Tutorial: Soldering IC legs for installation of D2cKey/D2Pro/Argon etc. by edhel

Tutorial: Soldering IC legs for installation of D2cKey/D2Pro/Argon etc. by edhel

First off: THis is one of my first tuts so please tell me what you think of it and how to improve it

Tools/supplies needed:

Solder ( i reccomend Silver solder, but any non-acidic solder will do fine)
Soldering iron ( i am usin g a$30 Xytronic soldering iron with a 0.4mm tip)
FLux (Rosin) - i use flux dispensing pen
Kynar 30 awg Wire

Step 1.

First Apply some flux to the IC legs that you will be soldering to:





Step 2:

Cut a Length of Kynar wire suitable for the modchip you will be installing:


Step 3:

Strip the end of the wire about 1/4-1/2 a Centimetre




step 4:
TIn the wire:

Fisrt put a little bit of solder on the end of your soldering iron

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/teh_0verl0rd/P3170092.jpg[/img]

Then flux the wire

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/teh_0verl0rd/P3170086.jpg[/img]

Then quickly touch the soldering iron to the wire, and some solder should be pulled onto the wire, rub the wire on the soldering iron tip if there is too much solder on it

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/teh_0verl0rd/P3170098.jpg[/img]

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/teh_0verl0rd/P3170103.jpg[/img]

Step 5:

Hold the wire Vertically with the IC leg you will be soldering to

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...d/P3170104.jpg

Step 6:

Now quickly touch the Soldering iron to the wire and ic leg, it should now be joined, give it a gentle tug to test it's strength.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...d/P3170107.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...d/P3170109.jpg




Step 7:

now repeat this 6 stage process for as many wires you want to solder until you have done the mod (im lazy and just did two, or maybe im incompetent o_0)
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e...d/P3170115.jpg

Thank you and i hope this tutorial helped, please note sometimes the wire angle might seem strange or the postion of soldering iron etc. that is becaus ei dont have three hands so holding a soldering iron, wire and camera is hard

by edhel

ps, im not allowed to use 13 images for somer eason :S if this is fixable could a mod please do it for me plz

[dajo]

thanks for the tutorial. good tips overall.

thank you

please can someone move to tuts section?

[WiiModWiis]

Just gonna throw this out, Radioshack has this great little wire wrapping cutting tool that neatly cuts the wire so the shielding doesn't look so thrashed, there's more expensive tools out there that do the same thing, but this one's cheap, the bottom end pulls out to expose the splicing tool, it works wonders...., here's the link, http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family I've been using it for over 4-5 months now and it hasn't dulled or anything,...okay now radioshack, gimmie a commercial like Jared from Subway....lol

(edit: although I think this is useful for any noobs out there when it comes to soldering, I don't think that the term "tap the soldering iron to the legs" really helps any. If they properly tin the wires and flux the legs, then an "upwards" drawing fashion of the soldering iron will give them cleaner results rather than tapping. Sometimes when it comes to noobs they take the legs too gently and it leads to loose connections when "tapping",...or worse case,.....have too much solder on the wire or iron. "Tapping", can also result in bridging. If the iron is clean, and the wire is properly tinned with legs fluxed, and the iron is gently taken from 1-1/2 seconds on the leg and upwards it will pull any solder up and away from any surrounding legs (as long didn't use too much flux of course)

Also if any noobs out there just want to make life easier on themselves they can contact me for installs, which come with warranties.

(sorry for not showing a pic with the wires being secured down, i'm only posting this for examples of legs being soldered to IC legs by me)

yeah sorry about the thrashed wire (nice tip tho) my wire strippers dont really work properly, and it really isnt that bad when it isnt under supermacro

[WiiModWiis]

Originally Posted by edhel

yeah sorry about the thrashed wire (nice tip tho) my wire strippers dont really work properly, and it really isnt that bad when it isnt under supermacro

No worries, at the end of the day it all comes down to "secure" connections and not neatness. I honestly don't go for the neatness factor, I just shoot for strength and functionality over prettiness on installs. Although I have to admit, I am a little jealous of some of the artistic abililites of some of the "pretty" modders, lol. Eventually, I'll post some pics one day of a mod that represents that as well.