Gertboard - The Element14 strikes back

Hello All!

Count me in on the Gert Board. I've purchased one this morning and I've downloaded the comicbook that has the solder lessons. I'm going to give it a go. Sorry to sound so basic - but I find all of the info, projects, lessons, questions and products a blast.

Best,

Peg

Good luck Peg. Hope you have great fun.

OK im Sold-ered. I always believed I am a terrible wielder of the soldering iron. But I have never really given myself a fair test. A few emergency repairs with big blobs of solder is all I have achieved until now. I have done many Arduino projects but always managed to find a way to connect stuff with non perm. connectors,adapters, couplers whatever just to avoid the dreaded iron.

I would like a Gertboard and even though Steve Read kindly offered his services I have decided to bite the bullet and go Hands Soloder.

I have a good iron and a couple of Maplin bot kits I bought about a year ago (EOL 99p each), I shall tackle those first as a trial. They have a couple of motors a pic socket and a few transistors and resistors etc. If either of them works after my efforts I will order a Gertboard and go for it.

So wish me luck. I type this with 10 unburnt hand digits at this time and these hands were born when WW2 rationing was still on. So I am quite fond of them.

Who knows maybe I'll surprise myself and be a solder Da Vinci. haha. Night all.

Thanks jbeale and Morgaine. Excellent tips (pun intended) about shorter irons  Mine is about 3 or inches from holding point to tip, Perhaps a shorter iron would help steady my wobbles or I need some oven gloves.

Ray

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

PS. I have a very old Bausch & Lomb 20X binocular microscope...

If I had a binocular microscope, I'd just use my laser vision!    It doesn't work with a magnifier or monocular microscope or video monitor.

There's a joke about sharks and overlords there somewhere, but it refuses to materialize.

I have looked at the Gertboard assembly manual and the soldering instructions are basically

1. Solder iron in

2. Solder in

3. Solder out

4. Solder iron out.

I think the process deserves more coverage than that, as if you have an understanding of what is happening, then you have much better chance of doing it correctly.

This is what happens when you make a joint using 60/40 tin lead solder wire with a rosin flux core and an iron tip temperature of around 270 degrees C.

1. All surfaces must be bright and shiny to start with.

2. The tip is applied to the surfaces being soldered to bring them up to its temperature.

3, The solder is fed into the joint and it melts a 185 C releasing the now molten flux into the joint. The flux is inert at room temperature but becomes molten at 120 C and mildly acidic so that it dissolves the thin layer of oxide on the surfaces allowing the formation of a pure alloy. This is the process known as wetting, and the flux is the key to its achievement. The solder is then withdrawn.

4. The tip is removed and the temperature drops rapidly and the solder solidifies at 185 C and the flux residue solidifies around 100 C and reverts to its inert state. The components must not be moved during the freezing process so some method of achieving that needs to be implemented.

I am sure that many of you will already know this, but I thought it worth repeating so that you start on a solid foundation.

I have ordered bits to test out some ideas and more will follow.

Dave Tedd

I have some real probs with hand shake any good tips? would be VERY welcome. (cushion rest etc)

My 2p suggestions are to have a deep desk with a good non-slip rubber esd mat. You try to lay the board as flat as possible and solder with your full forearm resting on the desk. It's not always possible, but helps a lot.

Referring to what cityswift said, a very common sight within the electronics manufacturing industry would be a young female operator sat at a deep desk with chair set quite low, arms resting on the desk soldering away.

I see others mentioning the helping hands things, the problem I always have with those and similar (I use a small vise to hold stuff when it really shouldn't move) is that the extra few inches of height they add leaves me with nothing to steady my hands on and even more hand shake.

Find something that works for you and go with it.

Oh and only one burnt finger.

Give it some time, fingertips become much more heat resistant than you'd imagine

This is what happens when you make a joint using 60/40 tin lead solder

Lead free solder is somewhat different.. I still struggle with it, and as someone with long history of tin/lead soldering I always think I've done it wrong when I don't get the shiny surface I'm used to seeing

Thanks Selsinork and everyone for all the useful feedback in this topic.

          "I see others mentioning the helping hands things, the problem I always have with those and similar (I use a small vise to hold stuff when it really shouldn't move) is           that the extra few inches of height they add leaves me with nothing to steady my hands on and even more hand shake."

Absolutley makes my shakes become veritable earthquakes... But practice whilst not making me proficient is making me a better solderererer. (oops. I can spell it I just dont know when to stop)

I've been away for a few days holiday. Sorry for late replies to some of these posts.

Ray

Ray Hughes wrote:

 

Absolutley makes my shakes become veritable earthquakes.

We may be in a transition phase at the moment, a time just before IC packages get so small that it's totally impossible for humans to solder devices directly.

Maybe I should hurry up with building my 3D printer, and give it robotic solder station capability.

Morgaine.

Well Morgaine, along with your thingyverse printer you may by then be able to get that thingyflowsolder@home machine you always really wanted.

          Morgaine Dinova wrote:

          Maybe I should hurry up with building my 3D printer, and give it robotic solder station capability.

Regards Ray

Well Morgaine, along with your thingyverse printer you may by then be able to get that thingyflowsolder@home machine you always really wanted.

          Morgaine Dinova wrote:

          Maybe I should hurry up with building my 3D printer, and give it robotic solder station capability.

Regards Ray