Where to begin?

[reasonforseason]

Well I got 3 Ren 24s (thanks Frank) and the soldering station I bought from ebay just came in. I am waiting to order the parts for the board.

I'm thinking that before I put heat to the boards I would like to make my first soldering project something cheaper.

Does anyone have an idea for a beginners project to learn some soldering skills.

Thanks in advance,

[Wayne J]

Go to radio shack and get a small soldering project. I am pretty sure they still sell them. If not, they do sell copper perf boards and buy some resistors (cheapest thing to buy) and just practice on those. One good thing is, the board you get from Radio shack will be uncoated copper. It will be a bit more difficult to solder, but this is a good thing, because once you get the right technique on that board, soldering one of the boards from here will be a piece of cake. The reason for that is they are professionally made boards with solder leveled pads which makes them easier to solder compared to bare copper.

[Photovor]

Just a quick tip- if you soldering station doesn't already have one, keep a damp sponge handy and wipe the tip of your soldering iron every so often. It'll keep the solder from corroding away the nice tip on your soldering iron.

[reasonforseason]

Thanks guys, yes my station does have one but I had read that a metal cleaner waqs better than using a wet sponge.

Also, what kind of solder do people use.

Thanks,

[omzig]

Use 60/40 or 63/37 tin/lead solder. The 63/37 is a little easier to work with but the 60/40 is very common. They sell both at Radio Shack. .032" is a good diameter. Stay away from lead-free solder because it's much harder to work with, especially if you're just getting started.

[reasonforseason]

Thanks guys, yes my station does have one but I had read that a metal cleaner waqs better than using a wet sponge.

Also, what kind of solder do people use.

Thanks,

I meant that I heard that metal tip cleaners are better for the tips than sponges, do people have any thoughts on this?

Thanks Omzig, how about flux, do I need that too?

Thanks,

[Virtus]

I forgo the tip cleaner and just replace the whole tip periodically. I have never seen the tip cleaner make a tip last any great number of hours more anyway. I use the sponge with a little distilled water in it.
The flux in the solder is adequate for most the small connections needed on these boards. I have some but I don't use it most of the time.

[omzig]

The metal tip cleaners are good for removing built-up crud and oxidation occasionally. A wet sponge is good to use more frequently while you are soldering to drag off extra solder and flux buildup.

Whether or not to use additional flux is a matter of preference. The core of the solder has flux in it. Personally I don't usually use flux for most soldering. With the solder mask and plated holes, soldering is very easy without it.

[reasonforseason]

Thank You,

I think I am done putting it off and time to start this strange obsession.

One last question, I promise, does anyone have an idea for a good, cheap, beginners project. I don't mind getting a board at the shack but I thought maybe I could build something useful at the same time I was learning.

Thanks,

[zaker]

Check JDR for some small kits
http://www.jdr.com/interact/categories.asp?cat=Electronic+Kits

Or Chaney Electronics, they have a $25 min order
http://www.chaneyelectronics.com/

I get kits from Chaney for my students for soldering practice. Some are cute, but some are useful doodads you can build.

tom

[omzig]

Another good place for kits is: ApogeeKits (http://www.apogeekits.com/index.htm). The have kits for all skill levels, including some beginner kits that are fairly inexpensive. I bought a few kits for my nephew for Christmas from them. I have run out of DCSSR's for him to build. :)

[holtm]

I would get some flux. It is very useful for tining wires and for old boards that need some extra cleaning to get the solder to stick. I've had the same small container for 4 years, but when I need it I'm happy I have it. I've used the sponge and the brass wire ball, both work. I like the metal because I don't have to find the water to wet the sponge.

[jukingeo]

Well I got 3 Ren 24s (thanks Frank) and the soldering station I bought from ebay just came in. I am waiting to order the parts for the board.

I'm thinking that before I put heat to the boards I would like to make my first soldering project something cheaper.

Does anyone have an idea for a beginners project to learn some soldering skills.

Thanks in advance,

Hello RFS,

I am an experienced audio technician and I have many kits in the past. What I recommend doing (if it hasn't been mentioned already) is to scrummage through your neighborhood garbage piles for someone throwing out an old stereo or other low powered electronic device. DO NOT LOOK FOR A TV (they store high voltages). Take it apart to get at the circuit boards. Buy yourself some desolder braids and just practice soldering and unsoldering connections. Then when you are confident that you can solder properly, get a small inexpensive kit from Ramsey Electronics:

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/hk/default.asp?page=mk&pagenum=2&order=pr_sku

Any small kit from this site will do. DO NOT get an SMT (Surface Mount) kit. Stick with through hole kits as that is the kind of boards the Renard system uses.

The key to soldering on PCB's is to use the right amount of heat. If you are fortunate to get a solder base with an adjustable temperature, you adjust the heat so that you can make the solder connection in around 10 to 15 seconds. If you have to heat the connection any longer than that, you don't have enough heat. If you find you are making connections in less than 5 seconds, you could have too much heat and you should back off on the temperature a bit. The point is that if you have too much heat on the board, either in direct temperature, or you are holding the iron too long on the board, you can damage the solder traces.

Make sure that when you practice good soldering technique that you heat BOTH the pad on the board and the component leads AT THE SAME TIME. Then you come from the other side of the connection with your solder and allow it to flow into the connection. Once you have flow, remove the iron as soon as you can.

I can't emphasize enough to work on a scrap PC board first because it will take some practice to get the hang of soldering and I can assure you that your first time out YOU WILL lift board traces. Once you get the hang of your soldering iron and can solder and desolder your test board without damaging traces, then you are ready to move to a small project kit. If you can handle any one of those small project kits and can get it to work relatively quickly, then you are ready to solder the Renard boards.

Be careful when soldering in close or tightly packed areas as you may inadvertently heat up adjacent pads and your solder will flow there too and cause (what is known as) a 'solder bridge'. Solder bridges are bad as they cause short circuits. While we are mentioning this, it is worth mention that you should work in small areas of your kit first soldering only 3 or 4 parts at one time, and then double (or even triple) checking your work in the area to make sure you didn't cause any solder bridges or forgot to solder a connection. This is a VERY important step because if you try to insert and solder too many components in one shot, you can get errors. Double and triple checking in small areas will tremendously increase your chances of success.

I personally have about a 98% success ratio on my kit building. Which means usually whatever I assemble, usually works first time out. Granted, I solder every day, so I am always keeping myself in check...but I always follow the procedure above and I never run into any major problems.

So as a recap,

1) Learn to properly solder and desolder
2) USE A JUNK BOARD TO START!
3) Use the right amount of heat
4) When building your first kit, remember to work in small areas.
5) Triple check everything to see if all components are soldered in place and there are no bridges.
6) Oh! While you are at checking for solder bridges, double check any components that have a polarity: Electrolytic caps, diodes, transistors, chips. These are items that can only be inserted ONE WAY in order to work. This is why working on a kit is a good way to get your feet wet too...because they usually cover proper soldering and keeping an eye out for component polarity right in the instruction manual.

While this may all sound difficult, it really isn't. Soldering doesn't have a very steep learning curve, but there IS a curve. But once you mastered it, it will be with you for life. You just have to 'train' yourself right...don't fall into bad habits early on. There are no shortcuts when soldering. There is ONE right way to do it properly and learn to do it that correct way. You do that and you should be soldering as well as I do within a relatively short period of time.

Enyoy!

Geo

[reasonforseason]

Thank You all again,

Thanks to you Geo, that was great advice, very informative and makes a lot of sense. I have 2 small radios in the house that don't work, I knew I was saving them for something:mrgreen:.

[jukingeo]

Thank You all again,

Thanks to you Geo, that was great advice, very informative and makes a lot of sense. I have 2 small radios in the house that don't work, I knew I was saving them for something:mrgreen:.

Perfect. Get some scrap wire and practice soldering first. Hopefully you have some desolder braid and you can practice that as well.

Desoldering can get pretty involved too as you have to heat up the connection AND the solder braid (unless you are using a solder sucking device). You might be better off with a solder sucker, but in my business that is one extra thing that would need to be cleaned. So I use solder braid instead. Once you can desolder cleanly as well then you can play around with the boards swapping parts moving wires around until you get the hang of it and you get to the point where you are not damaging traces.

Once you aced that, then move on to a small kit. Ramsey has many kits, so pick something out that you can use. A kit is more rewarding if it is something you know you will use. You will have a tendency to put it on display and show it off a bit and you get say that famous line, "I built it myself".

If you can put a kit together and have no or only a small minor minor issue that you can correct, then I would say you can move on to the Renard boards. When you get the hang of it, you should be making connections in around 5 to 10 seconds...that is a good time frame. If you find that you are making connections in shorter time, you have too much heat (you will know because you will start to fry the solder flux and that isn't good). If you have the solder iron on the connection for more than 15 seconds, then pull back, let it cool and try again. There are exceptions to the rule, of course and that is when dealing with large solder traces. You will be heating those up for a longer time because larger traces do act like a heat sink and absorb heat. Use your judgment. If you feel you are heating the connection too long, then increase the solder iron temperature a bit.

I find myself playing with the temp control quite often. Boards that have fine traces, I dial down the temperature. If I am only soldering wires together (making splices), I turn the iron up all the way.

If you DON'T have a solder station with a temperature control, then you have to be more careful, but you certainly can use a regular pencil soldering iron. Make sure you get a good one though. The cheap ones usually do not get hot enough. Just whatever you do, NEVER, EVER EVER use a solder GUN. These are WAY too powerful and they are really only meant to solder wires together.

Let us know how you make out. But really it isn't that difficult. It is a slight learning curve, but once you get it, you will know it for life.

Edit: Today I got my parts for the Xmus board and started to assemble today. I paid a bit closer in detail as to what I actually was doing and made a note of my times and iron temperature.

Ok, the first thing is that if you are soldering on the Xmus Renard 16 board, you are going to need a FINE tip. A standard tip used for single sided PCB work isn't going to be enough. The Xmus board has very small solder pads and you need the fine tip to make sure you are heating both the pad and the component lead properly.

The next thing is that I had my solder station temperature set at about 680 deg F, which is slightly higher from the 630 deg I normally have it set to.

Given that the traces and pads are very small, what I told you before 15 seconds would be too long at this temperature. You should be making your connections within 5 to 7 seconds with 10 seconds being the limit.

So I hope that extra info helps.

Geo





Geo