I have a "black thumb" with electronics

[MillenniumFalsehood]

I don't know what's wrong with me.

I have a nice pencil-type soldering iron with variable controls, good quality solder, and good components.

Yet I can never get anything more complex than "LED+battery" circuits to work right, or at all. I can follow kit instructions to the letter, making sure to use the lowest possible heat setting, I heat the contacts and the leads instead of the solder and only use the minimum amount, I test the components for continuity when I'm not sure, and I triple check the assembly diagrams to make sure it was assembled correctly.

Nothing ever works! Gah! It's like I've got a black thumb or something . . .

And my dad was an electronics repairman and taught me everything he knows, too!

Anyone have a similar problem, or know why I might have such crummy luck? It's pretty frustrating to buy a kit and have it not work when I finally get it and assemble it.

[robiwon]

Ah, soldering, such a joyful side of model building. What wattage is your iron? Should be at least 40w. What type of solder? Should be thin rosin core solder. what type of wire are you soldering? Stranded works better than solid. Are you using a seperate flux?

What are you working on?

[Tchail]

I've had good luck with this soldering iron:

http://www.ngineering.com/soldering.htm

Although it's only 12W, it has so far been much better than any of the irons I've bought from Radio Shack.

-Tchail

[Redgriffin]

The main trick to soldering is to melt some of the solder on the tip just before you begin work it's like priming the pump. and use a solder that combine the solder and the flux unless you know what your doing. The you just work very, Very, VEry, did I say VERY slowly until you build up your confidence.

I know it doesn't sound like much but it is the best advice I can give you. Short of showing you how.

[Mr. Engineer]

Yep, like he said. Personally, I prefer to use 20W since I found myself dealing with a lot of SMDs this year. But for battery contacts and all, its @#% to use.

Think of soldering as transferring heat from the iron to the target and once that is done, the iron becomes 'cold'. So, the higher the wattage, the faster it recovers from the heat transfer loss. My rule of thumb is the '5 second touch', as in you have five seconds or less to melt the solder and then solder the damn things. After 5 seconds and you still have not done the solder, hands off for everything to cool down.

So, get a piece of scrap PCB and try soldering and desoldering stuff. Amd use some solder flux (or paste in some countries. But on other countries, it means the OTHER solder paste)

[MillenniumFalsehood]

I can solder just fine. It's the circuitry actually working when I'm done that's the problem.

I'm aware that you heat the contacts and then melt the solder to them rather than melting the solder against the iron.

It's just frustrating that I can't get even kits to work. I also have replaced components before, such as when I wanted to make my board for the Pro-Shop X-wing fit under the droid strip and bought replacements for the electrolytic capacitors so I could lay them flat, but that doesn't really work very well for me either.

Nonetheless, I'm going to get a 2x Federation Flasher from DLM. I don't know if it will work; the Klingon engine core circuit I built for my BoP failed miserably. But I can try.

[Mr. Engineer]

Tell you what. If you don't mind the shipping/postage, send it to me and I do it up for you.

[chiver]

Could it be a voltage problem( with in the circuit) may be its not enough to run with? Or( and correct me if I'm talking out of my butt) but, if you touch the PCB with the iron dosent that damage the copper? Referring the board useless?

[Mr. Engineer]

The main purpose of the Soldering iron is to heat up both the copper pad and also the leg of the component while also, heating the solder. Once everything is ready, the solder will melt/flow into the two surfaces and form a joint.

Well, that's how I think I did it and these must be done in less than 5 seconds. or else, as mentioned 'damage the copper'. (i.e. delamination)

[southwestforests]

Static electricity charge in your body zapping components?

[Mr. Engineer]

If you're using static sensitive components such as CMOS ICs, yes.

[Gundamhead]

Using a heat sink so you don't cook the parts when you solder?

[bradb667]

Nothing ever works! Gah! It's like I've got a black thumb or something . . .

I know I'm a little late here but I wanted to add that it wasn't that long ago I felt the same way. Actually I was worse, I don't think I could solder two wires together without creating a mess at best, and a fire hazard at worst.

But I'm much better now.

So a few suggestions based on what helped me improve...

1. Pickup a solderless breadboard. Use it to build the circuit _before_ you solder anything. You can make plenty of mistakes along the way and it's usually no harm, no foul.

Plus you'll end up with a working version you can compare the actual soldered version with. Really helps to determine problems when you can compare trace for trace and pin for pin.

2. Buy two of every critical part, so you always have a spare to swap just to eliminate a simple part failure. It does happen, but usually it's you.

Plus it allows you to leave the breadboarded version of your circuit alone while you solder up your masterpiece. Heck, I usually get 3 just to have a backup for my backup, but then again I do have issues.

3. Get (and use) a multi-meter. Even a Harbor Freight el-cheapo if that's all you can afford (but better is better as always). Learn how to use it to test voltages and continuity.

Use the meter to test continuity between your connections. That's often more useful than being able to check voltages. Verify that the output of the power pin matches the power input on the 555 timer.

This is the easiest tool to actually solve problems with a soldered board.

It's really easy to mis-wire a chip looking at a diagram that's upside down or placed differently on the board.

I think this is the "go to" tool that has never let me down (unlike my brain).

4. What have the Romans ever done for us?

Ok, I guess that's it. I hope this is of some help.

Regards,

Brad.

[Glorfindel]

Hey Falsy, Brad is right on this. I too have a black thumb with electronics but what he suggests is spot on. Ever since I invested in a breadboard and a small hookup wire set my "black thumb" moments are less and less. But by all means get a good breadboard! I picked you a cheap one and most of the pin holes on the positive side don't work.
Cheers.

[PetarB]

I'm really sick of soldering. It's such an imprecise exercise for me. Where ever possible I use a wire wrapper now. I'm much happier! Much the the electronics on the cold-war era space missions and prior were wire-wrapped! You can pick up a wire wrapping device at most electronic component retailers.