Couple of noob questions

The trick to doing this without needing three hands is to tin both the wire and the solder cup first, then reflow the solder.

Tin the wires. Unreel six inches or so of solder and bend it so it sticks up vertically from your bench top. Now you can hold the iron in one hand and the wire in the other while you tin the wire.

Hold the connector in a small vise (Panavise or similar.) Partially fill the solder cups with solder. Hold the wire against the cup and touch the cup and the wire with the tip of your soldering iron to reflow the solder. There should be a tiny bit of solder on the tip to aid in heat transfer.

--
-- Steve

I find the best way is to not solder them at all by using DB connectors designed to use crimp-on pins. You strip the wire, crimp on the wire and insert the pins into the DB connector shell in the correct hole. You will need a crimp tool and extraction tool designed for the pins you'll be using. You can use simple hand crimpers which cost $20 or a crimp tool that holds the pin for you, crimps both the wire and insulation at once, and are controlled so you can't over or under crimp the pin for $100+. Two of the reasons I prefer the DB crimp connectors are that there aren't any exposed wires on the back of the connector and the shells can easily be re-used by simply extracting the pins.

If you must use solder DB connectors, there are a few things you will need to make this a lot easier. First, you need a good soldering iron with a small enough tip that you can easily contact just one pin at a time. If you plan to do much electronics work you should invest in a temperature controlled solder station with interchangeable tips. Second, you'll need some type of vise to hold the connector so you can use one hand to hold the iron and the other to hold the wire. Third, you will want some small (1/16" or 3/32") heat shrink tubing to insulate the pins after you solder them. You will want to use 22 to 24 AWG stranded wire for DB connectors whether you use solder or crimp-on connectors.

Now for technique. First, strip the insulation from the wire (1/8" or so), tin the ends and slip a short piece of heat shrink on each wire. Then fill the solder cups on each pin in the DB connectors you will be connecting wires to with solder. Then heat the connector pins until the solder re-melts and slowly insert the pre-tinned wire in being careful to get all the wire strands in the pin cup. While holding the wire steady, remove the soldering iron and allow the connection to cool without moving it. Then slide the heat shrink tubing down the wire, over the pin and apply heat to shrink it in place.

Good luck with electronics.

--
James T. White

Thanks for the tips!

Thanks, I've ordered a few things from Jameco so far. The trouble is that I don't have a good "spare parts box" yet... so if I suddenly decide I need a 74190 IC, I have to wait a few days or pinch 'em from the lab. Perhaps I ought to buy a couple of those big component assortments from Jameco...

Dan

I bought some stuff from these folks:

You can also buy those angle connectors directly from digikey, but you then need to make a PCB to use them.

-- Regards, Bob Monsen

The concept of fiction was nowhere in Mike's experience; there was nothing on which it could rest, and Jubal's attempts to explain the idea were so emotionally upsetting to Mike that Jill was afraid that he was about to roll up into a ball and withdraw himself.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:1133834249.994844.113580 @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

*snip*

Good heat transfer, a clean tip, and lots of practice. I usually go from one direction to another, either right to left, left to right or middle outwards. You'll mess a few of these up before you get it down.

*snip*

*snip*

I don't know about the DC area /per say/, but there's lots of mail/internet order places around. Radio Shack recently (last 5 years) has focused mainy on consumer electronics, so mail/internet may wind up being your best/only option.

Puckropper

--
www.uncreativelabs.net

Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we 
still enjoy using the old computers. Sometimes we want to see how far a 
particular system can go, other times we use a stock system to remind 
ourselves of what we once had.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

Without solder. Look for the connectors that use crimp connections, like these

that crimp onto a ribbon cable (commonly called IDC for Insulation Displacement Connector).

Or the kind that crimps individual wires like these from Jameco

You'll need a proper crimp tool, though. I like my ol' AMP Service Tool (p/n 696202-1) for this.

Get one of those alligator-clip jobbies commonly called a "third hand" tool. A small, inexpensive bench vice is handy also; doesn't have to be terribly large, since most of what you'll probably be working on is relatively light weight.

The prototype boards with "three holes per" are probably the quickest and easiest for one-off items. Even perf board without solder pads will work; just solder to the component leads.

The toner transfer method is probably the easiest for at-home etching

but there are also lots of commercial sources for low quantity prototype runs that aren't terribly expensive.

See the message in the thread "Which is the best hobby do-it-yourself method for making PCB's?" (actually, read the whole thread).

Mail order. Digikey. Or Jameco, Mouser, Newark, MPJA, AllElectronics, ...

--
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA

You need to 'tin' the stripped wire before placing it in the solder buckets of the connector.

I'll bet that makes a *huge* difference.

Graham

strip half an inch twist it, put some solder on it, trim it back to about 1/8" or less and then solder that into the little pocket.

I still use stripboard

I don't know of any in that area, but I have found the yellow pages to be helpful. "electronic component suppliers" is the category to look under.

Bye. Jasen

That is way too much bare wire. I usually strip about a tenth inch. And carefully rewrap the strands so that fit the solder cup.

Fine solder (.031 or .020 inch diameter, activated rosin core, 60% tin

40% lead, or 63 % tin 37% lead). Narrow, but short tip on a temperature controlled iron also helps. Too hot, and the wire insulation melts back and the rosin burns off. Too cold and the solder doesn't flow well. Here is an example of a low cost one: and an even lower cost one:

You can stick the metal case of the D connector to a magnet from an old speaker. Or get a small vise:

Then the trick is to use something like an alligator clip on a flex joint to hold the wire in the cup, so you have two hands to operate solder and iron.

But eventually, you will probably develop the dexterity to hold the wire between two fingers, and the solder between a thumb and finger on the same hand.

I'll leave this for the moment. There have been some good threads on this subject ,lately, that you can look through with Google Group searches.

You may discover why we love Digikey and Mouser. They both have lovely detailed paper catalogs and good web sites with search capability. Mouser has no minimum order, and Digikey allows you to choose first class mail postage for small items.

:There have been some good threads on this subject ,lately, :that you can look through with Google Group searches. : John Popelish

Yup. Start here:

*+electricstuff-*-*-PCBs

Your method wastes time and materials. You need to learn how to do a better job when you solder. Just strip it to 1/8" and tin the wire. Remember to touch one side of the wire with the hot soldering iron and apply the solder to the other side. Do not apply the solder directly to the iron or you will burn away all the flux which will cause bad looking solder joints.

As far as holding the connector, I like to plug it into a mating connector mounted on a metal bracket, or clamp it gently in a drill press vise. Small ones are under $10 in a lot of places. These are good for holding the bare wires for tinning as long as you don't close the jaws too tight.

--
?

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Complete tutorial with hints and tips about the direct felt-tip method at:

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

You could get a "Helping Hand". The best way to solder stuff is

1) Get a good soldering iron. Preferably a Metcal, but at least something thats ESD safe, heat controllable and designed for electronics work. Make sure you have a good, appropriate sized tip. 2) Have the appropriate tools, including: helping hand, vise, flux (good flux, not crappy RS icky golden crap), solder wick, good soldering iron (see above), tweezers, pliers, brushes, isopropyl alcohol (and dispenser), different types of solder, sponge, solder paste, heat shrink, etc. A good clean workbench with magnifying light as well should go without saying. These things aren't that expensive, so don't cheap out, get them all and good quality stuff. 3) If you have stranded wire twist the wires together at the end before you do anything. Always wet the tip of the soldering iron with solder and make sure its nice and shiny and clean. If neccessary put some flux on the wire (probably isn't neccesary in this case). Wet the ends you wish to join with solder. (You can put them in a vise indepently to hold them while you wet them). Then simply insert the wire in the pin as best you can and heat it up with the iron which will reflow the solder as appropriate. Seal with heatshrink if you feel its neccessary. Good soldering skills take practice but it also takes decent equipment.

The best way is to stop screwing around with nasty ass chemicals which are incredibly toxic and will give you crappy results. You think any company would seriously do this stuff? Even for prototyping? For prototyping if it has to be done in house its usually done with a milling machine. Otherwise, you could just design PCBs on some CAD software (Eagle for instance) and then send them out to a board house. They don't charge that much. Why would you want to expose yourself to those chemicals if you don't have to? What do you plan to do with them once you've used them? Please don't tell me you are going to dump them down the drain.

You feel guilty about taking a part from work that costs a couple cents, but not playing with nasty chemicals which you have no good way to dispose of? Sheesh, I take pens from work which cost more than diodes inadvertantly all the time. I can't imagine they'll miss it. However, it depends where in the "DC area" you are. Mark Electronics and Electronics Plus (both in Beltsville) are reasonably decent. There are plenty of distributors (Allied, Active, Newark, etc) in this area, although they may not want to deal with a hobbyist.

Point taken :-) I *do* work in a lab and know something about handling hazardous chemicals, however I agree that I'd best avoid working with them at home!!

Wow!!!! I *live* in Beltsville for 1.5 years now. I'd never heard of either of those places. Will check 'em out ASAP. Thanks for the tips.

Dan

Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

I had been hesitant to try Veroboard because it seems expensive and I know I'll make lots of mistakes. Today I practiced point-to-point soldering and was awful at it, so I think I need to use some method that will require me to not solder little wires to little leads! Today I found this site with some amazingly cheap Veroboard-type stuff:

: Veroboard $1.65 : DIP prototyping board $0.95

Thought I'd pass those links along... about 5x cheaper than anything I'd seen before!! They also sell kits of capacitors, resistors, ICs, etc. that seem quite well priced.

Dan Lenski

Thanks for the tips, Bob. I think my problem may have been that I was using a plastic perfboard with no copper cladding. Whenever a drop of solder touched the perfboard, it would cling to the nearby metal. This made a mess when trying to solder wires close to the surface of the board.

Is it correct that solder will NOT adhere to a plastic surface?

I had a much easier time soldering two wires which weren't right next to the metal surface. I guess the board with copper pads is easier to work with because the solder will adhere to it.

Dan Lenski

No, stick with it - sooner or later, you're going to pretty much HAVE to be able to "solder little wires to little leads," so you might as well practice it now. You'll catch on. A couple of tips:

1. Don't make the common mistake of pulling the iron away the moment the solder starts to flow; you WANT to get the melted solder good and hot, so that it flows properly around (and into, for stranded wire) the conductors. With the exception of some semiconductor devices, you don't need to worry about overheating the components - and for those that do have this concern, you just need to put a heatsink of some sort (they're sold in clip-on form, or you can simply place you needle-nose pliers between the joint to be soldered and the body of the component, if you're blessed with three hands...:-)
2. Make sure the pieces to be soldered are clean - surface oxidation (or worse yet, some insulating material left on a wire) with really interfere with the soldering process.
3. Don't use so much solder that you wind up with a huge glob, but don't skimp, either - a little practice will teach you the proper amount.

Remember, a good solder joint will be clean and shiny, and the solder will have flowed well onto the entire surface of the conductors to be joined - it should be well-adhered to these surfaces, and not look like it's just barely sitting on top of the surface ready to be picked off. You should expect to see some smoke from the joint during the soldering process - that's also no problem, and is not a sign that you're overheating anything; it's just flux and other impurities burning off.

Bob M.

In general, that's correct - it will, of couse, melt many plastics while hot, and can really make a mess of things.

Not all metals are solderable, either; copper conductors obviously are, including wiring which has been "tinned" (coated with a thin covering of solder or some other metal/alloy, which both improves the solderability as well as protecting the bare copper surface from oxidation). Aluminum, on the other hand, is not easily solderable with standard tin/lead solders - you can get it hot enough, of course, but regular solder will just bead up on an aluminum surface and refuse to "stick."

Yes, that's pretty typical - beside the solder adhering to the "wrong" surface, having your wires in contact with metal for no good reason just makes for that much more metal you need to heat up - and some smaller irons might not be up to the task, thus making "cold" solder joints a lot more likely.

Bob M.

...

Good Grief! The only thing wrong with 2.95/quart FeCl3 is that you have to use good etching techniques and practices. You make the stuff sound like cyanide (which, BTW, is used routinely in industry). It's really quite innocuous. When it doesn't etch copper good enough any more, you can either recharge it with some acid, which probably _is_ fairly hazardous to handle, or dump a bunch of "washing soda", sodium carbonate, into it, and _then_ it's safe to pour down the drain, although I also hear it makes some kind of muddy sludge, which might or might not flush well.

If _that_ makes you paranoid, then decant the supernatant liquid through a filter of some kind - a coffee filter would probably be fine, and just toss the sludge into the trash. It's basically rock powder, which either Spehro Pefhany or John Popelish has pointed out. Or maybe both. ;-)

But, depending on your budget, and how much screwing around you want to do - it once took me all day to make one 6" x 9" board, not counting having the artwork shot. It might be simpler to send out some kind of artwork - I hear that there are electronic CAD programs that will output Gerber files, and there are board houses that can make you a board for, like $50.00. I'm confident someone will clarify that, if I'm misinformed about pricing. :-)

Good Luck! Rich