Wow, this is pretty much everything i need to know.
Thanks alot.
Soldering is simply a skill that takes practice. I used to hand build analog synths with thousands of components. My early modules were a messā¦ Wires all over the place, cold joints, too much solder, etc. I got a lot better over the yearsā¦ I soldered for several hours a day for years and years.
A decent soldering iron w/ temperature control helps a lotā¦ But I went about 10 years w/ a basic 40 watt weller. In that case, it runs hot, so youāve got to be quick w/ your joints. I recently got a little battery powered TS100 to put in my field repair kit, and itās great!! Fully temperature controlled. I use it more than my bench top temperature controlled iron now.
I doubt Iām telling you anything you donāt already know, but for these FCās, soldering wires to pads, you simply pre-tin your pad and your wire. Then hold the wire on the pad, touch the iron to it, and itās done. Basically, donāt try holding a fresh wire on a bare pad and heat and apply solder at the same time. Having narrow solder helps, too, because you donāt need much. And a narrow tip for your iron for these small boards.
The bigger power and motor pads, especially the grounds, can be a challenge because they soak up some heatā¦ I generally switch to a bigger tip and let it preheat for a while before I solder the bigger pads that might be connected to a ground plane or something.
You want the joint to heat up fast, w/in about a second, and then take the iron off as soon as itās melted.
If a board is basically destroyed after soldering youāre using too much heat and/or too much time.
I swap soldered wires around on boards all the time, and it just takes a second to move a wireā¦ Tap the iron on the wire and itās off. Tap the iron on the wire on the new pad and itās done.
But we all make mistakesā¦ I recently overheated a pad on my omnibus nano, and it fell off the board. Luckily it has duplicate pads on the other side.
This is how I spent my youth:
This one is mine, so itās a bit of a messā¦ The ones I built for other people were neater. The bottom left black modules were a kit I got when I was about 15, and that started all of this electronics madness. All the silver modules were designed and built by me. Anyway, the point of all this is practice practice practiceā¦
I am very impressed by what you have done with the synths, @wicked1 . The amount of soldering required there looks daunting. I bet you know the vacuum tubes and filtering technology too.
Yes, it is a skill and it takes practice. I am not too bad, but would have liked to have better procedures for prototyping. Thanks for the advice. I may get that TS100 too.
Heh, yepā¦
(Sorry for the thread hijack)
No probs, looks impressive 
I have a RadioLink MiniPix that has never worked, and still trying to get them to replace it, but the GPS works fine with Mro Pixracer.