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Is this crap or acceptable work ?

neliger

Hi to the community image

 

There is a long time since my last solder work. I've made a little thing today that looks like a wanted on the front, but (I think) looks like crap on the back lol

 

I would love to hear from all DIY lovers about this work : does it looks like I'll go to the electronic hell for having done this, or is this way to do it acceptable ?

 

For the record, this will be worn with a string around the neck, as it, just with some kapton on the back to protect cables.

 

Other question : is it insane to wear for a day an unprotected LiPo like this ?

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  • 0

    Hi Loic,

     

    In general, I think you are using too much solder.

     

    Remember, the goal is to bond the wire or lead to the pad.

     

    You first want to make sure you have a good physical connection by crimping the wire or lead around the pad.

     

    After that, you only need enough solder to show a good bond between the wire or lead to the pad.

     

    As you have observed, the big blobs of solder make the board look ugly and they can lead to possible shorts.

     

    So use only enough solder to gently coat the connection and you will have a better looking board.

     

    DAB

  • 0 in reply to DAB

    Thank you vary munch for the advise image

     

    I've some trouble to use less solder with the hot end of my soldering tool (looks like a 4mm screwdriver). I'll try to find thiner one, but it's hard to find compatible ones. Maybe I just need some practice.

  • 0

    Congrats on asking what is a very difficult question to seel answers for.

     

    Soldering is a art that takes practice, and I know some people after many years are still bad at it.

     

    When we teach school pupils to solder, one of the things I suggest they look for is a joint that resembles Mt Fuji. (you can use wiki to see it)

    There are a couple of possible issues.

    1. A little too much solder, but it's hard to see looking straight down, and some look okay.

    2. Technique is a big part, and we struggle getting the pupils to add the solder to the junction between the board and lead. (They try putting it onto the iron and hoping it runs down).

    3. Your wire joining could be because they lead hasn't been tinned (or soldered already). The idea is the joint is ready and the wire is ready and you join the two with some heat.

    So it could be a combination of several things, but believe me I've seen worse.

     

    Mark

  • 0

    I agree with all the comments so far. Some things could be tweaked (like amount of solder, amount of heat, maybe even the component leads could be heavily oxidised if they are from ebay) but in general it is not bad. I'm sure I've done worse, depending on what tools and resources I have. Most of the non-specialist retailers often only sell thick solder and components that sometimes look several decades old (see exhibit A-->):

    image

  • 0

    I agree with   . This board is very difficult to do a nice clean job on. I believe that an improvement would have been to use a small gauge solid wire for the traces on the back side of the board. I often use component lead clippings for short distances and longer pieces of 22 or 24 gauge solid wire where needed. The larger gauge stranded wire that was used has made it a real challenge to solder and the melted insulation doesn't help the cosmetics. The fact that you were able to do it at all and keep the close proximity connections separated speaks well of your skill.

     

    John

  • 0 in reply to jw0752

    You're right, small solid wires should be better.

     

    Thanks all for the usefuls advices image

  • 0

    A solder wick can be used to remove excess solder. A small amount of solder rosin flux applied to both surfaces to be soldered will help the solder bond better. The rosin flux will free the surfaces of any oxidation and corrosion when heat is applied. For best results, use a small amount of solder to " tin " the solder tip, and tin each surface to be joined. So if you were to solder two wires together for instance, first dip each wire tip in rosin flux, then apply a small amount of solder to both points to be soldered. Same would apply to soldering on a PCB. Tinning the points to be soldered will make it easier. Especially if you are soldering different metal types together. Also, Lead-Free Solder requires a much higher heat than lead based solder.

  • 0 in reply to neliger

    Yes, practice makes perfect.

     

    In tech school they had us solder for hours.

     

    My first big project after school required that I build cables for about 1000 wires.

     

    I soon developed a very good technic and there were no shorts in any of my cables and the cables survived a lot of yanking around when I installed them at the final site.

     

     

    So take your time, if you have a big soldering tip, then you can use a dry tip to wick the solder away by holding the tip under the solder joint and the excess solder will flow onto the tip and leave you with a nice clean joint.

     

    DAB

  • 0 in reply to ninjatrent

    A solder wick can be used to remove excess solder

    I tend to show the pupils how gravity works, just as DAB talked about.

     

    During the teaching we discuss what a good solder joint should look like, and check their work. Any joints that are suspect we get them to straighten the lead (normally about 45deg) and then show that you can heat it up and drag the excess solder down the lead using gravity to help.

     

    Adafruit have a good soldering series.

    https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/making-a-good-solder-joint

     

    Cheers

    Mark