sudomod

Hey Everyone,

I'm completely new to the Raspberry Pi, Soldering, and working with hardware in general. I'm a software developer and used to be a general computer troubleshooter/repair guy, but I've done very little work with circuitry/hardware. I figure that by following the guide on making a Gameboy Zero, I can learn a lot of useful skills along the way.

My question is, What are your recommendations for a soldering iron as well as generally useful pieces to have in my toolkit? Also, any other tools that are really helpful to have when doing this sort of work?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the team!

I think Helder once recommended this soldering iron: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272316938357
For other tools, you might want to have a hot glue gun, a solder sucker/wick, a digital multimeter, pliers, wire and so on.

Just think about your journey through the whole process of building it and think about what you might want to use/need for every step.

I can confirm the 898D solder station is amazing. I've used the same cheapo 25w iron for 15 years and upgraded to this station yesterday. What a difference. It heats up almost instantly and the temperature control is very handy.

In addition to what @Fleder said, I'd recommend buying flux (a brush bottle, or pen) If you plan on desoldering those 25 year old components from an original GameBoy. Leaded solder will melt easier than lead free, get some with a flux core and go for around 0.6mm for those fiddly solder jobs.

You can pick up a breadboard from Amazon fairly cheap. Just avoid the really cheap £2 ones. The contacts aren't so good. The same goes for jumper leads. They're not expensive, but don't go super cheap. I've had jumper leads which are broken inside.

While a dremel is useful, I tended to make a lo fot my cuts with a Jr. hacksaw and use small hand files to tidy them up. Sandpaper or wet&dry of various grades will be very useful. some 400, 600, 1200 grade.

Make measurements twice. Cut once. Take your time. Some things can't be undone.

Buying a dremel? Buy eye protection.

Awesome, I'll look into all of this. Appreciate the responses.