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Its hard to see and I am not picking holes but the soldering on the board does not look good. Its looks like it is balled up that is an indication of a newbie not leaving the iron on long enough for the sold to flow (common mistake) I would re flow some of the joints.
pick away clive mate
this is what I need so I welcome any advice mate. Before I made that sort of ball on the top I filled the hole underneath with solder, then tried to get that dome shape just for neatness, but I did fill the prong on the switch. Not to sure if I soften the solder I can do much else
Are you applying the solder to the iron and then putting it on the part if so that is wrong. You need to put the iron on the part and then apply the solder to the part and you should see it flow. Some people when learning just dab the iron but the part needs about 1-2 secs of heat depending how big the iron is.Quote:
Originally Posted by ravihotwok
No mate, I watched a few tutorials on youtube, I held the tip of the iron against the prong on the switch for a short while then placed the wire against the prong, as soon as it melted I let it fill the hole till about 3mm, then I removed the wire and slowly lifted the iron away to leave that dome shape. I was also careful to keep the end of the iron clean with a special sponge I bought from maplin. I never realised just how fiddly soldering is! and time consuming,
But when did you apply the solder?Quote:
Originally Posted by ravihotwok
time wise? think it was about5 - 8 sec? not too sure if im honest clive mate, but when it was melting plenty seeped in
Are you using lead free solder?
No think its 60/40 lead but would have to confirm
yep its 60% lead
The reason I asked, is lead free is a bit harder to work with, and easily results in joins like your photos.
Ideally you should be aiming for having the soldering iron in contact for less than 10 seconds. For heat sensitive components, even shorter than that.
Process should be - clean tip to remove old solder(that's what the wet sponge is for - the flux burns of, so you want any remnants of solder wiped off), apply blob of fresh solder on the tip, hold tip against what you're soldering, as soon as the solder starts to flow onto the leg/PCB, feed in enough to get a good join aiming for the contact point between tip and component, pull solder pulled away, pull soldering iron away.
Having a decent sized soldering helps. Too small and you have to hold it on for too long to get solder to flow, too big and you risk overheating things if you hold it on too long.