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Soldering: How and Where to start?

Once again thanks for all the info guys. I've been really busy with work and had some other personal issues come up this week so I haven't gotten around to getting an iron just yet, however I have had another issue pop up very related to this:


I have a 40" samsung lcd that has had trouble starting up lately, I called samsung about it, and while they were offering free repair for this due to a class action lawsuit, the repair period ended in March, which sucks ass because my tv is one of the faulty models but has not shown symptoms of this until 2 weeks ago :cursing:

The repair info is pointing to bad capacitors. I just opened up the tv tonite and sure enough, the caps were bulging as others had mentioned. People talking about out of pocket repairs mentioned something in the neighborhood of $300+ And I don't really feel like getting a new tv since this is the only problem I've had with it in 7 years.

So, I guess it's time to man up on this soldering business lol.
 
It will save you a TON of money, Joe. Open it up again and write down the values of ALL of the electolytic caps. I might have them here. If so I will put together a kit and send it to you. Or just bring the whole damn thing here and let me do it for you while you watch and learn.
 
Mitsurugi-w said:
It will save you a TON of money, Joe. Open it up again and write down the values of ALL of the electolytic caps. I might have them here. If so I will put together a kit and send it to you. Or just bring the whole damn thing here and let me do it for you while you watch and learn.
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I hate to always drop on in you with stuff like this but dammit, I would appreciate the help. I'm very eager to get my own setup and try my hand at a few projects, but I was counting on this tv being operational for the upcoming meet, so needless to say, this has bumped up the priority.

The caps are shown as 1000uF and 10v but I saw some repair videos using 16v instead.

pm incoming.
 
EEVBlog on Youtube is great, the guy is REALLY long winded but he knows what he's talking about it.

There's a lot of great advice in this thread but I'm surprised no one has mentioned temperature... IMO it's one of the most important things for beginners as I've seen too many assuming "higher is better" in terms of temp and wattage.

If you plan on doing more than 1 or 2 random jobs, or plan on doing any delicate work then you NEED an iron that lets you adjust the temperature.

Too high temps can burn up and lift traces or melt the jacket right off of wires.

Generally I start around 300 C for most jobs and adjust up if needed. the perfect temp is one where the solder solidifies as soon as you remove the iron from the part. if it sits in liquid form for a second or two, you're probably heating more than you need to.

Large metal areas like ground planes, wide traces or large gauge wire act like heat syncs and work against your iron, these are the places where you'll need to use a bit more heat.

I also recommend picking up a vacuum pump/solder sucker. as when you're doing something like replacing caps, you'll need to remove them first and a solder sucker is great for pulling the solder out cleanly on through-hole components.

if you're doing a lot of surface-mount stuff then a hot-air rework station is helpful but I'd recommend getting comfortable with through-hole soldering before jumping to surface mount.
 
solder melts at 160 degrees. so 161 is enough then your solder will solidify 1 micro-second after you remove the iron, saving you time. if you add up those saved seconds over a lifetime, you might gain back a month or two where you can be doing other stuff!!

ok, so getting serious now...
boards with big power and ground planes are a major problem if you are using only a soldering iron. you can heat the mofo to 500 degrees and its still not enough in some cases, especially on 4 and 6 layer PCBs

In that case all you have to do is pre-heat the under-side of the board with a heat gun. don't over do it and stay away from any plastic connectors etc. you just want to get it to about 100 degrees so your soldering iron can do its job.
 
Yeah those eevblog are amazing, I still remember trying to build the n64 to parallel port adapter back in almost the 90s lol.... I had a 15w china made solder iron and a pos solder, the tip was the size of a screwdriver lol.. no wonder it didn't work lol... though I got the snes one working which got me into electronics :D
 
I was able to meet up with Mits yesterday and got a hands on tutorial for basic soldering. It went really well, and we were able to re-cap and fix my lcd tv in less than 20 min, and the only reason it took that long was due to instruction, and Mits had me try my hand at a couple of them as well. Only 4 caps and it works perfectly now :thumbsup:

Mits took care of the reset wire on my cps2 multi, which was the primary reason I started this thread, but he went through the whole process in detail, and it was a good learning experience. He also changed out a CPS2 battery while I was there so I could see, as I have a couple battery boards I'd like to try doing myself.

I have yet to get my own station and setup but I'm really eager about it now, much less nervous.

Mits working on my tv board:

iI8cHFQ.jpg


thx again for all your help man, You saved me tons of $$$ on that tv, and it was awesome getting a lesson from you too. I want a rematch in Alpha 2 tho ;)
 
Mugicha said:
thx again for all your help man, You saved me tons of $$$ on that tv, and it was awesome getting a lesson from you too. I want a rematch in Alpha 2 tho
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NP. Thanks for buying dinner. Yeah it was very basic stuff but if you get over being tentative then you will be fine.

You need much practice before the rematch. You have until the tournament next month to train. Then we battle for pink slips. Also, TT2 needs some rematching but I'm not sure how you would practice that one. ;) TT2 looked good on the TV and was a good way to celebrate a successful repair.
 
Darksoft said:
I recommend watching the Soldering tutorials around youtube. The best opne IMHO is the onve from EEVBlog.
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Iv'e been watching several soldering Tuts, multiple time. I like EEV's video channel, really informative. been putting this off for too long. picking up some tools and going to start practicing. I'm going to try to find cheap goodwill electronics to practice with be for touching anything not worth braking.

I found these PACE inc. Instructional videos. I found them helpful as well. Kinda old, but they do a good job explaining technique, the whys, and lots of examples of unacceptable joints. Even went into talking about concave Fillet angles. + diagrams. two playlists.
Basic Soldering Lessons 1-9
Rework & Repair Lessons 1-8
quick example
the Host sound like caricature. sounds like Chris Parnell
 
All I will say is to make your life easier get a desoldering gun like the Aoyue 8800. I simply love mine, no complaints. I can send you ceramic filters that will last you a long time and are much better than the oem stuff, traps everything and does not restrict air flow. Not the cheapest solution to desolder stuff, but worth every penny.

And, like with everything else, practice makes perfect! :D

If you buy Hakko stuff, watch out for fakes.

Try searching craigslist for stuff they are giving away and practice on that. Old tvs, radios and such.
 
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I picked up a Hakko FR300 ,and a FX951 last night 8) was the first thing i picked up. desoldering with a wick is defiantly tedious. Watched alot of GameTecgUS videos of him replacing caps. Then he got a Hakko-808.

any recommendations on most useful tip sizes?

a hot air station is kinda pricey atm. eventual i'd like to get into doing SMD soldering, have a few project that would require it. I think the EEVBlog guy uses a $80 Atten 858D. might be a decent entry level tool for low use usage.
 
the garbo radio shack gear i have now, i wouldn't go near video game stuff with it. modded some XoB360 controllers/etc a few years ago. just a pain in the rear. the soldering iron was always super hot. burnt a lot of lead pads. + the fumes are terrible. I don't want to hot box my garage with vaporize solder again. <X I put off all soldering projects till i could afford the hobby a bit more. proper tools and a Fume extractor. I've been putting this off longger than i should have.
Derick2k said:
If you buy Hakko stuff, watch out for fakes.

Try searching craigslist for stuff they are giving away and practice on that. Old tvs, radios and such.
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i looked into what fake Hakko stuff out there. there are a few comparison tear down videos as well. but for aesthetic differences :
-fake FX951 appears to not have the sleep switch connector on stand or main unit.
-fake FX888D are just 888 with a "D" face plate
- fake Fluke 15b have a "15" face plate

I when't with a US seller nesselectronics they seem to have a good history selling hakko.
 
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just waiting on an odds & ends amazon order and i'll be ready to brake stuff :thumbsup:
was waiting for a week for a fume extractor
ctUanGO.jpg

cleaned up the garage and made space for a work area wile waiting. Now back to watching TuTs on a loop.

set of tips i picked up.
2nz9Cd6.jpg


aoiddr said:
(You should practice your skills a little first before doing your actual board, though. If you don't have any dead boards to practice on, then buy a children's kit. You can learn a few of the basics then.
amazon.com/Elenco-AmeriKit-Lea…15&keywords=soldering+kit )
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some good advice. i was looking to try some diy test kits. seems cheep and usefull

LCD Display Transistor Tester ESR Meter

Capacitance Meter DIY KIT
 
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