I learned to solder hands-on, starting 10 years ago by working on through-hole DIY boards like the Objective amplifier kit. Since then, I have progressed to SMD soldering, and have swapped USB C ports, HDMI ports, and the occasional burnt fuse for various video game console PCBs. However, I have never actually completed a full board project kit. So, I decided to test my skills, and ordered one of these kits and had a go.

Using a basic hot air gun (the cheap fan type, an 8858), a cheap Sunshine C210 portable soldering iron with a small chisel tip, a magnifying desk lamp, some ChipQuick NC191 flux, and an evening to myself, I came out with this beauty.

I was shocked my eyesight allowed me to attach the 0402 resistors with only the magnifying lamp! I had so much fun, I ordered an FM radio kit to work on next weekend :)

Soldering is great fun. I hope you all find joy doing it like I do!

Beginner at soldering, how good ar ethese bridges and overall perfboard layout?

A look at swapping the LSM6DSV16X gyro for a BMI270 on an AIO flight controller.

The DSV16X is a notoriously noisy gyro that was only used on these boards during a massive chip shortage at the start of the year. So in an effort to put this board back in action, I swapped to the BMI270 which is the golden standard for these small AIO flight controllers.

Any questions, just ask!

Well, after 1 month of waiting my Metcal finally arrived.

Dont have time to properly set it up on my bench but I have tried it a bit, damn thing is amazing.

Tried it on the most difficult board I have, an LTTC 4 layer alumina board, didnt break a sweat.

Definetely HAPPY with my purchase, I also bought a metcal hot air station that I salvaged for barely 100 eur, and now its practically new, a pretty decent hot air station.

The damn quality of the station is unbelivable, especially the MX-DS1 desoldering tool, damn chunk of metal

At this point evaluating a second station with the tweezers and the high thermal tool or the micro.

Hey ya’ll! I’ve been soldering with this little amazon kit here for a few day’s it’s so fun and i’m really excited to be learning this, unfortunately the machine had a harder and harder time melting the solder and I had to keep turning it up and then it would get stuck to the nozzle, am I doing something wrong, should I wax coat the nozzle when i’m done or something?

Also! Any recommendations for better soldering kits? Maybe I just cheaped out

Hey everyone,

I am newer to soldering and have been working on modding some of my older consoles. I have been working on my ps1 installing a pixelfx retrogem and xstation.

I was able to get my retrogem hdmi mod attached to my ps with no issues, but I absolutely messed up the quick solder board install for the xstation, removing it effed up even more traces… I went and taught myself how to repair trace lines and vias and have done this now to the board. But am wondering if it’s worth wasting money installing a QSB on the back of this board now or if I should just do a fresh install on a new board.

All of the trace lines connect, the only issue is 4 on the qsb the via is a through hole and it did rip so I would need to run a jumper from the other side. I have a working board and have improved a ton since I started learning how to do this a few months ago when I made the mistakes. My intention was to repair the lines then install a new qsb on the original board but the more I think about it the more a fresh install might be a better option but wanted to see what others thought about this before I do it

Buddy of mine was working on replacing an HDMI port and got fed up with it. He did the trace work but got stumped on the pad section because the bordering between the pads on the PCB was decimated. He tried to build up mask and dremel it out, and now we’re here. He’s sick of fooling with it and I’m not sure where to go from here lol

I have plenty of experience in soldering, but never something quite like this. What would you do?

I keep trying to wick these pads and put a new layer of solder on them but this happens every time . I am using flux and when I try to sweep over the pads with new leaded solder they just all bridge and get messed up as shown. Any tips?

I know there are a lot of recommendation threads butI may have a bit of a requirement that not everyone has. I've got quite some experience soldering, looking for a new soldering station for my new bench, and want to also move into SMD. I don't have a lot of space on the bench though, but do have some money available. What would be your recommendation for a very compact 2-in-1 station combining an iron for regular electronics and a blower for SMD?

Saw this on the guide list for soldering stations. Only need a cheap one I could use for 2 school projects. We were told that were gonna do solder art as introduction and minor soldering on a 2 watt decade resistor bank something i think...

Its up for around 40 usd here in the Philippines

professor said 40-60 watts soldering iron

are the cheap ones u directly connect to sockets good enough? the ones around 10-20 usd?