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Soldering question

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richms:

My bet is on a gutless iron just having the heat sucked out of it by the board. IME soldering dirty stuff needs a hotter iron, and a 25 watter will have problems getting up there.

Before you write yourself off as not being able to solder, see if you can borrow a decent iron - chances are all your problems will go away.

HaRuMaN:


--- Quote from: richms on May 11, 2009, 09:40:24 am ---My bet is on a gutless iron just having the heat sucked out of it by the board. IME soldering dirty stuff needs a hotter iron, and a 25 watter will have problems getting up there.

Before you write yourself off as not being able to solder, see if you can borrow a decent iron - chances are all your problems will go away.

--- End quote ---

I do all my controller hacking with a 15 watt Radio shack iron, I have no problem soldering.

ChadTower:


PCB "heat sucking" happens on stuff with wide traces or heatsinks nearby... not to pure logic circuits like you'd find on a console controller.  Usually around direct common ground connections.

If he can't melt a joint in ten seconds his tip isn't hot enough.  25W is more than enough for a small job like this so I'm betting his tip is filthy and not getting hot enough on the surface.  If you have a cheap tip, and burned a bunch of crud on the tip, it's not going to work very well until you clean that crud off with some light sandpaper.

thecheat:

Depending on the iron, the tip might be removable and causing a poor connection. I have an old Weller gun that I'm too cheap to buy a new tip for - I just keep scraping off some oxidized copper each time I use it. :)

If the tip unscrews (just threaded into the base) or if a set-screw holds it in, remove it and use a wire brush, steel wool, etc.. to brighten up the tip AND ensure the part that contacts the iron's shaft is clean and shiny as well.

If this iron can tin a wire, there shouldn't be any problem tinning a PCB trace.

ChadTower:


That's not going to work well if he wants to keep soldering with this tip.  Good tips have a coating on them that make them easy to clean and slows the buildup of burned crud.  Once you have sanded that coating off you're guaranteeing the need to sand that tip after nearly every use.  Sandpaper is really only a good route on a trashed tip like you have - I learned this by trashing a couple of good tips myself thinking I was cleaning them.

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