Hacking another fool with a soldering question

[acillatem214]

I haven't soldered anything in years. But I dug up my old 25W soldering iron from high school to prepare for my upcoming wiikey installation. I have a question for those who have already installed a mod chip in their wii about the size of the points that the wires need to be soldered to. The following is a picture of a old soundcard I practiced on. Please point out which joint (is that the right word?) is closest in size of the ones I will have to work with on the wii.

thanks

 

[xeorix]

It is very hard to tell by a picture but my guess is 4x #5 and 2x #3

 

[modmanwii]

they may be the same size, but imaging them all right next to each other... thats the problem,not the size

 

[lookout]

it number 5.

 

[instigator]

Yep, #5. But imagine them really close together. Like a millimeter or so apart. Plan your wire routing well because that middle pad (with the Wiikey install) is the trickiest to get at without bridging.

 

[alucard77]

Are you serious, #5 is the size of a tip of a very very very small pin. I would say it's like the a period at the end of this sentence. Is that really the solder size?!?

 

[acillatem214]

i managed to get the hang of soldering #5 sized joints. maybe its easy only because i really dont care about this modem (not soundcard).

i soldered a bunch of wires to that group of joints right under the nickel. im going to guess thats what the wii is going to be like

 

[instigator]

Are you serious, #5 is the size of a tip of a very very very small pin. I would say it's like the a period at the end of this sentence. Is that really the solder size?!?

Well I practiced on an old videocard and was relieved to find that the Wii's points ended up being a bit bigger. It is good practice to work on the smallest you can find.

 

[TheVirus]

Your wire looks huge. Might want to invest in some 30 gauge wire.

 

[Hooya]

The #5 points aren't all that small. I sized up your picture against a real nickel on my computer screen and I can tell you that soldering to points that small isn't a big deal if you have tiny wire, solder and a sharp point soldering iron. I'm even a noob at this stuff.
I haven't seen for myself, but I guess the points for the PS2 are even worse. Flip that sound card over and look at the size of the pins leading out from a chip. Now that's small.