4:40 I am an electrical engineer student. I noticed your soldering iron is set to 300C. When soldering smaller electronic components that you are struggling with, you want it set from 320C to about 400C. I usually go 320C for any through-hole soldering and 360C or 370C for surface-mount soldering. I have the pin finally melt the solder after raising the temperature by 1-5 degrees. Also, the tip of the iron will continuously keep oxidizing when exposed to air which will disrupt the heat transfer from the tip of the iron. To fix this, keep a small wire brush on hand and before each solder you should give the tip a quick clean to remove any oxidization, then you should tin the tip. Tinning refers to applying a small amount of solder to the tip (not enough to make a blob but enough to visually cover the tip). Then you can apply it to the pin and apply the solder. Ps. A tip for recording any benchwork is to do a top-down view. It shows the most. You can usually DIY a top-down gantry using a clothing rail or something similar.
For soldering I recommend a T12 soldering iron(any brand will be fine, the small box type) or a Pinecil, it's good enough for the job. For soldering I use thin rosin core solder wires, flux syringes from mg chemicals (chipquik also works), and a tip scrubber for cleaning up tips (the wire ball type). Small tip for the headers: it's easier to just lay it on the table and solder the first pin, heat it up to set it in place properly, then solder the opposite corner, then finishing the rest.
I still use my old Antec / RS Components soldering iron from my Field Service Days - it's only 25 watts, but for most use cases it's fine. Only issue tends to be with big lumps (on a heat sink etc) - but I tend not to have to replace things like too much.
I’ve experienced problems with a Chinese soldering iron: inappropriate mains fuse and poor earthing were the most concerning. Aside from the safety issues I was also baffled by its inability to make a decent solder joint on anything other than the smallest components. The cause turned out to be an air gap between the ceramic heater and the bit itself - without a good thermal path between the two there is no way it can actually deliver the claimed amount of heat. I made a copper shim to improve conduction and this helped to some extent, but couldn’t get a very good fit without it becoming so tight that changing the bit would risk breakage of the ceramic core. I don’t know whether this is the problem with the Kaiweets iron you have, but it sounds similar so I’d take a good look at its construction. If the job you’re trying to solder has enough thermal mass to drain the iron’s tip faster than the heater can get energy to it then you’ll find yourself trying to compensate by turning the temperature control up. Not only does it make for a miserable experience, but will shorten the lifetime of bits (because of the wider temperature cycle and running hotter when idle).
4:40 I am an electrical engineer student. I noticed your soldering iron is set to 300C. When soldering smaller electronic components that you are struggling with, you want it set from 320C to about 400C. I usually go 320C for any through-hole soldering and 360C or 370C for surface-mount soldering. I have the pin finally melt the solder after raising the temperature by 1-5 degrees. Also, the tip of the iron will continuously keep oxidizing when exposed to air which will disrupt the heat transfer from the tip of the iron. To fix this, keep a small wire brush on hand and before each solder you should give the tip a quick clean to remove any oxidization, then you should tin the tip. Tinning refers to applying a small amount of solder to the tip (not enough to make a blob but enough to visually cover the tip). Then you can apply it to the pin and apply the solder.
Ps. A tip for recording any benchwork is to do a top-down view. It shows the most. You can usually DIY a top-down gantry using a clothing rail or something similar.
Yeah I turned it up a bit later and that helped! Thanks for the comments ;)
For soldering I recommend a T12 soldering iron(any brand will be fine, the small box type) or a Pinecil, it's good enough for the job. For soldering I use thin rosin core solder wires, flux syringes from mg chemicals (chipquik also works), and a tip scrubber for cleaning up tips (the wire ball type).
Small tip for the headers: it's easier to just lay it on the table and solder the first pin, heat it up to set it in place properly, then solder the opposite corner, then finishing the rest.
I still use my old Antec / RS Components soldering iron from my Field Service Days - it's only 25 watts, but for most use cases it's fine. Only issue tends to be with big lumps (on a heat sink etc) - but I tend not to have to replace things like too much.
That is a suer cool project!
I’ve experienced problems with a Chinese soldering iron: inappropriate mains fuse and poor earthing were the most concerning.
Aside from the safety issues I was also baffled by its inability to make a decent solder joint on anything other than the smallest components. The cause turned out to be an air gap between the ceramic heater and the bit itself - without a good thermal path between the two there is no way it can actually deliver the claimed amount of heat.
I made a copper shim to improve conduction and this helped to some extent, but couldn’t get a very good fit without it becoming so tight that changing the bit would risk breakage of the ceramic core.
I don’t know whether this is the problem with the Kaiweets iron you have, but it sounds similar so I’d take a good look at its construction.
If the job you’re trying to solder has enough thermal mass to drain the iron’s tip faster than the heater can get energy to it then you’ll find yourself trying to compensate by turning the temperature control up. Not only does it make for a miserable experience, but will shorten the lifetime of bits (because of the wider temperature cycle and running hotter when idle).
I think I've found my next project - does Mr Wolf offer a Case Printing service?
I don’t think so but PCB Way do 3D printing!!
bluetack on the back of the pins
Did you manage to get it to boot directly into emulator and if so, how?
I’m afraid not. I just haven’t got round to it yet. Too many projects on.
To be perfect, just sand it and paint.
I think it looks better in black ;)