Solder and Iron

[Matt Bonhage]

This maybe a dumb question but I've got everything ordered and I'm ready to start assembling my Megasquirt but I'm not too experienced in the soldering department. What type of solder and iron do you guys reccomend and where do I get them?


Thanks

[efahl]

We had a group buy from Howard Electronics last February, they give
us a really good deal on their stuff. Here's what Scott Campbell
recommended for that group buy, I don't know what the current
prices might be, though... (I already had nicer station, but
got a bunch of these 379s for gifts and we've put together a
handful of 'Squirts with them, they are excellent tools.)

>From Scott:

This will inflate the price, but will be a good deal anyway.

379 Soldering Station ($40.00):
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/379.html

Tips ($7.50 each):
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/tips.html

Tweezers ($6.00 each) & tip cleaner ($8.50):
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytron ... ories.html

No-Clean Solder 63/37 ($12.00/lb):
http://www.howardelectronics.com/amtech/nc500.html

Peter Florance added:

I think it comes with 1 small tip.
Group buyers, do yourself a favor and get a 1/16" tip minimum (44-510604).
Many people solder with too small tip.
Also consider the #460 tip cleaner instead of sponge. Much better.


--
Eric Fahlgren http://www.not2fast.com/

[Will Marsh]

Matt,

I just finished mine. I used a 15W pencil iron ($15 @ Radio Shack) and a coil of fine rosin core solder ($2 @ RS).

Before I do the next one I will get a small roll of solder wick from them too. I only got one solder bridge where I needed it, but since I didn't have any it took me about 15 minutes to fix the mistake that would have taken about 1 minute if I'd had it.

Take your time and follow the assembly guide, and you'll be fine. It's a little intimidating until you get started and rolling, but once you get started you'll be suprised just how easy it is. Read Neon John's deployment guide if you haven't already.

Good Luck,

Will Marsh

[78Spit1500Fed]

Put together a kit of some kind first.

The manual even states that this should not be your first soldering experience.

I practice with pre-copperized breadboard and cheap components (resistors) and LED's. When I've filled up a board, I desolder them for practice as well.

-Brian

[Jack]

I'll vouch for the 379 iron mentioned above.

I'm a soldering newbie, my stim was my first kit. The MS is almost done, only LED's and FET's remaining and each section has checked out out perfectly so far. Part of my success was a very easy to use soldering iron, the rest is patience.

ps - the stainless steel tip tip cleaner (whatever it's called) is great.

Jack

[Stickboy9137]

Make sure you clean your board with alchohol and wipe it off when you are
finished. I know everyone thinks that FLUX is no big deal but spend the
extra 2 minutes to clean the board and save yourself hours of
troubleshooting and component replacement.


Jody

[Matt Bonhage]

Thanks for all the replies. Money is a little tight so do you think the 379 Soldering Station is worth the money over a 15W pencil iron? Will I be able to make a nice and reliable board with using only a pencil iron? That soldering station looks real nice but I would rather build one MS first and see if I can get my current project to work. If everything goes well I might end up getting that station cause I know a bunch of my buddies are also waiting to see how sucessful my MS project will be. If everything goes right I'll probably be building EFI kits for all them too.

Also is there a group buy going on now?

Put together a kit of some kind first.

The manual even states that this should not be your first soldering experience.

Megasquirt isn't going to be my first project, the stimulator is. I'll be plenty of experienced when its time to put the actual ECU together

[Stickboy9137]

Any soldering iron will work. The trick is to limit the heat that you put
on the board. If you put too much heat on semiconductors (diodes,
transistors, chips) you will damage them. Heat around 500-600 degrees is
fine. You can go with more BUT be VERY careful. Also, pick a solder TIP
that is small enough to not bridge across multiple terminal pads at the same
time. Solder loves to bridge gaps this way - you won't even know it - that
is until something blows up. If you havent soldered before here is a tip:

1. Let the tip heat up.
2. Put solder on the tip
3. Wipe the solder off with a clean rag. An easy way to make this is take
tissue and roll it into a roll and tape it.
4. Cut a piece of solder off the roll with the iron or scisors.
5. Place a very small quantity of solder on the tip of the iron.
6. Before the solder turns blackish, touch the lead of the component and
the pad with the soldering iron.
7. Touch the pad and the lead with the solder you are holding in your hand
until the pad is completely covered with solder but not so much that it
globs and doesnt look shiny.
8. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT REHEAT IT IF YOU PUT TOO MUCH ON. Wait until the
component has cooled completely before reheating. You risk damaging
delicate components.
9. Always always always clean the tip with the tissue roll before you
solder each pad. Dirty solder equals cold connections - those are a bitch
to troubleshoot. If the solder is not shiny on the tip it is not clean.

Above all, take your time and clean up after you solder.


Jody

[78Spit1500Fed]

MegaSquirt isn't going to be my first project, the stimulator is. I'll be plenty of experienced when its time to put the actual ECU together

That's good news...

The stim is still pretty challenging for someone who hasn't done any PCB soldering... definitely don't start with the db37!

-Brian

[Matt Bonhage]

Ok, so I think I got a good shopping list going. Let me know if I should add anything:


-25W Pencil Iron
-0.75mm resin solder (~0.030")
-solder wick
- tip cleaner
- case of beer


Ok good, so I should be able to get all this stuff at the local radio shack. I actually have to desolder and solder in an eprom chip into my Honda ECU so that'll be my soldering practice project to try out my new toys.

Thanks for the fast responses.

[Matt Bonhage]

Also I think I'm getting conflicting info on these soldering techniques. Lance is telling never to paste solder from the tip onto the joint, while Stickboy9137 is saying to put a little bit of solder on the tip. Am I not seeing something or are both of these right?

[Stickboy9137]

The little bit of solder on the tip is only for good heat transfer. I am not talking glob it on the tip and use that to solder the points. To minimize how much heat you present you want to transfer just enough heat to the pad and the lead to melt solder quickly. If you use flux you can use less heat but it is messy to clean. Usually I melt solder to about 2mm wide puddle on the tip then touch the iron to the lead and pad. Once the solder starts to seep over from the tip to the pad then you touch it with the solder and wala! Nice shiny solder joint. Immediately remove the iron and it should be just enough. The old addage, "The bigger the Glob the better the job..." is not the way to go.

Jody

[Matt Bonhage]

So, put a little solder on the tip, put the iron on the joint, than feed the solder to the joint until it forms a nice cone. The important part is to make sure not to blob solder from the iron onto the joint but to feed the solder to it, making sure the cone is blinging shiney, than clean the iron and proceed.


Does this sound like I'm getting it?? Man, I hope my kit gets here soon cause I'm getting pretty anxious to get started.

[78Spit1500Fed]

...Does this sound like I'm getting it?? Man, I hope my kit gets here soon cause I'm getting pretty anxious to get started.

Blinging shiney? Did someone just use "bling" on these forums? Jeez.

Yes it does sound like you're getting it... very good explanation of the technique, also!

-Brian

[cv0926]

Here is a nice soldering tutorial in Adobe PDF format:
http://www.curcioaudio.com/Solder%20Tutorial.pdf

Gerry

[Matt Bonhage]

Ok thanks alot everyone, the only thing left for me to do is to practice what I'm preaching. Hopefully my kit can get here before Christmas.

[Hans]

Even better if you want to practice would be to pick up a cheap hobby kit from Vellman. They make all sorts of gizmos like LED blinkers, little robots that roll/walk around the floor, clocks, FM transmitters.....

Some of the cheaper kits are in the $10 range or so, and are great to practice before even getting into the stim kit. It's been a while since I've done any real soldering, (other than the lights in Gundam models), so I'll be getting a couple kits to practice on and get me back into the swing of it.

-Hans

[AdrianC]

The stim is still pretty challenging for someone who hasn't done any PCB soldering... definitely don't start with the db37!

I did the battery connector before the DB37, so it wasn't *quite* my start point...

[78Spit1500Fed]

The stim is still pretty challenging for someone who hasn't done any PCB soldering... definitely don't start with the db37!

I did the battery connector before the DB37, so it wasn't *quite* my start point...

You are a brave, brave soul. Let me guess... starting out with MSnS-E, too?

-Brian

[AdrianC]

I did the battery connector before the DB37, so it wasn't *quite* my start point...

You are a brave, brave soul. Let me guess... starting out with MSnS-E, too?

I thought about it...

Brave? Stoopid? I ordered some practice kits with the iron etc, but they didn't show up, and I had lots of nice shiny new toys to play with...