Soldering advice needed
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ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
How about filing the soldering iron bit down to a smaller point?
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
Looking at the photo, it seems that the tracks might be 0.3mm, but the pads (the bits with the solder blobs and the component leads) are quite a lot bigger. Look at the unused copper pad, bottom left of the picture. The clearance between a pad and a track can (typically) be as little 0.2 mm but there is usually a green solder resist coating that helps prevent the solder that is put on the pad shorting across to the track and beyond. If you have a clunky soldering iron, you might be able to get a replacement "needle point" tip for fine work. Alternatively, take a fine file to your tip and make your own. Google "tinning a soldering iron" for info on how to prepare a new tip before use.
Edit: beat to it by Colin!
Edit: beat to it by Colin!
Last edited:
Jason
Senior Member
- Location
- Carnaby Street
Wrap a thick guage wire ( house wiring works well) to the soldering tip and it will conduct heat to a small point.
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
I've tried that, but with limited success. No matter how tightly you wrap the copper, it heats up, expands.....and falls off. The coefficient of thermal expansion of copper is a lot higher than iron.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Don't use 'plumbers' solder.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Doesn't look ideal, looks like those tracks were intended for some kind of mechanically surface mounted components perhaps?
Tin the tracks you want to solder first, as well as the wires for your switch. Use a flat nib on your iron - the temptation is to use a pointy one, but they heat up insufficient area of the track to solder effectively.
It looks easy enough to my eye, but my first job from school was a couple of months in an electronics factory so I was trained to do it.
Tin the tracks you want to solder first, as well as the wires for your switch. Use a flat nib on your iron - the temptation is to use a pointy one, but they heat up insufficient area of the track to solder effectively.
It looks easy enough to my eye, but my first job from school was a couple of months in an electronics factory so I was trained to do it.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
[QUOTE 4926718, member: 9609"]Here is a very small electronic circuit board. The mode of the device is changed when a conductive plunger is pressed against the gold coloured area temporarily connecting them together. Those strips are around 0.3mm wide
I am wanting to solder a wire to each side, so as I can change the mode from another button
Where do I start with something so tiny, I only have a normal size iron ?
View attachment 369401 [/QUOTE]
The solution is not electronic, but pneumatic.
Concoct a plunger connected to a plastic tube with a "pump" at the other end. This pump could be a rubber bulb, plastic syringe....I dunno, look around you. There's useful stuff in every bin.
If you don't like that idea, you have a perfect excuse for buying a small gas-fired soldering iron. I'm sure you'll use it again in future. Maybe in 2031 or thereabouts.
I am wanting to solder a wire to each side, so as I can change the mode from another button
Where do I start with something so tiny, I only have a normal size iron ?
View attachment 369401 [/QUOTE]
The solution is not electronic, but pneumatic.
Concoct a plunger connected to a plastic tube with a "pump" at the other end. This pump could be a rubber bulb, plastic syringe....I dunno, look around you. There's useful stuff in every bin.
If you don't like that idea, you have a perfect excuse for buying a small gas-fired soldering iron. I'm sure you'll use it again in future. Maybe in 2031 or thereabouts.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Can follow the tracks to find a more convenient point to solder?
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I didn't really look at the photo closely last night, but just have. It should be easy to solder to the big 'P'-shaped area below the narrow tracks. I would solder the second wire to the top-right corner of the other set of tracks which should be easy to get at from the right even using a large soldering iron.
I dug out my old Antex soldering iron a few months ago to repair the backlight on the laptop used for my CycleChat posts. That iron has what was once considered a narrow bit but it would seem huge now we have tiny surface-mounted components. It is great for working with larger components, wires and PCB tracks though.
accountantpete
OAP
A bit of care is needed as the tracks will probably be very very thin and you can easily burn through them.
twentysix by twentyfive
Clinging on tightly
- Location
- Over the Hill
Too much heat can lift the track from the board. Easily broken then. DAHIKT
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
D
Deleted member 26715
Guest
Take it to a TV repair shop, do they even exist anymore?
