Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I hate soldering

user8.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 244 posts

Re: I hate soldering

#141

Post by lelanthran »

Liftyee wrote: post #130
lelanthran wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this comment and it really should have been higher in the hierarchy - WTF are you going to do with an expensive setup that a lit magnifier and controllable iron (with interchangeable tips) can't? If you need a reflow oven, that's a different thing altogether, and you should probably repurpose an old toaster oven. I delivered production boards (small run) that looked and worked great using a non-adjustable $1…

Hard to justify for a beginner? Sure. "Can't tell the difference?" is not true, once you're dealing with small enough parts. Can I use a magnifier to solder 0.4mm pitch parts? Sure. Would I prefer a binocular microscope? 100%, every time. Both usable, not the same.

> "Can't tell the difference?" is not true, once you're dealing with small enough parts.

Yeah, but that's the qualifier - "small enough parts". Go small enough and even an expensive iron isn't going to help you.

Re: I hate soldering

#142

Post by JKCalhoun »

jubilanti wrote: post #139
peteforde wrote: post #5

I had to click, because it turns out that I love soldering. It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. For anyone reading, the key is to invest in a proper stereo microscope and a decent fume extractor. I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love... If you're up for a bi…

It's over $1,000 to buy the products you mentioned. Kind of proves the article/poem right. If the trick is spending 4 figures, that's no trick.

A thousand grand,

(for SMD).

I prefer my Hakko,

(and THD).

Re: I hate soldering

#143

Post by puzzlingcaptcha »

Animats wrote: post #21

He's soldering like it's fifty years ago. Everything is lead-free surface mount now. Solder paste, stencils, reflow ovens. Hand soldering is precision temperature controlled irons, hot air rework stations, magnifiers, cameras, and exhaust fans. The tools are more complicated, more expensive, and better. One of the lessons of surface mount work is that you really can move your fingers a thousandth of an inch. But you…

Few new ICs are made available in DIP format. So you basically have to do SMT at some point.

Re: I hate soldering

#144

Post by zajio1am »

Toutouxc wrote: post #97

For anyone thinking about learning to solder, there are several levels of what you can do with a soldering iron. The surface-mount stuff and ovens and microscopes, that's like level 3. Level 1 is just being able to take two wires and connect them, reliably and cleanly. That's already immensely useful and requires very little skill and equipment. $50 gets you a nice soldering pen, another $50 gets you some tweezers, s…

IMHO soldering two wires together (or wires to connectors) is much harder and requires higher dexterity than through-hole soldering on PCB, which is really easy. PCB holds parts in place and directs solder where it belongs.

Re: I hate soldering

#146

Post by kittoes »

torginus wrote: post #87
sandreas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting with soldering, I find these 200$+ recommendations (regardless of which tool) hard to justify. # Soldering iron I'd recommend the Pinecil V2 with IronOS. https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS # Solder fume extraction I've built a simple fume extraction with an old plastic case, a 120mm fan and a sheet of carbon filter attached to a 120mm dryer / air conditioning hose. Around 15$ and good enough for soldering from…

I've had bad experiences with USB irons, they generally don't have stellar compatibilty with USB power banks, and when your 60W iron can only draw 20W from your 100W power bank or PSU (but sometimes it works). They even come with these compatibility wikis of what PSU or bank to buy.

I simply cannot recommend a Pinecil + compatible 20A battery pack enough. Not being tied to a socket is amazing and the device is good to go in literally seconds!

Re: I hate soldering

#147

Post by pwg »

peteforde wrote: post #5

I had to click, because it turns out that I love soldering. It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. For anyone reading, the key is to invest in a proper stereo microscope and a decent fume extractor. I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love... If you're up for a bi…

Actually, the "key" to soldering is finally buying oneself a very good iron. I learned soldering years ago (going on 50 or so now) but always used basic "wood burners". But I did enough that I got good at it with the rug burners.

A couple years back, I bought a low end no-name temp controlled iron, and it worked ok. A little better than the wood burner, but nothing great. Then about three years ago I bought a used Metcal SP200 Smartheat off of eBay for about $120. The tips are pricey (although Thermaltronics makes clone tips that cost less than genuine Metcal tips) but the difference in soldering performance is like night and day, even when one already knows how, but has just never used the really good systems.

Re: I hate soldering

#148

Post by alnwlsn »

tecleandor wrote: post #94
sandreas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting with soldering, I find these 200$+ recommendations (regardless of which tool) hard to justify. # Soldering iron I'd recommend the Pinecil V2 with IronOS. https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS # Solder fume extraction I've built a simple fume extraction with an old plastic case, a 120mm fan and a sheet of carbon filter attached to a 120mm dryer / air conditioning hose. Around 15$ and good enough for soldering from…

How well does the pump work? A couple times I've had to desolder a connector or IC with lots of pins from a PCB and it's a painful process. I've always wanted to buy one of those, but I've seen lots of reports about getting clogged easily. I rarely desolder, but I can easily justify a hundred bucks if I can avoid all that hours of work, where I'm also risking damaging an IC, lifting a pad, or something else...

I've used a couple of the ZD- ones and they are ok, but not very good quality. They don't really clog all that often, but they do fill up quickly and are very difficult and messy to clean out. They are also made of cheap plastic which will crack after a while exposed to the heat that it is. The tips for them are also low quality, and the solder will eventually dissolve them, making the hole in the middle of the tip larger and larger until it doesn't work anymore. All of them do technically work, but don't expect them to last.

I went and bought the "proper" Hakko FR-301 and it's an improvement in every way. Well worth the extra $100, and made me wonder why I ever wasted my time with the cheap versions. For whatever reason, the 100V Japan voltage one is about $50 cheaper than the 120V American one, so that's the one I got, but I already happened to have a source of 100VAC handy.

Re: I hate soldering

#150

Post by TrackerFF »

My first part-time job was at this old appliance store, I was 14. In the back they had a small repair shop, from ye olden days when such stores actually repaired stuff. The repairman was this older gentleman that used to work in telecom, but had retired back to his small home town (where we lived), and repaired the stuff at the shop, at his own leisure. Let's just say things took forever, and the backlog was probably as long as the stores inventory.

But my first day there, after dusting and throwing cardboard, he asked me "Hey kid, wanna learn on how to solder?" and we spent a good hour going through the basics. That sparked my interest in electronics, and put me on my path the electrical engineering.

I still do a lot of soldering, as I build guitars, and repair audio equipment. I enjoy the tranquility soldering gives me...the things that usually suck, is not the soldering itself, but the environment you work in. You don't always get the circuit boards out. Sometimes you're working in a rats nest. Sometimes you don't helping hands.

Post reply on HN