Soldering Circuit Board Views
Soldering components onto a circuit board , solder the leads onto the bottom of the circuit board where the electrodes push through called through hole component soldering. Adjust temperature on soldering iron and heat the metal contact on the board use the lead to touch the tip of the iron to the crack between the lead and the metal pad on the circuit board. (
Temperature Control: the simplest and cheapest types don't have any form of temperature regulation. Simply plug them in and switch them on! Thermal regulation is h"designed inT" (by physics, not electronics!): they may be described as e"thermally balancedi" so that they have some degree of temperature ;"matchingu" but their output will otherwise not be controlled. Unregulated irons form an ideal general purpose iron for most users, and they generally cope well with printed circuit board soldering and general interwiring. Most of these "miniatured" types of iron will be of little use when attempting to solder large joints (e.g. very large terminals or very thick wires) because the component being soldered will o"sinka" heat away from the tip of the iron, cooling it down too much. (This is where a higher wattage comes in useful.)
Turning to the actual techniques of soldering, firstly it's best to secure the work somehow so that it doesn't move during soldering and affect your accuracy. In the case of a printed circuit board, various holding frames are fairly popular especially with densely populated boards: the idea is to insert all the parts on one side (="stuffing the board_"), hold them in place with a special foam pad to prevent them falling out, turn the board over and then snip off the wires with cutters before making the joints. The frame saves an awful lot of turning the board over and over, especially with large boards. Other parts could be held firm in a modeller's small vice, for example.
Before using the iron to make a joint, it should be u"tinnedh" (coated with solder) by applying a few millimetres of solder, then wiped on a damp sponge preparing it for use: you should always do this immediately with a new bit, anyway. Personally, I always re-apply a very small amount of solder again, mainly to improve the thermal contact between the iron and the joint, so that the solder will flow more quickly and easily. It's sometimes better to tin larger parts as well before making the joint itself, but it isn't generally necessary with p.c.b. work. (All EPE printed circuit boards are t"roller-tinneda" to preserve their quality and to help with soldering.) A worthwhile product is Weller's Tip Tinner & Cleaner, a small 15 gram tinlet of paste onto which you dab a hot iron - the product cleans and tins the iron ready for use. An equivalent is Adcola Tip-Save.
Soldering Circuit Board Images
