Leaderboard

☝️Best soldering advice ever! 👍😂

Above 350'c, how hot depends on how you work and how quickly you go. Aim for about 1-2.5secs on each pin and be conscious not to pump too much heat into whatever you a soldering. You can also solder criss cross and a few components at the same time to make sure you aren't over heating single areas too much. I use 375-380c on my iron and 350c on my desolding iron (tips cost a fortune on that). Big pins like huge caps you can go hotter. Once you see the whisps of smoke burn away from the solder the flux core has burned away and its not fluid any more... it becomes sticky and horrible so keep the solder on the tip fresh and new... you don't won't a Molten glob on the end leaving ice cream swirls on your joints. You can always apply a tiny bit of flux with a fine tip if you need to get any solder moving or use some braid to tidy up. Don't hold the iron like a pen 😂

For working on old boards I definitely recommend using the old type of fluxed solder that is lead based. It has a lower melting point which helps to avoid getting the board too hot. Avoiding too much heat helps avoid tracks lifting off. If you use lead based solder you should be careful to avoid the health hazards of lead. Good luck.

Most faults are hopefully in the transistors and components near the battery. The CPU's are pretty robust, same can't be said for the PIO's but they do obviously have a lot more external inputs/outputs. If it boots then any faults can be logically tracked down but if it doesn't then be prepared to jump in the Thames!