Hacking Doubts about material for soldering

[Lain]

Hi, I've already gathered the material needed to solder my wiikey that will arrive in some 5 days

I have none experience in soldering but I can say that my tests before chipping seemed to go well, the soldering went smooth.

I just wanted to ask something about the wire and the solder. I only managed to get a solder that is 60% Tin and 40% Lead. I asked about solder with rosin-core and the guy just stared at me whit a "what?" face.. I just would like to know what would be the difference about it not being rosin-core and unlike the one that was stated here http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=43534 which is 62% Tin, 36% Lead and 2% Silver (with rosin-core). Will it not having a rosin-core and 2% silver make much difference if well soldered?

The smallest wire they had was also some 42 instead of 30.. will it make much difference?

It's a pity my country has no Radioshack..

Thanks in advance!

 

[Takrin]

that setup should work, solder should be fine long as its not acid flux, (usally their not too corrosive but still not good for your system), usually says what kind of core it has on the solder package, but ones without flux is fine for wii also

is your wire 42awg? or is it 0.42mm?
if in doubt just use 2x wire for gnd/pwr (if its 42awg) but shouldn't have problems either way

it should work out fine, just remember to avoid acidic flux if possible, else you should remove it or swab it with a wet qtip (if its water soluable)

*Edit*

silver helps in many ways but its optional, if you really wanted you can solder with pure lead. basicly if its metal, has low melting point you can solder with, ex: Pewter solder is used for electronics sometimes

 

[taggart6]

I would go with 30 AWG. 42 is painful to work with without the right wire strippers and a low temp soldering iron. You can "burn" a 42 wire easier then a 30. It'll hit up faster and it has a thinner outer coating that is basically sprayed on.

EDIT: And get solder with rosin-core. Long story short, it helps attracts solder to metal during the heating process and prevents the solder from burning during the process. You can also use flux which will greatly help.

 

[Lain]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I think that my solder has rosin-core after all from what I've been reading.. but since I'm new at it I dont know if it's normal or not..

From what I read when you solder using a rosin-core solder, it might get a brown color around the solder, this is the rosin.. my solder gets a bit like that which makes me think it is rosin-core.. but as I said, it can be also normal for non rosin-core solder since I'm new at this..

The wire I cant say exactly the size.. because when I mentioned 30AWG to the store guy he didnt even knew what AWG meant.. and well.. neither do I.. he though 30 would be the size and the smallest he had was 50. But I guess it's 0.50mm.

 

[Hop]

is this a good soldering for Wii?

 

[Lain]

I've heard about that, but dunno how good it might be.. either ways, OFF TOPIC!

Get a thread for yourself..

 

[dohclude]

that .42mm wire is junk man. Ditch that and go for the 30AWG solid core wire (kynar wire wrap). It's very cheap and it's not too thin or too think. It's just perfect.

Oh, and that cold heat soldering iron melts solder using an electrical arc. In lamen's terms, this means a bolt of electricity shoots out of the end of the thing, that's hot enough to melt metal... do you want to use that anywhere near your electronics? I wouldn't personally. Just a nice cheap 15W pencil iron from radio shack will get you going for about $8.

 

[Lain]

I followed your suggestion and found a 30AWG (0.25mm) wire

gonna pick it up later.

Now the solder I bought yesterday is the following: 60% Tin, 40% Lead.

The store informed me that all the solders that use Lead are being picked out of the market and being replaced by other ones that wont use Lead for health reasons of who solders.

At the store they have one that is 96.5% Tin and 3.5% Silver. It's the nearest that they have at the store, to the one being sold at Radioshack and adviced at this post which is 62% Tin, 36% Lead and 2% Silver.

Anyone that is experienced can advise me between the one I bought yesterday with (60% Tin, 40% Lead) and the other one with (96.5% Tin, 3.5% Silver) to use on the Wii?

Thanks in advance!

 

[outphase]

Cold heat is terrible for electronics work.

 

[Takrin]

is this a good soldering for Wii?

[sarcasm] its great but you know whats better?

just ignore the UV rays that sting your eyes and dont worry about welding burning thru the circuit board also [/sarcasm]

those cold heat suck really bad for electronics (maybe few uses but really your asking for a burnt wii if you use that)