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Soldering 101

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:24 pm
by Red
raYzerman wrote: as I pressed on the LED, it works! Surface mounted LED rectangular (SMD)... will require delicate re-solder by somebody with experience and good eyes, or replace the module.
Riders,

Lots of people say that soldering is tricky, but if they dumped their poor old tools on me, I'd have a hard time myself. In my job as an aircraft electronics tech, everybody on my team would say they could give an appendectomy to a termite. 8-) None of us had super-powers, but we did have the right tooling.

The average would be somebody thinking that rosin was actually good flux, or that acid flux was okay for use on electronics. Flux means FLOW, and you want your solder to flow like water on your connections. Acid flux is for plumbing, if even that. Acid flux will destroy electronics, unless you clean it up with baking soda and water after the work. Rosin flux is lame; it does not work on many metals, and it needs alcohol or a good solvent (safe for electronics) to wash away the flux after the job is done. Forget that old stuff; this is not the 1950s anymore. The best commonly available flux that I know is LA-CO flux, costing about US$ 3.50 for 2 oz. (113 g). This little jar will last you a long time. LA-CO flux washes away with plain water, and it is safe for drinking water pipes.

https://markal.com/collections/solderin ... 4786921519

These same folks might have a soldering iron that is suitable for building power plants, maybe with a "tip" half an inch (14 mm) across. Bogus. You need a temperature-controllable soldering iron in the range of 75 Watts, and a damp sponge to wipe the tip clean and shiny each time before you touch the soldering iron to the work. A small chisel tip (1/8" or 3 mm wide) is a good choice, at the business end. Crank up the tip temperature just enough for good progress on the work, but not so high that the tip gets "dirty" (oxidized) too fast. Just one example here:

https://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Statio ... 0CDNWLJWJ/

Now okay, there are a few things to know. Leaving flux on the board after soldering is a recipe for a quick failure, even if the gear will operate at the time when you are done. Cut down the bristles of an acid brush to get short firm brush bristles, and use it with the correct solvent (usually alcohol) and toilet paper to clean away all flux when you are finished. Old flux will collect dirt and contaminnts, and may damage the printed circuitry.

63-37 solder (lead/tin, by percentages) melts faster than the others. 60-40 solder is the most common old-style solder, but it is getting rare. I recommend lead-free solder, unless you have a vented work table to draw off the lead-laced fumes.

It's a good idea to remove all of the old solder from a job, before installing new parts. For that, you need Soder-Wick, or some similar copper braid with flux. Lay the braid on the old solder, apply the soldering iron, and the hot copper braid will absorb the old solder like magic. Add flux if needed, for good results. Copper braid goes for maybe US$ 1.00 per foot (30 cm), but you can pay much more. There is no great benefit from any extra expense, for copper braid.

Eyeglasses? Yeah, I have them, but perfect vision is not needed. What IS needed for fine electronics work is a low-power microscope, preferably the binocular type. The one-eyed microscope that you had as a kid is just too powerful. You need maybe 15 X power, +/- five X or ten X, and NOT what a microbiologist would use. You can find them in the thrift stores, or on websites like eBay and Craigslist. You will be amazed at how well you can do micro-soldering with this good tool.

Practice definitely helps. Make up some repair jobs on old junk electronic parts, and sharpen your skills. You can be a soldering ace in a matter of days. When the job is done, your soldering should look like new silver. Dirty, gray, granular soldering is sub-standard. A clean iron, good flux, and new solder are the ingredients for reliable repair.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:47 pm
by gixxerjasen
Good stuff! I thought those magnification glasses were dorky till I bought some. Game changer, especially with the built in light.

I'd only ever soldered one or two wires here and there. Getting into the expensive hobby of building custom keyboards sure does give you some practice with your equipment. I'm still hobby level but better than I used to be.

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Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:58 pm
by Pterodactyl
Red, you’ve increased my knowledge about soldering immensely. There wasn’t much there to start with, but there is a bit now.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 6:04 pm
by Red
gixxerjasen wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:47 pm Good stuff! I thought those magnification glasses were dorky till I bought some. Game changer, especially with the built in light.
I'd only ever soldered one or two wires here and there. Getting into the expensive hobby of building custom keyboards sure does give you some practice with your equipment. I'm still hobby level but better than I used to be.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Keyboards/Si ... 084-XL.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Keyboards/Si ... 693-XL.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Keyboards/Si ... 719-XL.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Keyboards/Ot ... 309-X2.jpg
GixxerJasen,

Definitely, go with what works for you.
I have the eyeshade magnifiers. The ones with lights are good, and better if you can aim the lights somehow.
There are some eyeshade magnifiers with multiple lenses. You can swap out lenses, or even combine two sets for more magnification.
Some of them will let you use eyeglasses normally under them, even better, if you wear glasses.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:01 pm
by gixxerjasen
I can aim the light up or down which is helpful because the default position is not good. I can also swap lenses, but can't combine them. I usually just go straight for the max magnification. Works well for soldering, painting, digging splinters out of fingers, etc. They were cheap ones off Amazon, there's better, but for the amount of time I use them, they work well. In fact they get used way more than I thought they would. I probably pull them out once every month or so for this or that. I haven't tried them over my glasses, I think there's room but I can usually make it work without them.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 8:47 pm
by 0face
gixxerjasen wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:47 pm Getting into the expensive hobby of building custom keyboards...
My office is in the Mechanical Keyboard Building (MK Tech Center) I just bought a custom keyboard from them. You should see some of their stuff... There's a bunch of gamers there too...I know when they're all having a freaking tournament because the network slows down in the building trying to render all that shit.

:threadjack:

Back to your regular programming.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:42 pm
by raYzerman
I get it all and have done some soldering in my day...... so I went to my local electronics supply, a fairly large place, asked if they had any SMD's... not sure, look over there (back in the corner). Lots of regular wired LED's, not an SMD to be found... a million resistor choices too... no good to me. Next I perused their solder, flux, irons..... I'd spend a ton for this one wee job and likely not use it much again..... nope, I'm going to look for a professional....

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 3:16 pm
by Red
raYzerman wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:42 pmI get it all and have done some soldering in my day...... so I went to my local electronics supply, a fairly large place, asked if they had any SMD's... not sure, look over there (back in the corner). Lots of regular wired LED's, not an SMD to be found... a million resistor choices too... no good to me. Next I perused their solder, flux, irons..... I'd spend a ton for this one wee job and likely not use it much again..... nope, I'm going to look for a professional....
raYzerman,

Yes, tooling at retail can be expensive. The items that I linked are not.

These guys (below) have had good phone tech support for me in the past:

www.digikey.com/product-search/en

https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/store ... d=-1&rfr=1

https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/store ... d=-1&rfr=1

At a minimum, they can probably get you to the right sources, for almost anything electronic.

The manufacturer (by Part Number) should also have phone tech support available.
If you call and tell the manufacturer that you are an independent inventor,
they may even "sample" a small number of the parts straight to you, no charge.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 9:00 pm
by raYzerman
Red I appreciate all your knowledge and advice, but I'd only go there if I was taking it up as a hobby or something like that. For the one-off, just pay the professionals.....
Got another email from Scott at BlueGauges... he looked at the pics and said he could fix me up in like 10 minutes, and went on to say he wouldn't even charge me anything.... I replied I was having none of that nonsense, I won't let him work for nothing..... so we're likely hooking up next week and git 'er done. I'm all excited.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 10:22 pm
by Powerman
Taught "Aerospace" soldering in the AirForce, better than mowing lawns in Tech school.
Pretty low tech actually.

SMD stuff is hard with old guy eyes, microscope sounds like a good idea.

Re: Soldering 101

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 2:04 am
by Red
Powerman wrote: Sat Jan 20, 2024 10:22 pmTaught "Aerospace" soldering in the AirForce, better than mowing lawns in Tech school. Pretty low tech actually.
SMD stuff is hard with old guy eyes, microscope sounds like a good idea.
Powerman,

You can sometimes pick up a good binocular microscope on the "For Sale" websites or Fleabay. I have seen them in the thrift stores, too. One of the local TV stations here has a Classifieds website; I got a screaming deal on mine there. Sometimes you just need to put the word out to friends and relations.

15X to 30X will do the job for you. Some microscopes will have a range of magnifications built in, or a even a set of various low-power optics as part of the deal. You may not need to have eyes pressed to the optics, with a binocular microscope. You can usually position your eyes above the optics by half an inch (1 cm) or so, and see an easy view of the work with both eyes. Try before you buy. Happy hunting. 8-)