All About Soldering

What is Electronics?

Electronics are devices made up of semi conductors that are designed to perform a function

In this instructable You will be able to read about the following topics-

1. What is Soldering all about?
2. How to Solder?
3. Precautions while soldering to be taken care of
4. When choosing a soldering Iron
5. How to make a customised PCB
6. Are your soldering skills Right
7. How to remove Flux?
8. How to Desolder?
9. Project Website
10. Comic for soldering Guide

Always wanted to make or repare those cool circuits that looked kind of sci-fi but stopped by the illiteracy from the world of electronics.

Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal (solder) into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal.

Preparing the Soldering Iron: Tinning the Tip

Place the soldering iron in its stand and plug it in.

Wait for the soldering iron to heat up.

Moisten the sponge.Wipe the tip of the iron on the damp sponge.

...Melt a little solder on the tip of the iron.

...The tip of the soldering iron should be a shiny silver color.

Soldering

Step 1. Place and insert the required component pin in circuit board. Before that bend the components pin correctly for perfect soldering.
Step 2. Place the PCB (Circuit board) to you convenience, like the picture shows.

Step 3. Apply the soldering flux paste on place of soldering.

Step 4. Use the heated soldering tip to pickup soldering lead as required (do not take lead over than required).

Step 5. Do the soldering on the correct position as shown in the picture.

For more details click here

• All solder pads and terminals must be cleaned for good wetting and heat transfer
• The solder Iron or gun Must be Clean otherwise components may heat up extensively due to poor heat transfer
• devices must be mounted on the circuit board properly
• One technique is to elevate the components from the board surface a few millimetres to prevent the heating of circuit board during circuit operation
• after device insertion the excess leads may be cut leaving only a length equal to the radius of the pad
• Plastic mounting clips or holders are used for large devices to reduce mounting stress
• Use heat sinks for delicate pats(IC's.transistors etc)

while choosing a soldering iron the price varies from $10 to $200+ .The $10 will work but the costly ones are more elite.solder is a metal that can melt at temp as low as 600°F

NOTE:Soldering iron is used to heat up the parts to melt the solder

Two most important factors affecting soldering iron performance are wattage and tip size.Wattage is a figure that indicates how much electrical power the soldering iron is using to generate the heat.A higher wattage no. indicates a better ability for the iron to reach the operation temperature.

The general tip used for soldering in is pin type a the components are very small

the tip size of the soldering iron affects the iron ability to maintain a tip (thus soldering) temperature . A large heavy tip holds more heat so as you touch it to what you are soldering,the tip temperature does not drop much.How ever a tip that is too large may not be heated adequately if soldering iron is not having much power. so a combination of good wattage and a good tip is what you should look for

What is PCB?

A printed circuit board (PCB) mechanically supports and electrically connects electronic components using conductive tracks, pads and other features etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate.

How to make a customised PCB?

Watch the vedio,

one such software to make the layout of the pcb is Eagle Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/downloads/freeware/

but for people who are looking for a less complicated software can use Microsoft Powerpoint.

• This should take around 1-3 sec
• A good solder joint will be smooth and shiny
• If joint is dull and crinkly,the wire probably moved during soldering
• If you have taken too long then it will have solder spikes

First What is flux and where do we find it?

Flux in soldering process acts as a wetting agent.It is present in soldering paste or some times in the solder itself

How to remove flux?

I will be telling you 3 ways to do that

1 way

use alcohol and rub it on the back of the pcb and bush it off with a tooth brush

2nd way

instead of alcohol use nail paint remover/thinner

3rd way

use the spray cans like the one showed in image

Once you know how to solder, you are sooner or later going to need to know how to desolder (more likely sooner than later). Desoldering helps you undo all of those terrible soul-crushing soldering mistakes.

Desoldering becomes an important skill to possess, because you will need to be able to do it to remove the servo controller boards. Removing these boards is necessary in order to build most of the bots.

Fortunately, this is an easy skill to learn!

Place the exposed desoldering braid over the solder joint on the circuit board that you want to desolder.

Press down on top of the desoldering braid with your soldering iron until you see and/or feel the solder beneath the braid start to liquify and flow.

As soon as the solder starts to liquify, count to two and then remove the soldering iron and lift away the braid by gripping its container (and not the exposed metal braid). The metal is hot, so be careful!

You should see, on the braid, a shiny solder blob. If all went well, the blob of solder on the circuit board is now gone and you can see the freed pin that you have successfully desoldered.

If all of the solder has not been removed and the pin is still attached to the circuit board, simply repeat the process until the pin is free from the solder.

in Place of braid you can also us the pump while to solder is still in liquid state

for further infoClick here

For more cool projects log on to elecircuits.com

you can find more interesting projects

If you like this guide please vote for me And make me WIN this Soldering challange