Hello again people of this wonderful forum......I Dark Mod has come to realise that the end of wii clips have come to an end (hallelujah and amen) So I've come to show everyone how to solder like a pro tutorial. So here it goes:
1st you need the following materials:
1- Weller soldering iron (12 to 25 watts) with the pencil tip
1- Soldering stand to hold your precious weller soldering iron
1- Tin or canister of soldering paste (aka flux)
1- roll of 0.22 diameter soldering wire (check your local radioshack for it)
DO NOT BUY THE RADIOSHACK SOLDERING IRON IT IS NO GOOD!!!!!!!
1- Desoldering pump to remove any excess solder or
1- Desoldering braid
1- multitester
1- methlyated spirit aka rubbing alcohol
Plugging on your weller iron for the first time:
when you plug in your iron for the first time, make sure you don't use it as yet. Let the smoke from the tip evaporate first for about 10 to 25 minutes (vary) then you are ready to "tin" your iron.
Tinning
"Tinning" the tip of the iron means you are basically leaving a thin coat of solder on the soldering iron tip so when you are getting ready to start soldering, so that you will not put too much heat on the components causing it to blow or raise in value. To tin the soldering iron tip, you gently take your solder and very carefully dab it on the tip. If too much goes on the tip you briefly flick the iron so it will just fall off and what you will remain with is a nice, clean shiny soldering iron tip.
Maintaining the tinned tip.
to keep the soldering iron tip clean, with the stand you purchased, there is a small chamois type sponge that goes with the stand, you simply wet the sponge and that will keep your iron clean and shiny Tip: once you finish any solder a point, always clean your tip to prevent any cold solder using the sponge. Very gently, take the sponge and gently wipe the tip, then to keep the shiny appearance, dip the soldering iron tip in the solder paste and then dab some solder to the tip.
Now to the fun part.....soldering.
Now soldering can be very intricate, especially among video game system modifications. So to keep everything kosher, here is the step by step instructions on how to get a perfect soldering connection.
1. Prep all the necessary points first meaning meaning both point and chip,
2. Dab a little soldering paste using a toothpick and
3. Dab it in the paste then
4. Spread a little bit very carefully on the point.
Take your iron and briefly for 1 second heat the paste that is on the point to clean the point from any contaminations.
Make sure you don't overheat it.
Getting ready to solder the wire from chip to point.
Now to solder the wire to the chip is very straight forward, all you simply have to do is:
1. Remove a little bit of the insulation using a razor blade or Xacto knife.
2. Take the toothpick with the paste on it and dab the toothpick to the open part of the wire.
3. Now take your soldering iron and dab the tip with some solder
4. With the solder on the tip, transfer the solder to the wire and very carefully let the solder flow to the prepped wire.
5. cut any excess open wire to prevent signal leaks or shortages when you are soldering it to the point.
Soldering the wire to the point. (including chip)
1. DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH!!!!! BREATHE PEOPLE!!!!!! cause if you hold your breath when you are soldering it tends to make your hands very shaky.
2. Now with your tinned wire you carefully Align the wire to the point.
3. Take your iron and dab a little bit of solder to the tip (if too much, flick off the excess) and briefly solder or tack the wire to the point.
(this soldering of wire to point for me takes 1/2 a second to do)
DO NOT TUG YOUR CONNECTIONS PEOPLE!!!!!! IT MAKES THE CONNECTION WEAK AGAIN AND YOU WILL HAVE TO DO OVER THE PROCESS AGAIN!!!!!!!
Now after you have finish your modification it is a wise idea and use your multitester to check to see if any points got bridged and to check for continuity (chip to point) and you take your rubbing alcohol and cotton swab and very carefully, clean any excess paste on the points and the chip to prevent signal leaks.
When you get any bridges while you are soldering, you use the desolder braid or pump and you heat the mistake with the braid and iron and the braid will automatically pick up the solder. (warning do not overheat the component) or with the pump you heat the solder and press down the pump and you quickly aim the nozzle to the solder point and depress the button for the pump to suck up the solder.
Now with a little more practice (using an old VCR or DVD player or playstation motherboard) you will master the art of soldering. Soldering is like riding a bike, you start off with tricycle then a bicycle with training wheels then after you master riding, you remove the training wheels and you learn to ride on two wheels....LOL.........But anyhow i've been doing electronic servicing and installations for the past 12 yrs (I am 21 yrs old right now so in other words I've been in electronics at the age of 10) and my soldering skills I find is flawless and I am still learning everyday.
So as I was saying, with a little practice, you will be able to solder microscopic parts fast and efficient....I mastered it so good that I can solder the wire from a hearing aid speaker very easy. (serious).
So print out this tutorial and remember.......practice, practice, practice.
Thanks everyone.
soldering 101 for future technicians (By Dark Mod)
