Soldering for beginners. Scheme, description

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RADIO ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
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Soldering for beginners. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering

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Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering / Ham Radio Technologies

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This article provides guidelines for choosing equipment and materials for high-quality soldering, as well as some general tips.

Let's start with the soldering process. Soldering is the process of forming mechanical and electrical contact between metal surfaces, capable of withstanding significant mechanical loads. Soldering is formed at high temperatures (from 180 to 250°C) of soldered surfaces and molten tin. For high-quality soldering, it is not enough to heat one surface with tin and lean another against it: a prerequisite for the formation of reliable contact is equal temperatures of the surfaces to be soldered. Naturally, this can only be achieved with the right tool.

Important note: A low soldering iron tip temperature will soften the solder but not melt it. The result is cold soldering (you can recognize it by the granular structure of the contact). An overheated tip is excessive evaporation of the solder. Both of these defects lead to disintegration / delamination of the contact after some time of operation.

Do not forget about the extreme temperatures of electronic components: soldering at a temperature of ~ 250 ° C should not take more than 10 seconds. This is already a time-tested law: integral components can easily be burned.

Summarizing the above, we define requirements for ham radio soldering equipment:

1. It is advisable to purchase not just a soldering iron, but a soldering station. Would you say more? Yes, but not much. Prices for good soldering stations start at 800 rubles. More expensive than a soldering iron on the radio market? But what are the advantages: adjustable heating range (the probability of burning components is reduced to nothing); maintaining a constant temperature of the sting (the sting does not burn out - the cost of consumables is reduced); an important feature of all soldering stations is the presence of a stand for a soldering iron (a necessary thing) and a bath for a cleaning sponge - if you don’t want to buy a station, you will look for these things separately.

2. The power of a soldering iron is a thing that largely determines the quality of soldering. When soldering printed circuit boards, a soldering iron with a power of 25-40 watts is enough. Personally, I have been using stations with a power of 10 watts for 40 years and have no problems. Of course, when soldering wires with a cross section of 10 mm: even 100 W will not be enough for you - but here we are talking about soldering boards.

3. Supply voltage - on the territory of Russia, the standard voltage is 220 ± 10% V, 50 Hz. If you want to solder by connecting to the power supply - buy a soldering iron / station with such a power supply. For soldering in a car or in places where it is difficult to find an outlet, you can find a 12/18/24 V soldering iron or gas soldering irons.

4. An important parameter when soldering boards is the shape of the tip. Now a wide range of tips is offered for soldering irons / stations - spatula, cone, needle, etc. Which one to choose is your business: it is convenient for everyone to solder with what he is used to. I use spatulas of different sizes.

5. An important parameter is the durability of the sting. You can find heat-resistant stings that are not afraid of prolonged overheating. Convenient but expensive.

6. Not to mention anti-static soldering stations. If you're willing to shell out over $100 for a soldering station, you'll get anti-static protection (useful when soldering field cells and other tricky bugs). There is no such money - do not be upset - you can modify the station / soldering iron yourself: grounding the tip helps in most cases. This, of course, is not the antistatic agent that is in fancy stations, but it helps just as well.

Well, how did you get soldering equipment? The next step is consumables. You will need flux - to remove oxides from the pads of the boards and component leads and solder.

Flux selection

Your grandfather soldered with rosin - smile condescendingly - there was no other before. What is bad about rosin - rosin, alcohol rosin flux belongs to the category of active fluxes. The main disadvantage is that not only metal oxide is removed at high temperatures, but the metal itself is also removed. Look at the tip of grandfather's soldering iron - all potholed, black and notched. This is the action of rosin. Another major drawback is cleaning the board after soldering with rosin is a big problem. You can wash off the remains only with alcohol or solvents (and even then, sometimes it’s easier to pick something sharp). Flux residues on the board are not only ugly from an aesthetic point of view, but also harmful. On boards with small gaps between the conductors, the growth of dendrites (in other words, short circuits) caused by galvanic processes on a contaminated surface is possible.

What is the way out - in the modern materials market you can find a wide range of fluxes that are washed off with ordinary water, do not destroy the soldering iron tip and provide high quality soldering. Such fluxes are sold, as a rule, in syringes, which is very convenient for use.

Solder selection

Grandfather recommended you a 10 mm tin rod? Smile again. Now solder wire with a cross section of 1 to 5 mm is used for soldering. The most common are 1,5-2 mm multi-channel solders. Multi-channel means that there are several channels of flux inside the tin wire, which ensures the formation of an even, shiny and reliable solder. Such solder is sold in skeins - on radio markets, in flasks - in which it is coiled into a spiral, and in bobbins (the amount of solder in them is such that it will last for more than one year).

Sting Activator

Sting activator or TipCleaner is sold in very small jars. It is necessary to increase the life of the soldering iron tip. Before each soldering and after it (meaning at the beginning and at the end of work), lower the sting into this jar. It forms a protective coating that prevents the formation of soot.

So, are you ready to solder? The last thing you need is a hand tool: a knife, wire cutters, pliers. If in the process of work you need something else - you will understand for yourself.

Before soldering the board, you need to prepare a workplace: take care of a container with low sides and a large enough area for debris - bitten off leads and removed braid. A plastic disposable plate is very suitable (do not touch it with a heated soldering iron tip :). Take care of the lighting - the light should fall on the board so that the hand with the soldering irons does not cover it.

Now you are a real SOLDERING IRON (although not yet experienced, but it is catching up).

Before you start soldering, deal with the board. If you made it yourself - most likely it is without solder coatings: bare copper. Before soldering, all contact pads will have to be tinned: cover them with flux and apply tin with a soldering iron so as not to close the holes in the board. With the right temperature and a good flux, the tin from the soldering iron tip will “flow around” the entire pad as soon as you touch it. You should not take huge drops of tin on the tip of the soldering iron: touch the bar with the tip and in a second there will be the required amount on the tip.

The tin-plated board - an industrial fabrication - eliminates this work, but costs accordingly.

Payment ready? If necessary, remove the remaining flux and you can start soldering.

One of the main mistakes of novice radio amateurs is to solder the components, and then bite off the extra length of the legs. At the same time, it is difficult to achieve high-quality contact - increased heat dissipation and complicated access of the tip to the soldering point only worsen the formation of a reliable connection.

Mold component leads and cut them before soldering

As I already noted - with the right technology, the tin will "flow around" the contact on its own. Pay attention to the condition of the component leads: gray matte leads are oxidized. Will have to tinker with flux. Be careful - you can burn the component. If you want to avoid trouble - buy components in electronic stores - they are stored correctly there.

Publication: cxem.net

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