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| shardian:
You want rosin core solder, the smallest diameter they have - I believe it is .032" or somthing like that. |
| More Cowbell:
--- Quote from: knave on October 22, 2007, 12:45:13 pm ---What you might want to do is solder six inch wires to the keywiz and then add some qhick disconects or a terminal strip to the ends. that way you can use it for as many things as you want in the future by disconnecting the connectors. And only solder once. 8) --- End quote --- From experience, I would say definitely do it this way. I do this right from the get-go using only the holes I plan on needing for that particular cabinet. This allows you to solder in the comfort of your kitchen table and do all the wiring later. |
| DaOld Man:
I agree. Solder 6" wires to it, then use wire nuts (twisty plastic caps that connect wires together), to temporarily wire then unwire with. Radio shack has the wire nuts too. Get small ones, grey or blue. I would not try to unsolder the keywiz, you take a chance of shorting the contacts with solder, or ruining the board by lifting a trace, plus you will have to solder the new wires all over again, but hey, if you feel like you can do it, go for it. You can always solder the new wires to the 6" ones, then use heat shrink to cover the joints on your permanent installation. Heat shrink looks pretty neat. |
| knave:
Incidently I've been using some very cheap irons. So I decided to upgrade to a nice 30w pencil iron from RS. Now on the cheep irons I could never really "tin" the tip properly as solder would not stick to it. I'm not at home to try it but the tip on the Radio shack Iron sure looks like the shiny metal like the other cheap irons. Is there some trick to tinning the Radio shack Soldering Irons? |
| MonMotha:
That's hardly an upgrade... If you spent less than $10, you have a pretty minimal soldering iron. They're OK for quick one-off jobs and infrequent usage, but if you actually plan on using the thing frequently, get a decent one. I'm a fan of Weller simply because the tips are readily available and work well, but you can get full digital temp controlled setups from no-name brands online for like $50-75. As for tinning the tip of cheap irons, there's a fair bit of patience and luck involved. Let it get good and toasty, at least 325 celcius (which you can't measure easily, but oh well), then flow some solder onto it. Most won't stick. Wipe it off on a damp (not wet) sponge, let it heat up a little again, then repeat, working your way around the tip using the edge of what "took" the last time. With luck, you'll get most of the tip tinned. If you're unlucky, the flux will eat away the tip too badly before it actually takes and you'll have to start over with a new tip. The Radio Shack tips tend to at least work reasonably if you're patient, while the really cheap ones never seem to take. Radio Shack does have a tip cleaner/tinner product that I'm told works well. Only use this stuff on the cheap steel tips, though. Higher end tips like those used by Weller and Metcal are coated in a separate metal layer that will immediately take solder well, and tip cleaner (chemical or mechanical) can destroy that. |
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