Trouble soldering wire to tracks

[stuming]

Hi all

As the subject says I'm having trouble getting the wires soldered on to the tracks. I'm using a 50W iron with its temp gauge pretty high up, about 410 degrees on the scale. I find the solder, and the tinned wires themselves, hardly want to stick to the exposed tracks. I've tried using a tiny amount of flux but that doesn't seem to make much difference. I think I might be trying to heat the track up too much as a couple I've actually burned through.

What's the technique here? Tin the wire and just a quick press onto the track with the iron and wire sandwiched in between? I've managed to get a couple of wires to stick very slightly, but the act of moving the board around bashed them off they were so lightly fixed. Am I expecting the fix to be more solid than it will be?

Oh I'm using a small 1mm2 soldering bit. I have a smaller one which is basically a point. Would that be better?

Any advice would be great!

Thanks

Stuart

[Kilren]

I'm a little lost on what you mean by tracks. A picture maybe of what you're trying to do? Love to give you a couple of hints what I've done once I know what you're dealing with.

[Fleder]

Hi,

i guess he is talking about soldering onto the traces of the original DMG Button board?

If so, i had the same problems.
Try to scrape off more of the protective coating to get a bigger area of the traces exposed.
Then, the one thing that really helps is getting the traces hot enough, or else it will not stick.
Try to get your iron to a temperature of around 350°C and hold it onto the trace for a few seconds,
then place the wire near and onto it, then remove the soldering iron. This did the trick for me.

You always want both traces/wires to be the same temperature or it will repel the solder.

[stuming]

Hi

Yes, the tracks on the original game boy board!

But I managed to get it done last night. I had to get some IDE ribbon cable with which was a tiny bit thinner. I understand about getting the track hot but it never really got hot enough to melt the solder on the wire. This is the first time i've used non-lead based solder though. Managed to hack it in the end and then consolidated with lots of hot glue!

The dial on my solder station goes up to 425 degrees so I thought it would be hot enough. I even burned through a track trying to get enough heat into it.

Stuart

[Kilren]

Hi

Yes, the tracks on the original game boy board!

But I managed to get it done last night. I had to get some IDE ribbon cable with which was a tiny bit thinner. I understand about getting the track hot but it never really got hot enough to melt the solder on the wire. This is the first time i've used non-lead based solder though. Managed to hack it in the end and then consolidated with lots of hot glue!

The dial on my solder station goes up to 425 degrees so I thought it would be hot enough. I even burned through a track trying to get enough heat into it.

Stuart

No-lead solder requires much warmer temperatures to solder with. You'll save yourself some time and struggle getting some good ol fashion 63/37 or even 60/40. Nothing wrong with the no-lead, it just takes more work for no real benefit in this setting