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

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Level42:
Maxim: 100% agreed. We need to make a proper video :)

Less than 1 second per soldering....yeah can be done if you're doing lot's of IC's and doing it every day. When you do this all the time you get into a certain rhythm. You learn to know exactly when the solder starts flowing and when it's set etc.

The only time I did production soldering was during the practice year in my electronics education but those were mostly descrete parts, ver little IC's. With all respect, I hated the work, way to repetetive, gets boring so quick.

Beretta: do you do the desoldering with that 15 W iron ? Since it's pretty low wattage, you probably don't get the heat build up quick enough on the solder and parts you wish to desolder. Following, you will  keep the iron longer (too long) on there and causing the traces to coil up. Get a proper station if you do it a lot. However, I do have an occasional trace coming up every once in a while too, sometimes you just can't prevent it on those 25+ year old PCBs.

smalltownguy:
Someone PLEASE do make a proper video for this. I've gotten to the point now where I will most likely be tackling some small soldering tasks soon, and I'd really like to fix things, not break them, if you know what I mean  :laugh2:

Level42:
Another thing: Most pro's don't use the sponge because it will lower the temperature of the tip and often it will not completely clear the tip of the exces tin.
Instead they "throw" off the extra tin on f.i. an old newspaper.

Lilwolf:
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.

MaximRecoil:

--- Quote from: Level42 on August 31, 2009, 04:50:22 am ---Maxim: 100% agreed. We need to make a proper video :)
--- End quote ---

I've thought about it, but I don't have anything to videotape with aside from a crappy webcam, which would be horrible (plus the cord wouldn't reach to the table where I solder).


--- Quote ---Less than 1 second per soldering....yeah can be done if you're doing lot's of IC's and doing it every day. When you do this all the time you get into a certain rhythm. You learn to know exactly when the solder starts flowing and when it's set etc.
--- End quote ---

We did through-hole terminal blocks like these - link. Each board took about 50 terminal blocks (they were actually a bunch of small boards with two 2-position or 4-position terminal blocks each that were still all together as a single board; not yet broken apart into the smaller boards). We had a PCB holder that held the board while you placed all the terminal blocks into it; and then you would close the steel and foam lid and rotate it around and all the solder points would be right there layed out for you for easy soldering (the steel and foam lid held the terminal blocks firmly in place from underneath).

All of the ICs, as well as all of the other components on the boards were surface-mount, which were all placed and soldered automatically by the multi-million dollar Panasonic SMT machine, which was about as long as a football field. As such, we didn't usually have to deal with any of them, though we often had to replace other surface-mount components that failed the HP 3070 test. I replaced a few of the big, square surface mount ICs by hand too; the ones with about 100 tiny, closely spaced legs; but those weren't points of failure often; and they generally preferred to ditch the board rather than spend 10 minutes replacing one of those ICs by hand.


--- Quote ---The only time I did production soldering was during the practice year in my electronics education but those were mostly descrete parts, ver little IC's. With all respect, I hated the work, way to repetetive, gets boring so quick.
--- End quote ---

I liked it actually. Like you said, you develop a rhythm; and for me, time flew when I was soldering. Plus I worked next to a few people that I got along with well, so that helped.


--- Quote ---Another thing: Most pro's don't use the sponge because it will lower the temperature of the tip
--- End quote ---

Not with a Metcal  ;), not for more than an imperceptible fraction of a second anyway. Metcals have recovery time like you wouldn't believe; stone cold to operating temperature in 7 seconds. That's 100 degrees per second. Are you still looking for one? You really should buy one.

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