i mentioned lead free solder because my irons at 400 degrees and i assumed that was why the insulation melted, idk. but that is good to know.
and yeah im just gonna get better stripboards. i must have been stoned when ordering these because for some reason i couldnt manage to find the regular kind on amazon. but its definitely there
Well hypothetically you could jumper between pad groups with solder but I wouldn’t recommend it and not just because it would be a difficult operation to perform. I’d second @soup’s recommendation and use bare (uninsulated) solid wire as long as you keep it from touching anything it shouldn’t touch (pads or component legs). Also, as long as there’s room, things can share holes, like a component leg and a jumper wire can go in the same hole for simplicity/ space saving as long as they both fit.
Also also, I’m not trying to rag on you at all and I don’t have my reading specs at hand so take this with a grain of salt but it looks like you might have some cold joints here and there. Sometimes it won’t make a difference but if you finish the circuit and it doesn’t work that’s just one more possible reason you’ll have to troubleshoot. You’ll find in the long run it’s easier to fix those as you go. Don’t be discouraged, it’s one of the trickier things to master when you’re learning how to solder, especially with modern solder. And again, I’m looking at that pic on a phone without my reading glasses and my arms aren’t quite long enough to be sure.
thanks for the insight, i didnt consider sharing a hole with a component, ill give that a try. and yeah im sure theres some cold joints, ive had to reflow things before, im still getting a hang of it. still havin a fun time too
No problem. They may or may not fit together but it’s worth checking. If you’re going to do more of these builds it’s probably worth getting some normal strip boards but you can certainly make do with what you have if you want.
I’m glad you’re having fun, a lot of people just find it frustrating. Like most skills there’s no big secret, just endless little tricks and the rest is repetition and iteration and learning from mistakes.
!
Dude.
Thats pretty high. I set mine to 350° for pretty much everything. I use leaded solder. Fuck that unleaded shit.
For real. Get a fan, have some airflow, wear a mask if you’d like, and save yourself a ton of pain.
yeah that was the lowest that would consistently get the solder flowing. hasnt caused other problems beyond melting the insulation just yet, but im pretty ready to try leaded
Truth.
You can have your iron temperature high but you have to be able to work very quickly and methodically. And your iron wants to be in good condition (clean and well tinned)
yeah i cant lie, beyond cold joints that need reflowing, i havent had too many challenges with unleaded and high temps. i started to scorch a board when i needed to remove a component i put in upside down but i managed to get it removed and back in place without fucking up the pads. im hoping that this beginning unleaded period is training in fire and then everything will be way easier when i make the switch to leaded on the next roll
I’ve been using this
https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/lead-free-solder/
Had inconsistent results with a cheap iron. Upgraded to a hakko and am getting consistent results at 350 degrees.
Yes, use good solder. Often lead free complaints are due to using crap solder. In the US I like Kester K100LD.
Best stuff I ever used was when I did a massive batch assembly of some Oakley filters (for Oakley) and they supplied me with some (expensive) lead-free, water-based flux solder - very not-cheap but it met ROHS guidelines and you could wash the boards with just hot water to remove the flux.
Was an absolute dream to work with.
im definitely using dirt cheap amazon solder so thats another place to make an upgrade
Another thing to consider is the iron.
While you totally can use a cheap shitty iron, and I have build quite a few projects no problem with one. I recently upgraded to a cartridge system iron I got off aliexpress. Wasnt expensive at all. But holy fuck the difference is insane. Heats up from zero to 350 in seconds, and holds its temperature no matter what. Little screen tells you what its doing. I love it. Wish I had got it sooner. Makes desoldering so easy.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Good luck with your builds. DIY electronics is very rewarding.
thanks for the insight! this is what im using, i picked it because it seems to have informed good reviews. if the screen is accurately representing the temp, it seems to hold pretty well.
Damn that thing says it goes up to 900 degrees! That’s nuts. You might be able to do some light brazing with that.
I see it also comes with a few different tips. People are usually inclined toward using the most fine pointed tip they can find for precision but a larger tip can sometimes be more effective at transferring heat. It depends on the situation but thought I’d mention it.
I keep one iron setup with a chisel tip and another with a pencil tip for different tasks. Neither are fancy, both are old analog wellers. I also have one of those “pinecil” dc digital irons that I mostly use for portable work (on site work and it comes to every gig I play) since I can power it with a Makita drill battery. I used a cheap RadioShack iron for a long long time and never knew how hard I was working but it did the trick, I hitchhiked across the country with that iron in my backpack multiple times. Oh, and I have a solder pot that doesn’t get taken off the shelf very often, just if I need to tin a truly unreasonable amount of wires in a sitting.
I agree that good solder will improve your quality of life. Once you start to feel like an old hand you can use whatever’s around as long as you can set your iron up to match its qualities but it’s always nice to have some good stuff.
Essential! 
posting diy project gore, was determined to make these less-than-ideal boards work and i got this frankenstein out of it. only the square wave is working as expected and neither cv input works. im satisfied with this end state, probably wont live in the rack but im gonna hold onto it as a keepsake. just happy to have stuck through the roadblocks. i got better strip board showing up on wednesday so im gonna try again with that.
And some real mess.
It’s just a prototype of 8 rotary encoders board with ws2812 led rings, a dedicated MCU and I2C interface. Also I put here two faders just to test these new parts on the same prototype.
I’m going to test code and design and order a board for faders only later. Should be useful plug and pay module for many diy projects.
By the way, I solder 60/40 with just 240C and a large chisel tip. It works well even for not very dense smd boards. For bigger parts like neutrik 6.35 jacks I sometimes heat the iron to 300-315.
Smaller tips look like the thing for precise work, but they transfer too few heat. Precise tips are for really precise work like small parts on dense smd boards and so on. More heat with lower temperature - less damage to both tip and parts.
Try to use that one which provides the biggest contact with soldering part without touching other parts on a board.
