Topic: Solder? (Read 64 times)

jrat · « **on:** December 19, 2009, 12:28:00 PM »

Lead free solder will work fine - the issue with it is that it requires higher temperatures to melt. It's also generally just harder to work with than leaded solder. I would recommend any beginner use leaded solder. Using flux and cleaning your solder pads prior to soldering also helps a ton.

25 watts is low enough - in any case you want to solder to the pads quickly and cleanly. The point of low wattage, is lower temps, thus less chance of damaging the pcb. Even with a low power iron, you can still damage things if you're poking around, stabbing, prodding, and fighting with goopy solder - not to mention, this will probably leave you with very crappy connections.

Someone in another forum section (I really can't be bothered to find it again, sorry

) recently posted about youtube soldering videos - it might not hurt to look those up.

AfterTheInsanity · « **Reply #1 on:** December 19, 2009, 12:52:00 PM »

QUOTE(supness @ Dec 19 2009, 01:40 PM)

My soldering gun came with "Lead Free" solder. I see in one of the tutorials, I need "Tin with Lead". I am wondering if I should by new solder?

Also, I have a 25watt gun, I am pretty sure it is, but would like to know if that is low enough? Because that same tutorial said I need a low watt soldering gun.

I am very new to soldering, so please forgive me if these questions are n00bish. As always, thanks in advance.

15-25w is excellent for a beginner - it provides enough heat to quickly heat up vias or what have you, yet stays cool enough to allow someone new at soldering a little leeway in terms of how long they can hold the iron on a pad/via for. A 40w soldering iron will work just as well, but it will burn up a via much faster than a 15w iron.

In terms of solder, if at all possible, get a leaded solder. As previously mentioned, it melts at a lower temperature, which is also easier for a beginner. Try to get fine solder, but not hair-thin - you dont need solder that thin just yet.

Finally, it is my opinion that flux makes soldering anything to anything at least 50 effort-units easier. Flux basically makes the solder 'wetter', allowing it to flow easier. It also helps to clean oxidization and just general crap off of what youre soldering. You will notice a huge decrease in effort while soldering if/when you start using flux. I use two different types of flux, but the one I use most commonly is made by Kester, and is sold in the plumbing section of stores like Home Depot or Canadian Tire. It comes in a small blue and white tin.

Happy soldering!

EDIT Just noticed - you mention 'gun' a few times. Do you have an actual soldering gun, with a trigger, or a soldering iron, which looks like this?
IPB Image

I ask because, if you have a gun, youll want to get a soldering iron. If you already have one, and just werent sure what to call it, disregard my edit!

jrat · « **Reply #2 on:** December 19, 2009, 01:40:00 PM »

That should work fine.

It also might not hurt to have some q-tips or cotton swabs, along with some rubbing alcohol on hand to clean up any residue left by the solder.

Ranger72 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 19, 2009, 01:54:00 PM »

It is alaso a good idea to TET your skills on something other than your console a few times before you start soldering anything on your console. If you have some old broken electronic parts laying around to test on that would be a good start.

bidrug · « **Reply #4 on:** December 19, 2009, 08:16:00 PM »

Will the flux help to solder in harder spots?

I've been using the soldering iron for a while, but I don't know how to solder in some spots...

Like Pin #6 in J1D2 (for reading the NAND), I can solder the other spots easily. but i'm not able to get through this pin to the other side of the board, I just can't.

can the flux help me to solder in that spot, without doing it only in the surface, as I've been doing it??

supness · « **Reply #5 on:** December 19, 2009, 11:21:00 PM »

QUOTE(bidrug @ Dec 19 2009, 10:16 PM)

Will the flux help to solder in harder spots?

I've been using the soldering iron for a while, but I don't know how to solder in some spots...

Like Pin #6 in J1D2 (for reading the NAND), I can solder the other spots easily. but i'm not able to get through this pin to the other side of the board, I just can't.

can the flux help me to solder in that spot, without doing it only in the surface, as I've been doing it??

Same problem!!! lol, I am so pissed at that pin right now. So i guess another trip to radio shack is in order...

bidrug · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2009, 04:51:00 AM »

QUOTE(supness @ Dec 20 2009, 07:21 AM)

Same problem!!! lol, I am so pissed at that pin right now. So i guess another trip to radio shack is in order...

My advice here is, use soldering paste, apply it directly to the board, then prepare your cable with some solder, and, solder over the paste, it will help to keep that cable in place, handle with lots of care....

And thanks for the info on the flux, will be very helpful in a near future (going to resolder some AV outs directly to the board).

bidrug · « **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2009, 02:02:00 PM »

QUOTE(supness @ Dec 20 2009, 09:34 PM)

FLUX IS GREAT!! after like an hour of trying last nite with nothing but an iron and solder to no avail, I went an purchased some flux today, and had it solderied in 2 mins!
Thanks for all the helpful replies. I still havn't got a good dump yet, but I'm in the right direction. For some reason everything goes fine then "error 258: couldn't read block 3FE", I can still read the NAND.bin in flash tool, but I can't see my key vault.

I think I need to resolder something.

I think, you have bad blocks, which is very normal, from 4 of my boxes, 3 had bad blocks, only the very first was complete, you are ok, and the keyvault is not visible unless you give the program your CPU key, and you need to run xell to know the key.

AfterTheInsanity · « **Reply #8 on:** December 20, 2009, 03:02:00 PM »

If youre getting differences in a hex compare, then its a bad read. Delete those files and start again. Do 2 reads, and compare them in a hex editor. If they come up clean, open them in Degraded. If it says there are bad blocks, thats fine, but make sure the addresses of the blocks match up between files.

Go here and scroll down to Checking For Errors. Happy modding!

bidrug · « **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2009, 01:00:00 AM »

QUOTE(supness @ Dec 20 2009, 10:10 PM)

Last nite I got what I thought was a clean read. But I hadn't installed the JTAG exploit as I didn't know if my CB was exploitable. So after I got the clean read. I soldered the JTAG wiring to the board. Now everytime I get a read(ive done 3 today), and compare it to my first read in winhex it find like 65,000 differences. On the notepad report, my first NAND is full of numbers, where as all my reads from today have alot of blocks that read as "00"s

EDIT: Although the NAND.bin's contain alot of 0's, all of them will open in flashtool.

Should I still just carry on injecting my info into XBR.bin and flash then?

Thanks again.

I don't think the jtag has something to do with the bad reads, check your cables, length, and connections...

LPT in SPP mode? if you are all clear on this, and still bad reads, try another computer

bidrug · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2010, 09:59:00 PM »

I'm gonna ask about flux again...

I want to solder some pins directly to the 360 AVIP, I messed up the bracket, so I did the VGA mod and added Composite out, I would really like to do it more cleaner, and pins will be great...

again, can't solder in there, I was told it is because the area is surrounded by big grounded area...

Can flux help there avoiding the use of a heat gun?

Author Topic: Solder? (Read 64 times)