geekhack

geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Aufidius on Tue, 20 October 2015, 16:42:33

Title: Newbie soldering question
Post by: Aufidius on Tue, 20 October 2015, 16:42:33: I am building my first ErgoDox and soldering the diodes on. 90% of them work fine but some areas of the keyboard where the diodes should connect the PCB has turned black and I can't get the solder to stick

(http://i.imgur.com/mZj4I3q.jpg)

not sure what I did to cause this ... any ideas? iron too hot? not clean? how do i fix it or can i?
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: pkircher on Tue, 20 October 2015, 16:49:27: first of all its not the board .. your iron is to hot or your contact is to long .. heat the iron up .. apply a bit solder to the tip .. apply flux on the pin .. make contact to the pin with the tip of your iron and apply solder .. there are 100 tutorials on YT..

the solder should not wett for more then a few seconds .. 2-4 max

you got cold joints .. + the black stuff is flux .. use 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean it off .. and .. remove the solder with some solder wick

worst case .. there are a few talented guys arround who solder on a project base .. just ask around
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: suicidal_orange on Tue, 20 October 2015, 17:47:58: What kind of sadist gave a newbie solderer SMD diodes :(

Not sure if those pads are just dirty or if you've burned them off but if I were you I would get some 1W4148 through hole diodes - much less fiddly so easier to get them soldered in quickly before heat damage is done.

Hopefully the Ergodox PCB connects to the outer through hole pad on the other side as well as the one that's visible...
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: b3Rz3Rko on Tue, 20 October 2015, 19:13:29: A good tip for soldering those SMD's is to put solder on one pad, solder on the smd to that pad and the solder the other side having the other side already stuck on the board.The temperature i used is 650 f. SMD soldering is difficult but a complete noob can do it, i did, just watch some YouTube videos tutorials, the one that helped me the most is done by a guy by the username of Whitefiredragon.

But like pkircher said that crusty stuff stuck on the pcb is flux and it will come with isopropyl alcohol, the higher the percentage the better, i used 93%since that is what i have.
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: MJ45 on Tue, 20 October 2015, 19:23:28: I have seen some good soldering videos on UTube from EEVblog that may be helpful to you.
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: pkircher on Tue, 20 October 2015, 19:47:08: list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837
old but pace knows how to solder .. those old videos still apply
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: Aufidius on Tue, 20 October 2015, 20:06:48: yeah now that I think about it those spots are the first few points I soldered.. as i progressed across the board I got better.. now its easy..but cleaning up my old mistakes is my latest challenge.

also my fault..really dumb to start off with the Ergodox as my first attempt at soldering.. live and learn i guess.
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: MikeTheTiger on Sun, 25 October 2015, 03:58:31: I'm a noob to soldering too. Haven't attempted yet, but have been watching lots of youtube vids.
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: asdfjkl36 on Sun, 25 October 2015, 05:17:13: Quote from: pkircher on Tue, 20 October 2015, 19:47:08
list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837
old but pace knows how to solder .. those old videos still apply

Modded multiple keyboards and built my own.

Just watched most of the 9 videos in the series

TIL I don't know how to solder.

Very informative videos :)
Title: Re: Newbie soldering question
Post by: ideus on Mon, 26 October 2015, 19:20:19: For SMD the liquid flux that can be applied with a pen or a small brush are the best.