Updates on my progress

[gungrounds]

Hi all, I hope this is the right sub-forum to post about our progress. :slight_smile

I have around 10 years old soldering iron and solder, which I used back in the high school. I was hoping this will work fine since it was not used since then, but while using it I kinda felt like it is more difficult than I remember.

I checked some video tutorials on soldering, and this is how I do it - I clean up the soldering iron, I put some solder on to make it shiny, and I remove the excess after. I heat up the component from one side of the wire, and I put the solder on the other side of the components wire.

Problem is, the solder doesn’t melt except if I directly connect it with soldering iron. I noticed if I use a bit of extra solder to make a connection between soldering iron, component, and solder I am trying to melt, the heat will transfer better, and the solder will melt. But it kinda tends to stick to soldering iron (maybe flux is too old?), and it starts slightly bursting which kinda doesn’t look safe.

I also attached photo of soldering iron and solder.

Should I buy new equipment and/or solder or I am doing something wrong?

[Ollii]

Hi, I’m not a professional in soldering, but after I have finished my Makerbuino I believe I can say that you need a much finer soldering tip. Right at the beginning comes the SD card slot. It has very small pins. Even the solder could be a bit smaller. I’ve bought a kit via amazon for about 15 Euro and it ws absolutley worth it.

Oh, and your solder is “Beizlot”. If I remember correctly this is to solder metal on other metals. This is completely unsuitable for electronic work and can possibly even damage the board . I’m wrong here, may somebody can correct me :-). Better buy something like a 1mm 60SnPb40.

[Jean-Charles_Lebeau]

Hum maybe a finest could be better but i have made mine with this sort of soldering iron (but with solder less big)

[gungrounds]

Hi everyone, around month ago I finally bought the solidering iron, solder, and multimeter.

I practiced a bit on some other board, watched some videos, and after that I finally started.
The whole setup was so fun, even the soldering itself was really rewarding. There was around 20 steps before I could check am I doing everything right, and I was so surprised when I turned it on, and everything was working fine. Even more when I soldered the rest, and Makerbuino was running perfectly. Altogether I cannot recommend this more to everyone. For me this is just a start, and while waiting for some other projects from Albert, we will try to make our own arcade cabinet.

Here is few photos of progress