tip. I wait till it is up to temperature then just wet the tip with fresh clean solder to insure good thermal transfer. Then place tip on existing solder and when it melts wet I use a Solda Pullit tool (suction thing) to remove the existing solder. Considering I have a few Weller controlled heat stations with a collection of tips that old 15/30 watt pencil does just fine. Patience helps! :)

Ron
 
When you buy a cheap Chinese no-name-brand tool then you get a cheap Chinese no-name-brand tool that doesn't work.
New non-lead solder needs more heat than old leaded solder. Solder for electronics usually has a flux core.

My Weller temperature-controlled soldering iron is about 43 years old and still works like new. It is still being made.
It idles with a very low power and uses only as much power as is needed to keep its plated tip at the correct temperature. Its max power is 40W which is needed sometimes. It never gets too hot like many cheap soldering irons. Its tip lasts almost forever.
 
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