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And now.......how NOT to solder !

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MaximRecoil:


--- Quote from: Lilwolf on August 31, 2009, 05:37:46 am ---and yes, desoldering is the biggest pain in the butt...  I use a lot of desoldering tape myself... and a lot of swearing... and often heat it up way too long and it drops on other components below.

--- End quote ---

Get a good quality "solder sucker" (Edsyn Soldapullt DS017, DS017LS, and AS196 are the only ones worth buying in my opinion) and be sure to learn how to use it properly. Desoldering is easy with the right tool and know-how.

To desolder a through-hole joint, place the tip of your iron against the pad and post and the solder should melt very quickly. As soon as the solder is melted, place the tip of the solder sucker over the post of the joint and press it down to the pad, and push the trigger on the solder sucker. If done correctly, pretty much all of the solder will be gone the first time (i.e., there should be no need for a second attempt).

Don't be afraid to allow the plastic tip of the solder sucker to make contact with the tip of your iron; in fact, it has to make contact with the tip of your iron in order to do it properly, because your iron tip should still be on the pad and post, and pressing the solder sucker tip down over the post to the pad will inevitably cause contact between the iron tip and the solder sucker tip.

A lot of people go wrong here simply because they are afraid of letting the plastic tip of the solder sucker touch the hot tip of the iron, so they either trying to pull the iron away and move the solder sucker into place quickly, or they place the solder sucker's tip too far from the molten solder.

Don't worry about the solder sucker's tip melting. For one thing, they are replaceable. For another thing, they will melt some, but not a lot. They are designed to take more heat than typical plastic. The Edsyn Soldapullts that we used at work had melted and mangled tips from years of use, but they still worked fine. This is what the tip of my DS017LS looks like after years of factory use:



And it still works fine.

Level42:

No I bought the Ersa RDS-80 station which is excellent really.


A metcal is too costly for me and I'm not doing series production work :)
You also don't find them here and they weigh a ton so shipping would add even more to the price.  I bought a couple of different tips for the Ersa and it works better than the previous simplistic magastat from Weller I had before.
The only thing that is worse is the cable from the station to the iron as it's pretty stiff. I may replace that.....if I find some time.


MaximRecoil:


--- Quote from: Level42 on August 31, 2009, 07:04:14 am ---No I bought the Ersa RDS-80 station which is excellent really.
--- End quote ---

It looks like a nice iron. I've never used one or seen one (they may not be common in the US), but I just read a description of one and it says it has up to 290 Watts and reaches operating temperature in about 40 seconds. That's pretty fast for a conventional heating element based iron.


--- Quote ---A metcal is too costly for me and I'm not doing series production work :)
--- End quote ---

Yeah, me neither; not anymore anyway. Fortunately I was able to get a good deal on mine.


--- Quote ---You also don't find them here and they weigh a ton so shipping would add even more to the price. 
--- End quote ---

Yeah, that sucks. Even shipping within the U.S. is usually close to $20 for them.


--- Quote ---The only thing that is worse is the cable from the station to the iron as it's pretty stiff. I may replace that.....if I find some time.
--- End quote ---

The cable on Metcals is very flexible and soft, and is designed to be very heat resistant (silicone rubber). But then, it is coax cable that carries RF, rather than wire that needs to carry significant electrical current, so that may allow Metcal to more easily make their cables so flexible.

Blanka:

RS-Online also delivers an Esra station with their name on it, for much less. They also have a US partner selling stuff. Maybe they sell the iron too.
http://nl.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=0186719&cm_sp=Merchandising-_-Featured-Product-_-0186719
Check the display, button layout and connector. Exactly the same as the Esra, but 60 euro's is a bargain  :laugh:
I enjoy it very much.

HaRuMaN:


--- Quote from: Lilwolf on August 31, 2009, 05:37:46 am ---I can't remember who I bought my prehacked dreamcast controllers from... But he did a beaut of a job. 

if someone did a series on how to solder for hacking a controller, I think that would be great!

and yes, desoldering is the biggest pain in the butt...  I use a lot of desoldering tape myself... and a lot of swearing... and often heat it up way too long and it drops on other components below.

--- End quote ---

That'd be me.  Glad you like them.

And... you can find my controller hack tutorial here:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64050.0  Not a video, but it has pics and a step by step.

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