Upscale Time!!!

[DM1975]

Next project just arrived in the mail..... I hope my soldering skills are up to par lol.

 

[Wallace]

Good lighting and magnifier and it's easy. Just take your time, I can tell you how bad desoldering sucks....

 

[DM1975]

Good lighting and magnifier and it's easy. Just take your time, I can tell you how bad desoldering sucks....

Thanks. I’ll do it in my engraving studio then. I got enough magnification and lighting in there. I just have a cheap old soldering iron from Walmart. Will that work or do I need some high faloot’n contraption with a box and a knob?

 

[BDB]

I have a simple (no box/knob) 15 amp soldering iron with a fine conical tip. It works fine. Just be careful to not overheat anything—particularly the GPS.

 

[DM1975]

I poured epoxy in the bottom of the cannon and the eject charge canister holders and began coating the inside of the cannon walls. Now that it’s dry and I can move it to glue up some of the parts on its side I’ll coat the rest of the inside of the cannon before I mix the colloidal silica into the epoxy.

 

[DM1975]

Finally got the terminal blocks soldered and in place.

 

[grouch]

I'm curious to see how this is going to work. I'm having troubles picturing the chute cannon, cannons?? Not exactly sure about it but I like it.

 

[DM1975]

I'm curious to see how this is going to work. I'm having troubles picturing the chute cannon, cannons?? Not exactly sure about it but I like it.

Thanks! Tha parachute cannon is the center tube. The other two are for apogee ejection charges. The center tube will have two main charges in it with a parachute stuffed inside the tube on top of it. Dual electronics so two of each charge.

 

[OverTheTop]

Temperature-controlled iron would be nice, but not absolutely necessary. Use the biggest tip you can get away with without causing solder blobs.

Aim for nice concave fillets, so not too much solder. If it looks blobby you are probably using too much. I quick google of "surface mount solder joints" should show you what you are looking for. If it is acceptable, don't try to fix it! Resist!

 

[DM1975]

Temperature-controlled iron would be nice, but not absolutely necessary. Use the biggest tip you can get away with without causing solder blobs.

Aim for nice concave fillets, so not too much solder. If it looks blobby you are probably using too much. I quick google of "surface mount solder joints" should show you what you are looking for. If it is acceptable, don't try to fix it! Resist!

Thanks for the advice. I may buy a new soldering iron before I start. The one I have is 40w

 

[OverTheTop]

You can pick up reasonable irons for not much $ these days. See if you can get a temperature-controlled one. It can help with consistency and quality.

Tweezer technique is king to the whole process too. Work towards being ambidextrous if you are really keen! I prefer crossover tweezers. By holding them at the crossover point you can open or close them with the requisite force. Everybody's different, so figure out what works for you.

 

[snrkl]

I ended up buying a temp controlled one with a fine point tip for my EFMinis.



Made a rather large difference to what I started with. All up the iron cost me $49 AUSTRALIAN pesos and has been invaluable since.