I'm proud of my neat solder job

[crashwg]

So I'll show it off! 

Yes the ruller is M$ painted in.  I forgot to put a ruler next to it when the xbox was open and I'm not about to open it just for another pic.  It is to scale though, I promise.

The chip that is seen is a Xerc2, which is used to control power and eject functions with an IR remote.  The set of three wires including the red one goes to the IR reciever mounted outside the case.

[NightGod]

Nice work.

[shmokes]

Nice.  I'm exactly the same.  I've got pictures of my first Xbox mod with a penny sitting on the board for scale.  For us folks who only solder once every few years it feels like a big accomplishment.

[ChadTower]

Those surface mount jobs with no way to mechanically attach the item are harder than through holed boards.

[Chris]

Great job!

My soldering skills have always been lousy, but I've always blamed my cheap Radio Shack pencil iron.  I recently bought a Hakko soldering station; haven't had a good chance to use it yet.  Hopefully it'll be better.

[ChadTower]

I had a hard time learning to solder at first... a crappy pencil iron and some questionable solder were contributors, but really, it was experience and comprehension of heat management that made me a good solderer.

People are not kidding when they say the best way to learn is to get a scrap board and practice on it.

[Chris]

My boards always turn into scrap by ther time I'm done with them... does that count? 

[shmokes]

Those surface mount jobs with no way to mechanically attach the item are harder than through holed boards.

Yeah, I'll second that.  The LPC on the Xbox was cake compared with the D0 and the 12 little solder pads on the the mod chip for hooking up an LCD screen.

[ChadTower]

The d0 is still a through hole, from what I see in the pics, just a very small one.

One thing I would recommend from that pic above is taking the iron to those pads and reflowing that solder.  Maybe it's jpg artifacting but the blobs don't look all that smooth and odd shaped blobs go cold much easier.  Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

If you're not comfortable doing that, though, and are just happy you did it without ---smurfing--- up the board, leave it as is and be happy.   

[Lewis Black]

Nice job, I'd be bragging about that too.

[ChadTower]

Consider dropping some hot glue blobs on there to prevent those nonsecured wires from moving and shorting out in the future.

[Stingray]

Wow, that's a tiny little chip. Nice work!

-S

[ChadTower]

I bet it's 2 feet across and the ruler inset is enlarged.   

[shmokes]

I don't know.  Looking at my pictures I see a bunch of through holes, but the D0 looks like a solderpad.  At any rate, through hole or not, it was so bloody small that it was much more difficult than the 12 wires I had to solder to the chip for the LCD screen.

[ChadTower]

It is pretty freakin small.  If you flip the board over, though, what you'll probably see is that the point of the d0 is to connect the end of a trace on the top to the beginning of a trace on the bottom.  The hole is probably too small to actually insert the wire into which does make it the same as a surface pad from your point of view.

[shmokes]

I'm sure you're right, cos you can solder the D0 on either side of the board.  The funny thing is that the one in the picture is the "big" d0 point on the underside of the board.  A lot of people don't bother taking out the motherboard and just solder to the more difficult d0 up top. 

[ChadTower]

Best way to do one that small is to pretin the wire.  That way you don't have to apply solder to the tiny pad.  Just touch the wire to it and heat it up.

[shmokes]

By the way, what's wrong with a radioshack pencil soldering iron?  That's all I've used.  Would my soldering life be that much improved with a $60 setup?

[ChadTower]

If you soldered a lot, absolutely.  Different situations call for different temperatures and your pencil iron has no temperature control whatsoever.  It just gets as hot as its power supply can make it while still losing heat to the air.

Consistent temp control adds a lot to soldering ability when faced with jobs of varying requirements.

[crashwg]

A lot of people don't bother taking out the motherboard and just solder to the more difficult d0 up top. 

I soldered to the top D0 point...  I'm not about to post pics though because it doesn't look good.  In my defense, it was the second thing I soldered with the first being a PS1 chip which is easy and then there's the fact that it actually works! 

Oh, and I'm pretty darn sure that the D0 point is NOT a through hole.  The wire used to connect it is 30g and if that doesn't go through nothing will.  Also I put a light behind the mobo and couldn't see through it.

[ChadTower]

Note that the term "through hole" refers to the PCB itself, not the tin contact point.  It could easily be a through hole without actually having a hole through which you could poke a wire.

[shmokes]

I don't see how it could possibly look too bad.  It's surrounded by other traces.  There's only enough froom for the smallest dot of solder there.  The underside was difficult enough, so good job on successfully doing the top (though, with no soldering experience I don't know what the ---fudgesicle--- you were thinking    )

[ChadTower]

It would look bad if he fried the laminate around the hole itself... that gets ugly, especially if he left the flux there.  The flux always makes burn damage look worse.

[Stingray]

By the way, what's wrong with a radioshack pencil soldering iron?  That's all I've used.  Would my soldering life be that much improved with a $60 setup?

That's what I use too. I've got a 15 watt & a 30 watt. Of course I only do the occasional repair for myself, it's not like I use them every day.

-S

[ChadTower]

I have one but really don't like it.  Can't get decent tips for it and the tip burns way too easily. 

I picked up one of these when the local RadioShack went buhbye.  It was like $3.50.  It's not too bad but it's not the one handed solution they would have you believe.  Especially when your finger slips off the bulb and it sprays wet solder onto the board.

I also have an MCM 21-6050 20/40 watt station.  It's okay.  Does the job.  Don't like the way the tips are held in.

The tool I use most is an OLD Weller station I got off Freecycle.  No temp control but it seems to have the best regulation of any unregulated iron I've used.  Gets hot fast, stays hot, doesn't burn itself.  Put a quality tip in it and it's gold.  Probably 30 years old but damn good.  Can't beat pure quality.

[Stingray]

 

I picked up one of these when the local RadioShack went buhbye.

That's funny. I bought the same item just yesterday. It may not be a perfect solution, but it's a lot better than a regular soldering iron and a solder sucker.

-S

[ChadTower]

Eh, I went back to the iron and the sucker pretty quickly.  Once you get good with that sucker you can often make parts just fall out of the board on the first try.

[shmokes]

All I've used is the copper braid.

[ChadTower]

I use that too in some situations.  It forces you to heat up too large an area, though, on most spots.

[DrewKaree]

Eh, I went back to the iron and the sucker pretty quickly.  Once you get good with that sucker you can often make parts just fall out of the board on the first try.

Pure mangle gold right there!

[Stingray]

All I've used is the copper braid.

I can't make that stuff work to save my life. I'm a big fan of the desoldering iron after having used one for a bit. I'm not sure how I ever lived without it.

-S

[ChadTower]

I like braid when the solder is contaminated.  Contaminated solder doesn't completely liquify.  It just becomes a weird sludge that braid will mostly pick up but a hand sucker or pump won't.  Contaminants would be stuff like burned solder or acid damaged solder (or both).

[shmokes]

The first time I used copper braid I tried and tried and I was burning the hell out of the board, but the braid wasn't picking up anything at all.  I was like, "What the hell, this stuff doesn't work.  Period.  I can't possibly be doing it wrong, you just put the braid over the solder and apply the soldering iron."

Since then it's always worked extremely well for me and as far as I can tell I'm not doing anything differently.  I don't know what was up the first time, but it sounds like whatever it is it might be the same problem you're having.

[ChadTower]

If it's burning the board you are using it wrong.  It shouldn't be touching the laminate.

[shmokes]

It wasn't.  I was just holding it against the braid, which was in turn sitting on the solder, for so long trying to get the braid to suck something up, that the proximity to the board, and perhaps heat transfer, was burning the board.

I don't know.  Obviously I was doing something wrong, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.