Get a ts101
It makes me look like i know what I’m doing
Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
101–110 of 170 posts
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#102While soldering is not that hard, different tasks require different tools. Most of them can be from very cheap to very expensive. As a beginner I'd recommend the following: A small USB-C soldering iron supported by IronOS[1], e.g. Pinecil vor TS100 A solid stand with brass wool A KU soldering tip (looks a bit like a knife) for good heat transfer, too small tips are not good Thin ( No clean flux (not a pen) Isopropyl…
If you have the budget the Hakko desoldering gun is a huge huge improvement over desoldering by hand w copper. I've gone from hating it to desoldering junk to harvest parts because it's so easy.
How did you learn to use one?
As someone who has only touched one once, heat guns kind of scare me mostly because the airflow is invisible. I have destroyed things with it and almost burned myself. It's hard for me to gauge if you have too much or too little heat on something. Too far away it's doing nothing and too close you're frying a piece, and there is no indication where on that range you are without some learned intuition.
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#103My skill went up quite a bit when I started watching Louis Rossmann's explainer videos. He mainly does component level repair of macbooks and he covers his troubleshooting approach and the equipment he uses is nothing you can't replicate at home. I don't bother pulling out microscope for repairs and just stick with magnifying glass.
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#104Build a keyboard. By the end you should be well aware with soldering (and how to remove parts that you put on the wrong side of the PCB).
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#105While soldering is not that hard, different tasks require different tools. Most of them can be from very cheap to very expensive. As a beginner I'd recommend the following: A small USB-C soldering iron supported by IronOS[1], e.g. Pinecil vor TS100 A solid stand with brass wool A KU soldering tip (looks a bit like a knife) for good heat transfer, too small tips are not good Thin ( No clean flux (not a pen) Isopropyl…
The second most important thing is a microscope so you can see and analyze your work!
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#106While soldering is not that hard, different tasks require different tools. Most of them can be from very cheap to very expensive. As a beginner I'd recommend the following: A small USB-C soldering iron supported by IronOS[1], e.g. Pinecil vor TS100 A solid stand with brass wool A KU soldering tip (looks a bit like a knife) for good heat transfer, too small tips are not good Thin ( No clean flux (not a pen) Isopropyl…
Nice list. Maybe a bit over the top for a lot of situations. I assume folks would acquire these things over a long period of time depending on their projects or what they are repairing. I have a 2-ch function generator coming because after 20 years of bodging stuff together and fixing minor things, I am tired of using the super cheapo one I got back in the day. It takes a while to amass all that crap, but it's fun. A…
"stack them up during a disassembly and then unstack them as I reassemble."
I love this! Automatically sequences the fasteners.
Another option is a piece of corrugated cardboard. Poke the screws into cardboard in the pattern they are in the device you're disassembling.
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#107I thought I was dogshit at soldering until I got a hakko 888, things got a lot easier after that. I don't care for the usb-c stuff.
You probably cut a trace or lifted a pad. A picture or 7 would have been good
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#108Here’s a great series from Pace Electronics from 1980: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837&si=srD8... I have not found a modern resource that explains it better.
Second this, I learned to solder in my EE program and didn't discover these videos until I was done. I wished I had watched them sooner.
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#109Look for professional or IPC training videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/b15MMzb_GWw )
Re: Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have the budget the Hakko desoldering gun is a huge huge improvement over desoldering by hand w copper. I've gone from hating it to desoldering junk to harvest parts because it's so easy.
How did you learn to use one? As someone who has only touched one once, heat guns kind of scare me mostly because the airflow is invisible. I have destroyed things with it and almost burned myself. It's hard for me to gauge if you have too much or too little heat on something. Too far away it's doing nothing and too close you're frying a piece, and there is no indication where on that range you are without some learn…
The Hakko desoldering gun he’s talking about is the FR-301 (or close equivalent), which is a soldering iron with a hollow tip that the gun has a vacuum pump that can suck solder out through the hollow tip.
It’s not a hot air soldering station.
After decades of using copper braid, I recently splurged for the 301 and wish I’d done it sooner. My teen kid could effortlessly desolder the button on his worn out gaming mouse with it after 30 seconds of training (me demoing how to use it).
You can buy the Japanese version, desolder 1 resistor, and solder in two replacements to adapt it from Japanese 100VAC to US 120VAC and save about $100, plus it will remind you how awful desoldering with braid is by comparison. It takes 30 very unhurried minutes at most to do the mod.