July 6, 20232 yr This 5V barrel connector socket on one of my mobile printers is loose, intermittent connection. I guess I'll have to remove the old solder from the pin on the left before resoldering. Might have to psyche myself down for this one...
July 6, 20232 yr Author One of your phones , how many do you have ? Are you another drug dealer like SW ? I have zillions of phones, and I'm the worst kind of drug dealer - I'm organised and print receipts! Joking. This is a mobile bluetooth thermal printer repair, one I use to print receipts for non-drug transactions, unless the payoff is extremely large and irresistible, and the buyer needs proof of purchase for warranty returns, which I always refuse. Joking again. This small stuff would be easy for you deft handed soldering pros. I'm really doing it for the crack, as I have new better printers. Edited July 7, 20232 yr by guerney
July 6, 20232 yr Author Are you another drug dealer It's vitally important to get paid as fast as possible, print the buyer a receipt and lie to reassure them about warranty returns before fleeing the scene. By the time the buyer realises the stash has been top loaded and the rest is crushed vitamin C tablets, I'm safely over the border to Mexico Cornwall riding my Dahon Helios at a perfectly legal 15.5mph, which has no extradition treaty with England, and Scot-free too, as they are of course situated much further in the wild northern beyonds. Joking joking. It's one of these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001942390834.html I'm phasing them out because their batteries are unobtanium-ion and don't last long, but they're handy for providing receipts on the go. Edited July 7, 20232 yr by guerney
July 6, 20232 yr Author Well fiddly, as these pins are well.. a fiddly 2mm apart... this is the best I could do, assembled and assembling solderers. It works. I could have another go but I highly doubt I'd want to! Have given the power connector firm waggles side to side, works fine, aint pretty but I'm not either, so that's ok. In more flattering light: I used this cheapo soldering iron: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203476949368 Edited July 6, 20232 yr by guerney
July 6, 20232 yr I have/use the same cheap iron. If you prime the tip first and feed solder as you go, a nice fluid bed should follow.
July 6, 20232 yr Author I have/use the same cheap iron. If you prime the tip first and feed solder as you go, a nice fluid bed should follow. I thought it was rubbish initially, but the fault was of course mine - I had used too high a temperature with the large irons, and neglected to tin the tips, clean with wire wool first. For this I used the thinnest needle tip, but had to use a higher temperature. I also used very small amounts of acid-free flux and a desoldering pump. Hell I'm still learning, and thankfully I'm forced to attempt this sort of hashed effort extremely rarely. It was all too damned small! Even when magnified, I could barely see what I was doing. I could rig up a DSLR with a macro lens (and a cover to protect the lens from solder spurts), stream live video to my 42" monitor via HDMI, but this seems to function fine, so I won't. Shaking tiny magnified things, is all I'd see. Lead free solder, instead of my usual toxic Weller. Edited July 6, 20232 yr by guerney
July 6, 20232 yr Well fiddly, as these pins are well.. a fiddly 2mm apart... this is the best I could do, assembled and assembling solderers. It works. I could have another go but I highly doubt I'd want to! Have given the power connector firm waggles side to side, works fine, aint pretty but I'm not either, so that's ok. [ATTACH type=full" alt="52601]52601[/ATTACH] In more flattering light: [ATTACH type=full" alt="52603]52603[/ATTACH] I used this cheapo soldering iron: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203476949368 A neat job my man, a neat job indeed
July 6, 20232 yr Author A neat job my man, a neat job indeed Oh I don't know about that! The middle pin is bugging me, but if I attempt this again (I've had to do this three times already, because great globs of solder fused pins together and had to be melted, then removed using the desolderer), it'll unsettle the solder on the other two pins either side - with the repeated attempts at this, heat from the soldering iron has started to unsettle solder on tiny nearby components, so I think I'll have to leave it there... however, the lack of solder on that middle pin is bothering the delicate balance of my mind. I'm not unduly worried about knackering it, because I have loads of those spare cheap printers, therefore may try again. Could be worth it to learn something new. Edited July 6, 20232 yr by guerney
July 6, 20232 yr In more flattering light: Look at the solder joints in the picture, they all look different, so ask why. The only one that looks like it is good, in the one on the left, although even that has a tad to much solder. The middle joint does not seem to have enough solder. The right joint looks like it could be a dry joint. What type of solder did you use ?
July 7, 20232 yr Author Look at the solder joints in the picture, they all look different, so ask why. The only one that looks like it is good, in the one on the left, although even that has a tad to much solder. The middle joint does not seem to have enough solder. The right joint looks like it could be a dry joint. Uh oh... and I was so hoping to get a job at your satellite factory soldering Oracs! Yes it's a horrible mess and I'm shocked it works, though this may well be temporary. I spent longest doing and redoing the one on the left. What type of solder did you use ? I used this from my local hardware shop. I'll have another go using proper Weller leaded, open windows for ventilation elc. Edited July 7, 20232 yr by guerney
July 7, 20232 yr Author This crap tin solder doesn't work without flux, and the leaded Weller is too thick. Now it looks like pins 2 and 3 are joined, but they're not (it's flux plus crudI think), and the printer works fine. I'm more confident this will last, but I'll have to throw it away anyway in favour of the new more robust models I've bought, which print clearer and don't require unobtanium batteries. Good for an adventure in solderspace, but nowt else. Edited July 7, 20232 yr by guerney
July 7, 20232 yr Use flux cored leaded solder. The lead free stuff is required for manufactured and sold electronics, but you can use leaded on your own stuff. Lead free solder needs a higher bit temperature and everything needs to be real clean. You can get joints that look like they are dry joints. Best to avoid it. For cleaning flux off PCBs that blue Polycell brush cleaner applied with an old tootbrush works well. If you have a flux bridge like above, you need to clean it, there could be an almost or partial solder bridge underneath. Edited July 7, 20232 yr by StuartsProjects
July 7, 20232 yr Between each solder pin /joint use a bit of card to prevent solder spread and bridging.
July 7, 20232 yr Author Thank you experts for your advice! The only soldering adventure this lead-free solder has been good for, is repairing these cheap "Holding hands" (now with magnifier! Amaze your friends!) from Aldi - the arms are held on by collars which are factory tightened around rods, which have a ball joint for swivelment and turnity. With actual use the collar gets loose, and becomes useless for holding anything in position with it's "Hands". Infuriating! I was able to get a high enough temperature to weld the damn things on using this cheap but brilliant 100W Silverline soldering iron (used flux)... and now the holding hands hold securely (flux crud needs nemoving, as does the rust): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295771396457 Edited July 7, 20232 yr by guerney
July 7, 20232 yr I was able to get a high enough temperature to weld the damn things on using this cheap but brilliant 100W Silverline soldering iron (used flux) You should not need additional flux, just used cored solder. I dont add additional flux when soldering myself (*see below) Cored solder was invented for a reason so that you dont need to add additional flux and thus make a mess. Be very cautious with soldering irons in the 25W+ category that do not have temperature control. The bit temperature of say a 100W iron can get very high and the bit will not have that nice shiny ready to solder look. If the bit is not nicy and shiny it will take longer to do solder joints which increases the heat transfer into other components and plastics start melting. * One circumstance where using a liquid solvent based flux helps is when soldering fine pitched surface mout components. Edited July 8, 20232 yr by StuartsProjects
July 7, 20232 yr Author For cleaning flux off PCBs that blue Polycell brush cleaner applied with an old tootbrush works well. If you have a flux bridge like above, you need to clean it, there could be an almost or partial solder bridge underneath. That's a much better idea than the tissue paper wrapped around a sharpened matchstick soaked in isopropyl alcohol I was using. I'll get thiner leaded multicore for future small soldering jobs. Dark surfaces radiate and absorb more heat than shiny. It's a sledgehammer alright - that cheap 100W Silverline is brilliant for quickly heating larger cables. I've used it to solder controller wires to my battery, all wires for the lights on my bike, and to replace connectors for audio gear. 100W got this 4mm diameter rod hot enough to melt even that rubbish lead-free solder. Flux crud is easily cleaned off using isopropyl. I could file this, make it all smooth neat and tidy, but I don't want to. I use this method to clean and coat the tip: Edited July 8, 20232 yr by guerney
July 9, 20232 yr Author Logitech Trackman Marbles are excellent mice, until the switches wear out, which happens after about two years. Can't buy these mice new anymore, and no other mouse will do... therefore my next tiny (not as miniscule as the last) soldering adventure will be to replace the switches on two dead Trackman Marbles. The Logitech M570 is also excellent, but unlike the Marbles they make my fingers hurt eventually, and their switches are also short lived. Mouse switches don't last long these days, not on Logitechs anyway. There's a new M575 Ergo, I bet it's switches are also crap. https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=78106.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5yTszNc-qI I've ordered thinner toxic leaded flux cored - I'll forget I ordered leaded, because of the lead: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363565936544 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115845406914 Edited July 9, 20232 yr by guerney
July 12, 20232 yr Author 0.7mm and 1mm multicore solder have arrived and blow me, also what appear to be genuine Cherry switches, allegedly good for over a million clicks... should last till supper then. All good soldering practice, even if I mess this up. I will need fine soldering skill to repair my bike someday.
July 12, 20232 yr My goto solder for 'tiny' soldering jobs is 0.25mm. Its good for fine SMT stuff when you dont want the polava of using paste.
July 12, 20232 yr Author https://store.rossmanngroup.com/amtech-nc-559-v2-30-cc-16160.html For the orginally posted repair, I used plumber's flux by mistake, which is why there's so much crud. I have the acid-free flux linked below, which I will use if I can't repair the meeces using leaded multicored, if solder doesn't flow well enough using my cheapo ebay soldering iron. This flux works wonderfully when soldering cables, and audio connectors. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166016210806
July 12, 20232 yr that stuff leaves a right mess on pcb work tho https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124731857777?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1KQJVhjehR82HqdS8dYtE1g96&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=124731857777&targetid=1647205089240&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045572&poi=&campaignid=17206177401&mkgroupid=136851690655&rlsatarget=aud-1657461040028:pla-1647205089240&abcId=9300866&merchantid=6995734&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnrmlBhDHARIsADJ5b_mUfYvA2hcuRBp6Uw1OF1wQQAicuiJkLhU7IG5ptp3HQMWGoZhY7PsaAj7VEALw_wcB it does not take much to melt those micro switches
July 12, 20232 yr For soldering something like that, two rules: 1. Don't use lead-free solder. 2. Use separate flux, not just solder with a flux core. Temperature doesn't make much difference, neither does the quality of the iron. With flux, as soon as the solder melts, it'll flow to the right place and make a beautiful joint by majic. For soldering wires and things like that, flux cored solder is fine, though additional flux will never make it worse. Repairs nearly always need flux.
July 12, 20232 yr With flux, as soon as the solder melts, it'll flow to the right place and make a beautiful joint by majic. that's especially true with SMD connectors. I had to resolder a Micro USB connector once.
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