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

231–240 of 244 posts

Re: I hate soldering

#231

Post by BenjiWiebe »

ssl-3 wrote: post #196
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brass wool is often just copper plated steel, and will damage the plating. Thus, pin holes in the tips iron, nickel, or chrome plating begin to pit the copper core. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/brass-sponge-has-rui... Anecdotally, all wool seems to accumulate abrasive crud, various amalgamated solder waste, melted plastics, and trimmed bits of steel etc. Best of luck =3

That's certainly a concern, but it's completely ameliorated by buying real brass wool. The stuff that came with my (apparently genuine) Hakko 599B is non-ferrous (and is therefore not steel). Refills are Hakko part 599-029. Soldering iron tips are usually made from copper with a thick iron plating. On Moh's hardness scale, iron doesn't care much about what brass thinks. :)

Yes I've only used the one that came with my Hakko soldering iron, and I just got a replacement from Hakko since my old one is getting pretty full of solder bits.

The tip on my soldering iron is perfectly fine though.

Re: I hate soldering

#232

Post by phendrenad2 »

troad wrote: post #219
phendrenad2 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This question is impolite, just so you know.

No, it isn't. It's never rude to respectfully try to understand how others speak. If it were, we'd have to shutter all the linguistics departments.

Would you consider going to Jamaica and asking people "why do you pronounce man 'mon'?" respectful? Of course not. Well, I can see the case where someone is so ignorant that they don't know the basics of how language dialects work, but that doesn't make it less rude for the average person.

Re: I hate soldering

#233

Post by sandreas »

peteforde wrote: post #213
lelanthran wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

Except that we're on HN so it shouldn't really surprise anyone that I'm using these "expensive" tools to solder and correct 0402 and sometimes 0201 parts. Effectively impossible without a stereo microscope.

I soldered a backlight fuse of a Lenovo T480s with a 35$ iron and a 10x magnifier, see [1] (german)

I'm not trying to proof you wrong but sometimes good enough will do. However, good tools are worth the money most of the time.

1: https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/t480s-backlight-si...

Re: I hate soldering

#234

Post by sandreas »

torginus wrote: post #224
kittoes wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Dunno, I had a TS80P, and bought a compatible Xiaomi powerbank and had a lot of issues. What sort of worked for me, is they make adapters for Makita batteries that have Weller connectors, those have a lot of juice and are far less fussy.

Try an INIU ;-)

Re: I hate soldering

#235

Post by peteforde »

sandreas wrote: post #233
peteforde wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that we're on HN so it shouldn't really surprise anyone that I'm using these "expensive" tools to solder and correct 0402 and sometimes 0201 parts. Effectively impossible without a stereo microscope.

I soldered a backlight fuse of a Lenovo T480s with a 35$ iron and a 10x magnifier, see [1] (german) I'm not trying to proof you wrong but sometimes good enough will do. However, good tools are worth the money most of the time. 1: https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/t480s-backlight-si...

I understand that you're trying to flex a bit to prove your point, but a 2-lead rectangular discrete and dead-bugging a QFN-24/28 are in entirely different spectrums of difficulty.

Edit: Apologies, in my head I was replying to a different thread. I would still say that if you're working at that scale you should deploy appropriate tools to make the job simple, fast and repeatable.

Doing work on extremely small parts without a stereo microscope offers extremely small returns once you've finished proving your point to nobody watching.

Re: I hate soldering

#236

Post by troad »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #232
troad wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn't. It's never rude to respectfully try to understand how others speak. If it were, we'd have to shutter all the linguistics departments.

Would you consider going to Jamaica and asking people "why do you pronounce man 'mon'?" respectful? Of course not. Well, I can see the case where someone is so ignorant that they don't know the basics of how language dialects work, but that doesn't make it less rude for the average person.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that question in Jamaica. You're needlessly (and somewhat bizarrely?) problematising a genuine interest in others.

What you're proposing appears to be some kind of conspiracy of silence where we all notice differences in speech but are forbidden to enquire about them, and I think that's utter hogwash.

> I can see the case where someone is so ignorant that they don't know the basics of how language dialects work

Having a degree in linguistics I would hazard a guess that I probably know more than the average person about how dialects work. I wholeheartedly endorse asking others about how they speak. People absolutely love talking about themselves and their culture, and good-natured interest in others engenders genuine human connection. (Not to mention better appreciation of the dialects themselves, which is a worthy goal unto itself!)

Re: I hate soldering

#237

Post by mixmastamyk »

puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #143
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.

Hi, did ya see the reply from star labs on your earlier issue?

Re: I hate soldering

#238

Post by puzzlingcaptcha »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #237
puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hi, did ya see the reply from star labs on your earlier issue?

I didn't, thanks for the heads-up!

Re: I hate soldering

#239

Post by vladak »

birdsongs wrote: post #36
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…

It's also shockingly easy to just get boards made and populated these days. I of course have a station but I use it less and less. I paid like 40€ last week for 5 smaller PCBAs, 0402s all nice and correct, jumpers, all my ICs. Don't have to worry about diode orientation or solder bridges. Just complete boards shipped to me. Easily beats my own labour rates.

Unrelated question but I see you're probably located in Europe. Are there any places around to get your PCBs treated with conformal paint ? And I mean tiny runs - couple of PCBs.

Re: I hate soldering

#240

Post by phendrenad2 »

troad wrote: post #236
phendrenad2 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you consider going to Jamaica and asking people "why do you pronounce man 'mon'?" respectful? Of course not. Well, I can see the case where someone is so ignorant that they don't know the basics of how language dialects work, but that doesn't make it less rude for the average person.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that question in Jamaica. You're needlessly (and somewhat bizarrely?) problematising a genuine interest in others. What you're proposing appears to be some kind of conspiracy of silence where we all notice differences in speech but are forbidden to enquire about them, and I think that's utter hogwash. > I can see the case where someone is so ignorant that they don't know the bas…

> Having a degree in linguistics

No need to get defensive - I wasn't talking about you personally, in fact you'd be the EXACT person that is the exception to this rule! But asking random people "why do you pronounce words this way" is bound to be (a) fruitless (do your non-linguist friends generally know the origin stories of every dialect difference between them and whatever the "standard" version of the language is?) and (b) possibly a microaggression/microinsult because it implies that their dialect is somehow "lesser" than the one you're comparing it to.

For example, if you have Indian colleagues, in India or in your country, would you ask them "why do you pronounce (insert word here) differently than we in (insert your home country here) do?"

It might come from a place of genuine cultural interest, but I wouldn't expect anyone to assume that.

So that's where I leave this discussion. I've made my point, people are free to choose to absorb it and think it over and incorporate it into their beliefs if they want. If not, not my loss.

Post reply on HN