Soldering Newbee.

[Thatbraziliann]

Did anyone else want to rip out their hair soldering this thing together? Every time i Would try to drip solder the on coper the plastice around it would melt then I would have to re scrape or when I tried attaching the wire the solder would lift off connection and attach to wire. finally after about 3 hours of wanting to shoot myself, 2 burns, and an exacto knife cut (at 1 am trying to cut away hot glue so board will fit. I have completed my buttons and connections. Now lets hope I don't burn up my Teensy.. That shit was expensive hahaha. Ill post some pics.

[ktechelonbreak]

@thatbraziliann Here's a few tips I found while working on the project. Flux is very helpful, if you don't have it make sure you are using rosin core solder and using it at the point rather than on the iron tip first. Tin wire tips and heat up contact points before adding solder. Clamps help immensely, but make sure to rubberize the tip so it doesn't hurt electronics (I just took jacket from old ethernet cable). Hot glue can be removed very easily with rubbing alcohol!

[dirtybeagles]

Did anyone else want to rip out their hair soldering this thing together? Every time i Would try to drip solder the on coper the plastice around it would melt then I would have to re scrape or when I tried attaching the wire the solder would lift off connection and attach to wire. finally after about 3 hours of wanting to shoot myself, 2 burns, and an exacto knife cut (at 1 am trying to cut away hot glue so board will fit. I have completed my buttons and connections. Now lets hope I don't burn up my Teensy.. That shit was expensive hahaha. Ill post some pics.

So. By far I learned a lot about soldering with this project. Here is what I can tell you that may or may not help.
1. I cut a large wood board as a platform for all my soldering. It is helpful because A.) I can make a mess of it and do not care. B.) sometimes my iron will get bits of solder on the end and I quickly want to get it off by scraping the wood. C.) I use the wood platform sometimes to make the solder a circle when i take it off. it is helpful if i make a mistake and so far, having the solder in a sphere shape has proven to have the best results.
2. a little solder goes a LONG way. Sometimes when I think I have a small enough peice of solder and go to my board, I find out that I need a smaller amount. So I have to adjust and try again.
3. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN your iron. Most of the time, I find out that if it does not stick the first time then either my solder is not clean before trying or I need a fresh pience of solder. So when in dought, use the iron wick that wimery talks about in his video and clean off your iron and get a fresh pience of solder and try again.
4. Check your wires before you start soldering. I found this out the hard way when I had a bad wire. I now test it with my multimeter for a solid connection before starting to solder.
5. last tip i can give you is fast hands make a difference. The more you do this the better your motions will become. Soldering is really a good skill to have and you have to feel the movements. I almost can tell without even finishing if it will stick because I can fill it in my hand holding the wire (it firms up). Look at wermy's video and watch how he moves pretty fast when attaching the wires. Solder drys faster than a few millaseconds so you have to be quick when lifting up the iron. This is probably the hardest thing about soldering and something you just have to pick up as you go along.

Let me know if this is helpful.

[Thatbraziliann]

Did anyone else want to rip out their hair soldering this thing together? Every time i Would try to drip solder the on coper the plastice around it would melt then I would have to re scrape or when I tried attaching the wire the solder would lift off connection and attach to wire. finally after about 3 hours of wanting to shoot myself, 2 burns, and an exacto knife cut (at 1 am trying to cut away hot glue so board will fit. I have completed my buttons and connections. Now lets hope I don't burn up my Teensy.. That shit was expensive hahaha. Ill post some pics.

So. By far I learned a lot about soldering with this project. Here is what I can tell you that may or may not help.
1. I cut a large wood board as a platform for all my soldering. It is helpful because A.) I can make a mess of it and do not care. B.) sometimes my iron will get bits of solder on the end and I quickly want to get it off by scraping the wood. C.) I use the wood platform sometimes to make the solder a circle when i take it off. it is helpful if i make a mistake and so far, having the solder in a sphere shape has proven to have the best results.
2. a little solder goes a LONG way. Sometimes when I think I have a small enough peice of solder and go to my board, I find out that I need a smaller amount. So I have to adjust and try again.
3. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN your iron. Most of the time, I find out that if it does not stick the first time then either my solder is not clean before trying or I need a fresh pience of solder. So when in dought, use the iron wick that wimery talks about in his video and clean off your iron and get a fresh pience of solder and try again.
4. Check your wires before you start soldering. I found this out the hard way when I had a bad wire. I now test it with my multimeter for a solid connection before starting to solder.
5. last tip i can give you is fast hands make a difference. The more you do this the better your motions will become. Soldering is really a good skill to have and you have to feel the movements. I almost can tell without even finishing if it will stick because I can fill it in my hand holding the wire (it firms up). Look at wermy's video and watch how he moves pretty fast when attaching the wires. Solder drys faster than a few millaseconds so you have to be quick when lifting up the iron. This is probably the hardest thing about soldering and something you just have to pick up as you go along.

Let me know if this is helpful.

Very helpful man. I appreciate all the tips. I'm just a total new so its a learning process. X and Y and common ground was a lot easier today than the front buttons last night. Yeah @wermy moves like a ninja my hands are just not surgical like his I guess haha

[Zapfhahn]

Im having big trouble soldering the cable onto the copper trails. I have quite a bit experience in soldering but the cable just wont stick to the board. Do I need a special soldering tin (dunno if its the correct word, the stuff that melts)? I scratched of the green paint on the tracers until I saw copper.

[dirtybeagles]

I had the same problem when I started, but then I noticed in wermy's video that he had a very small tipped one. I then checked my pack that came with my iron and had a small tipped tip so I swapped it and it worked a lot better. Still hard, but doable.

[dirtybeagles]

also, you can try coming in with the wire at an angle.. I found that sometimes when it does not stick right away, I need to clean off my iron, grab new solder, clean the old solder off the wire, and scrap a little more off the tracer. Basically, if I do not get it after the 1st or 2nd try, I reset and try again.

[crispy_tofu]

Im having big trouble soldering the cable onto the copper trails. I have quite a bit experience in soldering but the cable just wont stick to the board. Do I need a special soldering tin (dunno if its the correct word, the stuff that melts)? I scratched of the green paint on the tracers until I saw copper.

You shouldn't need a special solder. What soldering iron do you have? It might be struggling to heat up the pads due to a large ground plane or something...

[dirtybeagles]

Those feels when after you solder everything to the teenzy and on key doesn't work.... UGH!

Just took a part some cables from being hot glued down and go creative. Hopefully this time all keys will work.

[BMBteke397]

I know I am a little late to this conversation, but when I was first learning to solder with PCBs I found the best way was to just practice. I found some old broken electronics around the house and would spend some time just removing and re-soldering components. Like was said before, getting a good speed is important to achieving a good finished product, and the best way to get that speed is just developing the muscle memory. So, for people who are new and afraid they might mess up something with their DMG board, I would say get some practice time on junk boards to get a feel for it. A few feet of solder used for practice will be a lot cheaper than replacing a bricked board from jumping the gun.

Second piece of advice would be to get a decent iron with some good tips. If a project like the Game Boy Zero scratches an itch for you and you see yourself doing some future projects, then a good iron will go a long way.