Soldering Tips and Tricks
Intro: Soldering Tips and Tricks
This is an instructables to make everything easier.
STEP 1: Tools
-You will need a soldering iron (maximum 50w) or a soldering station, the gun has a powerfull electromagnetic field and can damage some components, and you can't use it for a long period of time.
-Soldering resin is the best choice because the paste will start to corrode the steel or cooper.
-Solder for electronics
-A fixing tool for the components or boards
STEP 2: Em Cooper Simple Uncover
First thing you need to do is melt some resin on the insulation of the wire, then get solder on the tip of the iron and hold it there until the insulation melts and the coper gets loaded with solder, after that clean the tip.
STEP 3: EL Wire Connection
Get a wire, pull it trough resin. Bend the negative leads to the insulation ,twist the wire around the insulation making sure it touches the negative leads, solder them toghater and you will get a stronger contact.
STEP 4: SMD Without Hot Air
STEP 5: Perfboard to PCB
Solder the components on the bord, load the points with solder, join the poins forming little bridges, avoid heating the board too much
STEP 6: PCB Repair
Melt resin in the place where the pcb is destroyed, then hold and move the iron until the insulation melts (if it doesn't start to melt sand it carefuly and try again). Taking pins from components you can make the connections.
3 Comments
Somethingtotallyrandom 8 years ago
Hi, I would advise against attempting to repair a PCB trace by drawing molten solder across the PCB substrate. Doing so further compromises the substrate and weakens the attachment of the remaining ends of the severed trace.
If don't have the materials at hand to attach a replacement strip of trace material where the break occurred (not likely unless you save dead boards like me or have real repair stock), then it is better to use a small piece of solid copper wire as the replacement. Add a tiny dot of epoxy to hold the solid copper wire in place on the board between the breaks, then, when the epoxy has cured, solder the ends to the trace ends.
Trace repairs aren't hard to do, just delicate and a little bit fussy. Technically, you should bevel both remaining trace ends at a 45 degree angle (angle measured from the flat of the PCB). If you could look at the beveled trace ends from the side, they look like a ramps rising up from the PCB.
Next, prepare a length of trace material with matching bevels, then epoxy and solder-in the replacement piece so when it's fixed, it exactly fits into the spot where the trace was missing. After soldering, you shouldn't be able to detect the repair when viewed from above.
I'm glad you mentioned cleaning! That's very important because while rosin flux won't corrode metals like an acid flux does, it is very hygroscopic (attracts moisture) and is good a dust magnet. Moist dust is not good. I always use isopropyl (spend the money extra for real isopropyl, steer away from rubbing alcohol) for bench work. I've used some kind of exotic chlorine/fluorine/ethane solvent or other in a desk-sized ultrasonic bath for large assemblies.
silentbogo 8 years ago
Excellent note. I had a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard with couple of damaged traces and socket pins, so I've used a piece of 80-pin IDE ribbon cable to connect traces on PCB. It works the best. I've also used a silicone spray sealant to protect the exposed area afterwards, yet I've seen some ugly repair jobs with a solder blob and hot glue....
It's been almost a year and it is still working in my gaming rig with no issues.
Some people use conductive glue and solder for trace/pad repair, but it is not as durable.
Somethingtotallyrandom 8 years ago
A repair done well will outlast the assembly in most cases. When I fix something, I want it to last forever and be something I can depend on and trust to work. Even in consumer electronics, let alone in safety/emergency equipment.
:-) No glue for me unless it's for a throwaway something-or-other or for fabric. I've noticed glues don't perform as well as the more expensive two-part metal-filled epoxies.
I hate repairing pads. Especially when they have through-holes (after a traumatizing experience with a jeweler's anvil, a _steel_ grommet (it was brass-plated /-{ ), and a shattered $20k circuit board). I missed using surface mounted components by a decade or so, so only from my experience with flat-pak ICs, I don't personally trust that pad to last for longer than the next IC that's soldered to it. If that chip must ever be replaced, the heat needed to de-solder and replace it with another tends to overcure holding the epoxy and which then starts to degrade.
I love the smell of rosin in the morning...
...it smells like...
... a good day to be alive ;-)