Direct Soldering vs Socket 3023s

[eieio1]

What problems might one encounter if they were to directly solder the 4 Optoisolators MOC 3023M onto the SSR PCB rather than using sockets?

In my newbie zeal I have done just that. :oops: Only later did I find/remember the sockets in the bottom of my Mouser box of goodies. Desoldering them and soldering in the sockets seems full of peril.

I assume as long as I didn't fry anything during the soldering it should be OK (???). I am planning to test a few to see what happens.

[Jeff Millard]

Most of my optos are soldered directly to the SSR PCBs. Just don't hold the iron on the trace and lead for a real long time. Just enough heat to get a good clean flow and coverage of solder.
Jeff

[Josh]

you could have overheated the MOC but really that is the only thing you could do wrong. The sockets just make it easier to replace if one does go bad, and eliminated the risk of overheating the chip

[ErnieHorning]

I haven’t used sockets in several years, just solder them directly. I’ve had sockets be the cause of a poor connection. Heating and cooling over time will make the IC’s back out of the socket and could cause the part to be destroyed when the connection is lost.

I soldered 72 opto’s and 8 micros directly last year and had 0 problems.

If you’re not burning the fiberglass under the pad, your part will be fine.

[xmus]

If you’re not burning the fiberglass under the pad, your part will be fine.

After i stopped laughing, I picked myself up off the floor and checked the MOC3023 datasheet which says:
"Lead solder temp: 260C for 10 seconds"

But that isn't real helpful because I solder at 450C (850F) and 260C is 500F and I don't solder at that temp. At 450C I can get the job done in less than a second per pin.

But anyway, I do agree with Ernie, still chuckling :)

One thing I do, when i don't want to melt stuff that is sensitive... is i solder 1 pin on it, then go solder something else, then pin 2, then something else, then pin 3... that is, give it time too cool between pins.
Also sometimes I'll do a star pattern, to avoid doing pins sequentially..

All that to say: You are fine. You'd need a blowtorch to hurt these.

[wjohn]

The only way to hurt a MOC3023, is to place it in backwards and apply power to the SSR.

You will be fine!

(1/2 mine are socketed and 1/2 are soldered to the boards)

[ErnieHorning]

You'd need a blowtorch to hurt these.Speaking of…:roll: I haven’t used a torch, but I have used one of those heavy duty heat guns to remove a micro a couple of times from a scrapped board. Pretty funny to see but it does work. You can only remove one part this way though. The board will be bubbled, warped and smoking, so you can’t do it on anything you want to keep.

[eieio1]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm good. I did do one pin on each to allow them to cool in between as xmus suggested. This is my first electronics project and I wasn't quite sure.

Thanks again.

[xmus]

I haven’t used a torch, but I have used one of those heavy duty heat guns to remove a micro a couple of times from a scrapped board. Pretty funny to see but it does work. You can only remove one part this way though. The board will be bubbled, warped and smoking, so you can’t do it on anything you want to keep.

To remove DIP (dual inline package) parts:

1) get solder wick, it is like copper shoe laces.
2) get your soldering iron as hot as it can get
3) place wick over pin, place super hot soldering iron over wick, press HARD
4) Wait until you see no more solder wicking out of the hole (3-4 seconds maybe)
5) Wait till your soldering iron heats up super hot again (10 seconds?)
6) repeat on next hole.

Now when you get done with all the holes, it will still be really hard to remove the part, because a small amount of solder may still be holding the pins in.... so one approach (Which is somewhat successful) is to force the part out with a prying tool, another, would be to use the heat gun method at this point, or, if you don't mind throwing the part away, this would be the time to cut up the part into little pieces with snips :) and remove the pins one by one.

Very very time consuming if you want to actually re-use the dip