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Soldering Wires – Here's a different way

371 points by laktak 4y ago

jasonpeacock 4y ago
I was taught to heat the wire and touch the solder to it. This looks like they are laying the wire on the solder, then heating the solder - not the wire. Won't this result in a cold solder on the wire?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- malfist 4y ago
  Yes, this will result in a cold join that will be unreliable.
- akiselev 4y ago
  The OP uses single stranded wire but the solder blob on the PCB creates far more surface area contact for heat transfer from the iron which makes a large difference with stranded wire. When you're soldering hundreds of connections, the time savings from not having to pin the wire against a solid surface or clip it in place is substantial. The bigger problem is that all the rosin flux in the solder will have evaporated, likely making the joint very weak. Most DIY projects lack any form of strain relief so it's a double whammy for any wire that will shift around.
  - FpUser 4y ago
    >"The bigger problem is that all the rosin flux in the solder will have evaporated" But the OP specifically adds short pieces of solder to the pads before soldering wires. When they finally lay the wire and start heating that solder piece might have just enough flux in it. Alternatively one could just smear some flux on the pad before laying wire. Still I am not convinced this particular way is of any practical advantage.
    - akiselev 4y ago
      Flux helps break the surface tension between solder blob and wire so I really doubt the flux in the unmelted solder would have a path to flow to the wire. But yeah, my solution is to just dip the wire in a jar of flux as I’m stripping and twisting them
- DanBC 4y ago
  Lots of the joints in the images are sub-standard. This method is fine if you're happy bodging something together, but it's not great.
- Ccecil 4y ago
  Not just the wire...the entire joint needs to be heated equally (ideally) and then the solder is touched to the heated joint. Any time you touch the solder to the iron it will burn off the flux and cause cold joints. Never put solder on the iron tip...although...I do it sometimes to increase heat transfer to larger joints (emulates a larger tip) but you can expect that the flux has burned off and may require liquid flux and reflow. Sidenote: if you coat your tips with solder before shutting off your iron it will prevent oxidation and increase tip life.
lolc 4y ago
Excellent! Why do I only see this now, after battling with a third hand for so long? Now I want to solder something!
fps-hero 4y ago
That’s a neat looking trick, will have to see how well it works in practice. I can’t see it working too well if you need to feed the wire into a through hole. My trick is to tin the joint and the wire, apply no-clean flux to either the joint or the wire (situation dependent), then bring the two together while reflowing the joint. Quite handy for soldering tight multi-pin connectors. The real tip is buy flux, it’s just as important as solder.
- exmadscientist 4y ago
  Agreed on the through-holes, and doubly agreed on the flux. All magic in soldering ultimately comes from flux. The other way you can easily solder to pads is to use solder paste. Many people don't seem to realize that paste is good for more than just reflow. It's not as useful for situations like this, where you need a relatively large solder volume (so I'd also use your method), but it works quite well for smaller scale work.
- cronix 4y ago
  We much preferred rosin based flux in our shop. It flowed much better, made more perfect joints (no holes) and was much easier to clean after repairs.
whatshisface 4y ago
This looks like a good idea, but is the wire getting hot enough? Does the rosin work to dissolve the oxidization on the wire when the solder is being melted and sucked in by surface tension, as opposed to being melted by the wire directly? I could conceive of the rosin all ending up on the surface of the blob using this technique, not touching the wires.
- Zobat 4y ago
  I'm guessing you really should (primarily) heat the wire in the final stage. With rosin core solder you should (my assumption) get a good joint as the pad is already "wetted" by solder and the flux in the solder should make sure you wet the wire enough. Haven't tested this so do your own verification.
WalterBright 4y ago
For me, the breakthrough was getting a thermostat controlled soldering iron. Suddenly I could make perfect joints every time.
- skybrian 4y ago
  I have one, but I don’t know what temperature to set it to and there are probably other flaws in my technique, so it’s still trial and error.
  - MarkMarine 4y ago
    Depends on the solder and the component, for wires there is no way to hurt it so you can crank up for efficiency, and for sensitive components you need to be more careful. It’s actually much harder to make a good solder joint with lead free solder, so be kind to yourself about it. No harm in re-doing a joint.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      You can melt the insulation off the wires :-/ Anyhow, I never fried a part with the iron. Heated the wire just enough to flow the solder, and applied heat only barely long enough. To avoid needing a third hand for some joints, I'd pre-fill the hole with solder. Then heat it up again till it melted, and push the wire in.
      - MarkMarine 4y ago
        You can get a cold joint that way. I went through the through-hole solder training for lead free solder, for manufacturing aerospace components back in the day. #1 thing they teach is not to do things like that, you need to heat the component and let the solder flow to the joint around the component, never heat the solder itself or pre-solder, etc.
  - munificent 4y ago
    Electronics was my pandemic hobby. Even with a temperature controlled solder station, my technique was really hit or miss. Part of that is obviously experience, but the real lightbulb moment for me was good solder. Once I switched to Kester solder, I had a much better more consistent experience. My hypothesis is that cheaper solder doesn't have the flux as evenly distributed, so you get spans of solder with too little flux and then everything gets worse, then you hit a good patch and it gets better.
gw99 4y ago
You shouldn't really lap solder wires to boards. They tend to pull the pads off the boards or crack. Better to use wire to board connectors or solder terminals.
- exmadscientist 4y ago
  No, you shouldn't lap join wires to surface-mount pads. But sometimes you have to. Just don't deliberately design something this way and we'll call it good. (Through holes are fine. Mostly.)
  - Ao7bei3s 4y ago
    Yes, but if you do have to design a PCB for soldering wires to pads, you can increase the strength of the pad by making the pad much larger in the copper layer. You can still keep it the original smaller size in the solder resist layer; keeping the soldering area away from the pad edge and fragile traces there increases the strength further, and gives it a tidy look and a nice soldering experience. For quick one offs, simply place a normal pad, place a copper fill polygon connected to the same net around the pad, and turn off thermal reliefs / set pad connection to solid for the polygon. Obviously if you need it a lot, draw a new footprint.
    - gw99 4y ago
      You should even really do that. There are loads of nice solder in crimp terminations now that you can use for wires. Or wire to board connectors. Just stay away from any Molex crap. Tends to charcoal itself.
      - buescher 4y ago
        There are some really cool surface mount IDC things too, and push-in terminators for solid wire. Solid wire through holes is OK if the wire is never going to flex. Otherwise the stranded wire lapped to surface mount pads, or soldered into through holes, with a big blob of hot glue or epoxy for maybe-sorta "strain relief" is a great pet peeve of mine - it's ugly and it breaks. Never had a problem with Molex, myself.
genmud 4y ago
My trick for soldering wires to PCBs is to put a large blob of solder on the pcb, tin the wire (with a bit more than you normally would) and then just heat the joint/wire and am done. I run my iron really hot (750F/400c) and just get in and out. I use a curved conical tip and have never have had issues with this technique.
- amelius 4y ago
  Well, they say that you lose the flux too early using that method.
  - genmud 4y ago
    Only if you spend too much time on it. You do have to wet your tip more frequently when you are using high temp with flux core. However, I end up with shiny, well made joints 99% of the time. If I burn off the flux, I typically will wick it up and re-apply, or just swipe the solder off the joint and add more solder (depending on what I am working on).
duped 4y ago
This looks like a recipe for cold solder joints and solder bridges and doesn't seem like it saves time. What you really want to do when you have dozens of jumper wires is to do an array-of-struct to struct-of-array transform on the steps. Instead of cutting, stripping, tinning, and soldering one wire at a time, cut all your wires, then strip them all, then tin them all, then solder them one by one. Here's a pro tip: when you tin the wires, lay the iron flat on your workbench with tip out into air and tin by laying the end of the wire on top and then adding the solder. Another pro tip: use a pair of needle nose pliers to bend the tinned leads by a little over 90 degrees to make a little hook. When you solder to the board you can apply a little tension and let the solder flow into the hole. Makes very string solder joints.
- austinjp 4y ago
  > do an array-of-struct to struct-of-array transform on the steps I call this "pin-making" after Adam Smith's famous/apocryphal account of the division of labour in a pin factory [0] and do it in pretty much every area of my life :) [0] https://www.econlib.org/library/topics/highschool/divisionoflaborspecialization.html https://www.econlib.org/library/topics/highschool/divisionof...
- Whitespace 4y ago
  If you have that many stripped wires to tin, you can use a tub of flux and a solder pot. Dip the wires into the flux, then quickly dip it into the solder pot. Perfectly tinned end with no plastic melting. Really hard to mess up vs a soldering iron, a wire, and solder wire. You can even dip multiple wires into the flux and solder bath at the same time, as well as use the flux tub again before you solder the tinned wire to the contact.
  - bsder 4y ago
    Yeah, every time I see a soldering "tutorial" that doesn't use separate flux--I facepalm. Flux is probably more important than the solder for good joints. A syringe of paste flux makes life ridiculously easier.
sitzkrieg 4y ago
great technique to triple solder usage of simple wire joins and as many have already said, pretty good way to get a cold joint or pockets
- dylan604 4y ago
  Yeah, but it's from the 70s, so it has to be good, right?
  - an1sotropy 4y ago
    plus with the accent it's more authoritative (at least to my US ears).
sandreas 4y ago
Oh boy, nice idea, but this looks complicated and time consuming. I recommend to get some good equipment first: - solder fume extractor (see below) - extra thin high quality tin - a desoldering pump AND desoldering wire - high quality flux - a TS 100 soldering Iron with KU tip from ali express for 50 bucks - optional: USB-C Power Adapter for your existing power supply (so you don't have to buy one) - optional: a soldering mat (normaly blue colored) and you have a near professional equipment for about $120. Now flash IronOS[1] on your soldering Iron, and it works even better. Instructions: - turn on solder fume extractor - heat iron to 370° Celsius (but be careful depending on your workpiece) - Tin both ends beforhand - better slightly more flux to put on (but not for small works) - if flux has been applied, cleaning up with e.g. toothbrush & isopropyl alcohol after you're done maybe a good idea However, the most important peace of hardware is a solder fume extractor... I'm surprised that so many youtube "professionals" don't put a hint on this - never play with your health. This can even be done DIY (see youtube tutorials). High quality flux is also important because of your health. Chinese sellers often don't care about ingredients... High quality tin is much easier to work with and costs 5 bucks more than low quality tin. It is worth. [1]: https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS
- lapetitejort 4y ago
  > Now flash IronOS[1] on your soldering Iron I got to here and thought this was some elaborate joke, and expected the github page to continue on with the joke. An operating system for a soldering iron?? But no, it seems 100% serious. Somehow soldering iron tech passed me by.
  - racnid 4y ago
    Anything more than your basic soldering iron is probably running a PID loop to control temperature. I don't know if my hakko is supported by IronOS but I could easily see it as a useful option. It's the flashlight guys who have really run amok: https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/xopqft/prob_a_good_idea_to_have_this_inside_flashlight/ https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/xopqft/prob_a_g...
  - 4y ago
amelius 4y ago
How would he solder two stranded wires together without helping hands/device?
- akiselev 4y ago
  I prefer to just use a heat gun with some solder seal connectors (marine grade for free waterproofing).
- Kirby64 4y ago
  Twist two wires together... lean them against something to prop them off your table, then gently add solder and your iron. No need for helping hands, you just can't be too brutal with it.
pachico 4y ago
Surely unrelated but I remember being 15 (30 years ago) and being an electric guitar player with modest or no economic resources. I'm not saying that I celebrated the moment when one of my wires or jacks broke, but it felt great fixing it with a little patience and some soldering. I am close now to many musicians that never fixed any of their wires/cables. I kinda like to belong to those older times.
- duncan-donuts 4y ago
  The last few years I’ve been getting out and playing guitar with more people. The thing I found most surprising was how most guitar players don’t know how to fix their guitars. I genuinely enjoy fixing my guitars.
ravenstine 4y ago
This makes so much sense. By doing it this way, the iron isn't fighting the thermal conductivity of the rest of the solder feed. It just has to heat a small bit of solder. I know there are aficionados who can point out possible disadvantages of this approach, but honestly, I can see this technique being really handy when you just want to prototype something out and you want to get things done efficiently. Not every solder joint needs to be perfect, just as not every PCB needs to be factory quality and is going to a customer. As someone who only occasionally needs to solder a custom circuit, this looks like a time saver. If I was frequently making PCBs by hand, maybe I'd think otherwise.
Jemm 4y ago
I like it. That solder ball from the expanding rosin is a bit concerning but that was just a demo.
jbverschoor 4y ago
Looks like a blob of solder used as hot glue.
orangepurple 4y ago
Soldering is good, BUT... You should avoid soldering when possible because connectors are detachable for module maintenance and solder is prone to cracking in high vibration environments. Typically you will see a connector soldered and otherwise secured mechanically to a PCB where vibrations are unavoidable. Crimping is better whenever feasible
- InitialLastName 4y ago
  This is probably true for scaled production, BUT... Most people following Instructables for tips on soldering wires to vector boards aren't likely to need to maintain their prototypes, and roughly 0% of those prototypes will be in a high-vibration environment.
  - gw99 4y ago
    Actually this crap will probably be bodged into a rats nest nightmare project if it’s an instructables user. Anyone who has debugged one of them knows to do things properly or suffer the wrath of intermittent problems.
    - orangepurple 4y ago
      And intermittent problems make newbies lose motivation extra quickly and care even less until they eventually rage quit. It's better to just get connections done well right away
  - DoingIsLearning 4y ago
    Still the GP comment is in the right direction. For wires like the ones in the video you can still use something like a small phoenix connector and just screw your wire connections in, just like you would wire up a choc box, no crimp tools required. The advice in the post will likely create a cold joint and intermittent/noisy connections.
  - orangepurple 4y ago
    Soldered connections can be surprisingly crap (intermittent electrical gremlins) especially if you're a noob. You can't easily spot a cold solder as a noob. Meanwhile even a noob can easily judge basic crimp quality. Better to get an all-in-one box assortment of cheap male and female connectors off eBay I started out soldering but now it's mostly limited to installing connectors into PCBs followed by hot glue around the housing for mechanical rigidity
DanBC 4y ago
I feel like tutorials should make it clear when they're giving you correct technique or some quick and dirty hack. One of the images shows damaged insulation and too much solder. https://content.instructables.com/ORIG/FES/OFV3/KZ7C3ZX0/FESOFV3KZ7C3ZX0.png https://content.instructables.com/ORIG/FES/OFV3/KZ7C3ZX0/FES...
the_cat_kittles 4y ago
anyone have an opinion on what color to paint the bikeshed?
YeahNO 4y ago
I'm not a fan, this looks like terrible advise. If you want to do high quality work, solder header pins onto the board and use crimp-connectors on your lead wires. I don't use flux-core wire, I prefer to apply flux directly to the pads/pins/wires as applicable. As others have pointed out, use appropriate strain relief.
SkyPuncher 4y ago
This is extremely useful to me as a _hobbyist_. Many of the critiques in this thread are valid, but probably not relevant to the hobbyist environment. For me, I struggle to get solder even in the best of circumstances. It's just a skill that I cannot master. I really, really like this technique as it enables me to make passable hobby solders without risking messing up my project.
- klyrs 4y ago
  As a hobbyist, I've had my fair share of cold solder joints*, so I flinched when I saw what the linked article recommends. I once did something similar with cheap perf board, and ended up scrapping it because they can only take so much rework before the traces are destroyed. The only "good" I see in this is that they author has left a rat-tail of unmelted solder so at least it will have some flux left to wet the wire. * which show up as intermittent opens at DC with some fun dependence on position / temperature / humidity. At audio frequencies, they're disastrous -- I can only imagine what they'd do at HF.
MithrilTuxedo 4y ago
NAVAIR 01-2A-23 NAVSEA SE004-AK-TRS-010/2M MARINE CORPS TM 5895-45/1E USAF T.O. 00-25-259 STANDARD MAINTENANCE PRACTICES MINIATURE/MICROMINIATURE (2M) ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY REPAIR https://www.robins.af.mil/Portals/59/documents/technicalorders/00-25-259.pdf https://www.robins.af.mil/Portals/59/documents/technicalorde... I was a solder tech in the Navy. That was our Bible.
- bsder 4y ago
  Interesting. It looks just like the NASA guidelines, but with military slapped all over it. I wonder which ones came first given how much aerospace is miltary work.
- gw99 4y ago
  There’s some terrible advice in there which is merely cargo cult thinking. The whole thing needs garbage collecting. The final straw was when I saw someone using a wire brush on a Metcal tip after reading one of these mil spec guides. I was production engineer defence sector for a few years.
  - linker3000 4y ago
    Best I saw during my apprenticeship days in the 1980s was when we had some EE degree students on work placement. We worked in R&D and all (Multibus II) boards were hand-soldered and had to be visually inspected by a supervisor before testing. One chap presented his board for checking and, after a visual and touch inspection, our supervisor said that some of the joints were a bit 'pointy' and would need fixing. So off went the student to the fab area of the workshop, the board was put in a vice and I just stopped him as he approached the bench with a sandpaper-wrapped block of wood.
    - gw99 4y ago
      Oh just reading that hurts!
armatav 4y ago
Hand soldering is a pain, also - ALL those joints are going to be cold and brittle - use a heat gun/headers and the paste.
sickcodebruh 4y ago
I just started working with soldering last week to do my own pickup replacements and basic electric guitar maintenance, so this is very timely! In my first two attempts, I managed to swap pickups successfully, where "success" is measured as "it sounds the way I expect, all knobs and switches work, there is no unexpected buzzing." I worry about how much I don't know about it, so I'm curious: is it possible that I need to expand my concept of success? Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Or is it enough to say that if it sounds right and doesn't look like trash, it is good enough?
- toast0 4y ago
  > Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Or is it enough to say that if it sounds right and doesn't look like trash, it is good enough? It depends on the application. If you're not performing, the cost of a joint that fails later is just a bit of annoyance. If you're on stage and your equipment fails, that's a lot worse. I wouldn't think guitar solder joints are stressed out too much though, so if it lasts a week, it'll probably last longer. There's a little bit of vibration and motion, but not a lot of power or heat. And most people try to take it easy on their guitars --- it's not like car wiring or anything.
- analog31 4y ago
  >>> Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Yes. Things can go wrong with solder connections over time, such as: 1. So called "cold" solder joint eventually becomes non-conducting or semiconducting (interesting properties of tin) over time, resulting in weird behaviors such as AM radio pickup. 2. Effects of vibration. The guitar is probably getting handled a lot. 3. Other stuff coming loose, such as the nuts holding pots and jacks in place, causing wiggling of the solder joints. 4. Not directly related to soldering, but poor stripping can "nick" the conductors of the wires, leading to premature breakage. I'm an electric bassist, and I'm responsible for my gear being 100% reliable on the bandstand. I don't bring a spare bass, except that my electric is sometimes a spare for my upright, especially for outdoor gigs. I do keep some spare cables and other odds and ends in a bag that stays in my car. I'm also quite experienced with electronic tech work. There are some things that can give you a better than 0% chance of your stuff staying in business over time: 1. A good wire stripper that has fixed blade settings and can't nick the wire, such as a "T Stripper" or an "Ideal Stripmaster." 2. A commercial quality iron with a tip in good condition. 3. Lead based solder is still easier for beginners, but a lead-free alloy called Kester K100 is a lot better than the early lead-free alloys. 4. Make sure both sides of the joint are "tinned" before joining them together and soldering. Then you can complete the joint with just a touch of the iron and a bit of solder. For weird / old components, tinning is a good chance to make sure that the solder will actually wet the component, as opposed to balling up. 5. Strain relief. Wire runs of more than a couple inches should be tied with with zip ties or whatever. 6. Be on constant lookout for deterioration of your instrument, something that's just got to be part of being a musician. If a jack or pot comes loose, tighten the nut. You can sneak under the knobs with a bicycle cone wrench if the knob is hard to remove. You'll need the cone wrenches for your bike too.
phs 4y ago
As someone who only wants to occasionally perform one-off firmware flashes on my devices, soldering always felt clumsy and heavy-weight. For actual chips, SPI programmer clips have been great. For test pads, I just ordered one of these [1], which will hopefully work just a well. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MKHH7DY https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MKHH7DY
- spfzero 4y ago
  TAG-Connect makes a nice one of these. I use their target footprint on all my MCU projects now. The guide holes and pins make it easy to hold with one hand and know it will stay put as you initiate the programming with your other hand.
- mmoskal 4y ago
  I've been using a do-it-yourself connector [0] (aka Hack Connect) for my own boards - it stays in the board by itself. Interesting the link you posted - it seems 2x5p 1.27mm version with one pin cut would work as the pogo version of Hack Connect. [0]: https://arcade.makecode.com/hardware/dbg https://arcade.makecode.com/hardware/dbg
temporallobe 4y ago
As a soldering amateur, this looks effective, but it also seems to waste solder wire. Are there any other drawbacks? Either way, I’m definitely going to test this method out.
squarefoot 4y ago
Bad advice. Just use a good solder iron, thin solder (possibly leaded), and good no clean flux, then lots of practice. It's all about timing: too quick = cold solder joint; too slow = burned pad/track, or part. Learn also to understand about thermal mass and how to change the temperature and timings according to what you're soldering and its size. Also, that iron looks like a Hakko "936" cheap clone: they are barely above the garbage level; get a better one. Used Wellers aren't that expensive, and no, you won't need a microcontroller for digital temperature control and all those gimmicks they put in modern solder irons. I also have a PineCil from the same folks that made the PinePhone and was amazed by its quality. Yes, it has a mcu for digital temperature control, but I'd lie if I wrote that I used any of its functions beyond setting the temperature.
- picture 4y ago
  The PineCil looks like a TS100 clone, though I'm not too sure which came first. The huge benefit of these microcontroller irons are their monolithic heating element that integrates the temperature sensor. This allows for much better temperature control compared to cheap Hakko-style irons where the tip is a metal piece that sleeves over the heating and sensing elements. It makes a very meaningful improvement in terms of the time it takes to heat up parts with high "thermal inertia"
  - stavros 4y ago
    The TS100 came first, but the Pinecil is better.
  - MivLives 4y ago
    TS100 was first. I believe the Pinecil also takes TS100 tips. I've liked the Pinecil except sometimes mine crashes in the middle of me soldering. I need to update the OS but I'm lazy. It does fail cold (Says it's hot but it's not heating) which is probably the better of the two ways it could go.
    - type0 4y ago
      Let's get to the most important questions, can you play Tetris on Pinecil with the new OS update?
tzs 4y ago
I miss wire wrap. Simple, fast, and very reliable.
dogben 4y ago
Watch this before inventing a new way of soldering. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837
eternityforest 4y ago
I have done this stuff in production environments. Wires and connectors are like, 30% of the challenge on simple projects and can make or break the quality of a project. You MAY have a chance if the wire is pretinned or you use flux. Do not do this with bare copper even if it looks like it works, you will probably get at least a few cold joints. The better version is to coat the wire and pad with solder, put the wire on the pad, flux. then press it into the pad with the iron. Better yet, never ever solder wire directly to a board in hobby or low volume work unless small size is totally critical. Especially stranded. It makes a metal fatigue point if things move at all, and requires hot glue to stand even a few bend cycles. And even when you do have good connectors, it's probably still in your best interest to minimize the number of wires hanging around, learn about I2C as quick as you can. It can't be quickly disconnected for repairs and replacement and troubleshooting. It's a lot of work. Even if done perfectly it's just not very nice. Instead, solder connectors to the board directly. For short ranges use 2.54mm jumpers. Never use male jumpers if you can avoid it, they are delicate and annoying. For longer distances, there are lots of things that don't suck, USB-C, 2.1mm barrel, Ethernet, 3 pin XLR, and whatever your country has for mains electricity. Stay away from normal 4mn banana plugs unless you are in a field where they are already everywhere. The cheap ones shear off. and have bad connections and they are not particularly common. Even DMM test leads don't use them, they use the shielded versions. Common off the shelf stuff that you can buy extensions for. Don't solder long wires to stuff, it will just make a tangled mess when you put it away and make it hard to troubleshoot. When you do have a reason to do stuff like that, Wago connectors and pigtail adapters are your friend especially for tests and troubleshooting Because then when you realize you actually don't need 5 XT60 extensions, you can swap the ends for something else quickly. And most importantly Do. Not. Invent. Some. Crazy scheme of powering all your projects from a central point over long 12v wires. Every new electronics DIYer seems to do it, and cables and wires are often the enemy. Yeah it looks cool and sci-fi and seems like a good idea to have wires everywhere, but single purpose and custom made cables are a nuisance to deal with, they're heavy and expensive and trip hazards.
mrtweetyhack 4y ago
userbinator 4y ago
Congratulations, you have effectively reinvented solder paste, but without the flux. /s Like the others here, I'm not convinced this is better in any way than the "normal" method, or just using solder paste.
tjmc 4y ago
Tangential question. Why don't Americans pronounce the "l" in "solder"?
- Eisenstein 4y ago
  Why don't French people pronounce half their letters?

371 points by laktak 4y ago

I was taught to heat the wire and touch the solder to it. This looks like they are laying the wire on the solder, then heating the solder - not the wire. Won't this result in a cold solder on the wire?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
malfist 4y ago
Yes, this will result in a cold join that will be unreliable.
akiselev 4y ago
The OP uses single stranded wire but the solder blob on the PCB creates far more surface area contact for heat transfer from the iron which makes a large difference with stranded wire. When you're soldering hundreds of connections, the time savings from not having to pin the wire against a solid surface or clip it in place is substantial. The bigger problem is that all the rosin flux in the solder will have evaporated, likely making the joint very weak. Most DIY projects lack any form of strain relief so it's a double whammy for any wire that will shift around.
- FpUser 4y ago
  >"The bigger problem is that all the rosin flux in the solder will have evaporated" But the OP specifically adds short pieces of solder to the pads before soldering wires. When they finally lay the wire and start heating that solder piece might have just enough flux in it. Alternatively one could just smear some flux on the pad before laying wire. Still I am not convinced this particular way is of any practical advantage.
  - akiselev 4y ago
    Flux helps break the surface tension between solder blob and wire so I really doubt the flux in the unmelted solder would have a path to flow to the wire. But yeah, my solution is to just dip the wire in a jar of flux as I’m stripping and twisting them
DanBC 4y ago
Lots of the joints in the images are sub-standard. This method is fine if you're happy bodging something together, but it's not great.
Ccecil 4y ago
Not just the wire...the entire joint needs to be heated equally (ideally) and then the solder is touched to the heated joint. Any time you touch the solder to the iron it will burn off the flux and cause cold joints. Never put solder on the iron tip...although...I do it sometimes to increase heat transfer to larger joints (emulates a larger tip) but you can expect that the flux has burned off and may require liquid flux and reflow. Sidenote: if you coat your tips with solder before shutting off your iron it will prevent oxidation and increase tip life.

lolc 4y ago

Excellent! Why do I only see this now, after battling with a third hand for so long? Now I want to solder something!

fps-hero 4y ago

That’s a neat looking trick, will have to see how well it works in practice. I can’t see it working too well if you need to feed the wire into a through hole. My trick is to tin the joint and the wire, apply no-clean flux to either the joint or the wire (situation dependent), then bring the two together while reflowing the joint. Quite handy for soldering tight multi-pin connectors. The real tip is buy flux, it’s just as important as solder.

exmadscientist 4y ago
Agreed on the through-holes, and doubly agreed on the flux. All magic in soldering ultimately comes from flux. The other way you can easily solder to pads is to use solder paste. Many people don't seem to realize that paste is good for more than just reflow. It's not as useful for situations like this, where you need a relatively large solder volume (so I'd also use your method), but it works quite well for smaller scale work.
cronix 4y ago
We much preferred rosin based flux in our shop. It flowed much better, made more perfect joints (no holes) and was much easier to clean after repairs.

whatshisface 4y ago

This looks like a good idea, but is the wire getting hot enough? Does the rosin work to dissolve the oxidization on the wire when the solder is being melted and sucked in by surface tension, as opposed to being melted by the wire directly? I could conceive of the rosin all ending up on the surface of the blob using this technique, not touching the wires.

Zobat 4y ago
I'm guessing you really should (primarily) heat the wire in the final stage. With rosin core solder you should (my assumption) get a good joint as the pad is already "wetted" by solder and the flux in the solder should make sure you wet the wire enough. Haven't tested this so do your own verification.

WalterBright 4y ago

For me, the breakthrough was getting a thermostat controlled soldering iron. Suddenly I could make perfect joints every time.

skybrian 4y ago
I have one, but I don’t know what temperature to set it to and there are probably other flaws in my technique, so it’s still trial and error.
- MarkMarine 4y ago
  Depends on the solder and the component, for wires there is no way to hurt it so you can crank up for efficiency, and for sensitive components you need to be more careful. It’s actually much harder to make a good solder joint with lead free solder, so be kind to yourself about it. No harm in re-doing a joint.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    You can melt the insulation off the wires :-/ Anyhow, I never fried a part with the iron. Heated the wire just enough to flow the solder, and applied heat only barely long enough. To avoid needing a third hand for some joints, I'd pre-fill the hole with solder. Then heat it up again till it melted, and push the wire in.
    - MarkMarine 4y ago
      You can get a cold joint that way. I went through the through-hole solder training for lead free solder, for manufacturing aerospace components back in the day. #1 thing they teach is not to do things like that, you need to heat the component and let the solder flow to the joint around the component, never heat the solder itself or pre-solder, etc.
- munificent 4y ago
  Electronics was my pandemic hobby. Even with a temperature controlled solder station, my technique was really hit or miss. Part of that is obviously experience, but the real lightbulb moment for me was good solder. Once I switched to Kester solder, I had a much better more consistent experience. My hypothesis is that cheaper solder doesn't have the flux as evenly distributed, so you get spans of solder with too little flux and then everything gets worse, then you hit a good patch and it gets better.

gw99 4y ago

You shouldn't really lap solder wires to boards. They tend to pull the pads off the boards or crack. Better to use wire to board connectors or solder terminals.

exmadscientist 4y ago
No, you shouldn't lap join wires to surface-mount pads. But sometimes you have to. Just don't deliberately design something this way and we'll call it good. (Through holes are fine. Mostly.)
- Ao7bei3s 4y ago
  Yes, but if you do have to design a PCB for soldering wires to pads, you can increase the strength of the pad by making the pad much larger in the copper layer. You can still keep it the original smaller size in the solder resist layer; keeping the soldering area away from the pad edge and fragile traces there increases the strength further, and gives it a tidy look and a nice soldering experience. For quick one offs, simply place a normal pad, place a copper fill polygon connected to the same net around the pad, and turn off thermal reliefs / set pad connection to solid for the polygon. Obviously if you need it a lot, draw a new footprint.
  - gw99 4y ago
    You should even really do that. There are loads of nice solder in crimp terminations now that you can use for wires. Or wire to board connectors. Just stay away from any Molex crap. Tends to charcoal itself.
    - buescher 4y ago
      There are some really cool surface mount IDC things too, and push-in terminators for solid wire. Solid wire through holes is OK if the wire is never going to flex. Otherwise the stranded wire lapped to surface mount pads, or soldered into through holes, with a big blob of hot glue or epoxy for maybe-sorta "strain relief" is a great pet peeve of mine - it's ugly and it breaks. Never had a problem with Molex, myself.

genmud 4y ago

My trick for soldering wires to PCBs is to put a large blob of solder on the pcb, tin the wire (with a bit more than you normally would) and then just heat the joint/wire and am done. I run my iron really hot (750F/400c) and just get in and out. I use a curved conical tip and have never have had issues with this technique.

amelius 4y ago
Well, they say that you lose the flux too early using that method.
- genmud 4y ago
  Only if you spend too much time on it. You do have to wet your tip more frequently when you are using high temp with flux core. However, I end up with shiny, well made joints 99% of the time. If I burn off the flux, I typically will wick it up and re-apply, or just swipe the solder off the joint and add more solder (depending on what I am working on).

duped 4y ago

This looks like a recipe for cold solder joints and solder bridges and doesn't seem like it saves time. What you really want to do when you have dozens of jumper wires is to do an array-of-struct to struct-of-array transform on the steps. Instead of cutting, stripping, tinning, and soldering one wire at a time, cut all your wires, then strip them all, then tin them all, then solder them one by one. Here's a pro tip: when you tin the wires, lay the iron flat on your workbench with tip out into air and tin by laying the end of the wire on top and then adding the solder. Another pro tip: use a pair of needle nose pliers to bend the tinned leads by a little over 90 degrees to make a little hook. When you solder to the board you can apply a little tension and let the solder flow into the hole. Makes very string solder joints.

austinjp 4y ago
> do an array-of-struct to struct-of-array transform on the steps I call this "pin-making" after Adam Smith's famous/apocryphal account of the division of labour in a pin factory [0] and do it in pretty much every area of my life :) [0] https://www.econlib.org/library/topics/highschool/divisionoflaborspecialization.html https://www.econlib.org/library/topics/highschool/divisionof...
Whitespace 4y ago
If you have that many stripped wires to tin, you can use a tub of flux and a solder pot. Dip the wires into the flux, then quickly dip it into the solder pot. Perfectly tinned end with no plastic melting. Really hard to mess up vs a soldering iron, a wire, and solder wire. You can even dip multiple wires into the flux and solder bath at the same time, as well as use the flux tub again before you solder the tinned wire to the contact.
- bsder 4y ago
  Yeah, every time I see a soldering "tutorial" that doesn't use separate flux--I facepalm. Flux is probably more important than the solder for good joints. A syringe of paste flux makes life ridiculously easier.

sitzkrieg 4y ago

great technique to triple solder usage of simple wire joins and as many have already said, pretty good way to get a cold joint or pockets

dylan604 4y ago
Yeah, but it's from the 70s, so it has to be good, right?
- an1sotropy 4y ago
  plus with the accent it's more authoritative (at least to my US ears).

sandreas 4y ago

Oh boy, nice idea, but this looks complicated and time consuming. I recommend to get some good equipment first: - solder fume extractor (see below) - extra thin high quality tin - a desoldering pump AND desoldering wire - high quality flux - a TS 100 soldering Iron with KU tip from ali express for 50 bucks - optional: USB-C Power Adapter for your existing power supply (so you don't have to buy one) - optional: a soldering mat (normaly blue colored) and you have a near professional equipment for about $120. Now flash IronOS[1] on your soldering Iron, and it works even better. Instructions: - turn on solder fume extractor - heat iron to 370° Celsius (but be careful depending on your workpiece) - Tin both ends beforhand - better slightly more flux to put on (but not for small works) - if flux has been applied, cleaning up with e.g. toothbrush & isopropyl alcohol after you're done maybe a good idea However, the most important peace of hardware is a solder fume extractor... I'm surprised that so many youtube "professionals" don't put a hint on this - never play with your health. This can even be done DIY (see youtube tutorials). High quality flux is also important because of your health. Chinese sellers often don't care about ingredients... High quality tin is much easier to work with and costs 5 bucks more than low quality tin. It is worth. [1]: https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS

lapetitejort 4y ago
> Now flash IronOS[1] on your soldering Iron I got to here and thought this was some elaborate joke, and expected the github page to continue on with the joke. An operating system for a soldering iron?? But no, it seems 100% serious. Somehow soldering iron tech passed me by.
- racnid 4y ago
  Anything more than your basic soldering iron is probably running a PID loop to control temperature. I don't know if my hakko is supported by IronOS but I could easily see it as a useful option. It's the flashlight guys who have really run amok: https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/xopqft/prob_a_good_idea_to_have_this_inside_flashlight/ https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/xopqft/prob_a_g...
- 4y ago

amelius 4y ago

How would he solder two stranded wires together without helping hands/device?

akiselev 4y ago
I prefer to just use a heat gun with some solder seal connectors (marine grade for free waterproofing).
Kirby64 4y ago
Twist two wires together... lean them against something to prop them off your table, then gently add solder and your iron. No need for helping hands, you just can't be too brutal with it.

pachico 4y ago

Surely unrelated but I remember being 15 (30 years ago) and being an electric guitar player with modest or no economic resources. I'm not saying that I celebrated the moment when one of my wires or jacks broke, but it felt great fixing it with a little patience and some soldering. I am close now to many musicians that never fixed any of their wires/cables. I kinda like to belong to those older times.

duncan-donuts 4y ago
The last few years I’ve been getting out and playing guitar with more people. The thing I found most surprising was how most guitar players don’t know how to fix their guitars. I genuinely enjoy fixing my guitars.

ravenstine 4y ago

This makes so much sense. By doing it this way, the iron isn't fighting the thermal conductivity of the rest of the solder feed. It just has to heat a small bit of solder. I know there are aficionados who can point out possible disadvantages of this approach, but honestly, I can see this technique being really handy when you just want to prototype something out and you want to get things done efficiently. Not every solder joint needs to be perfect, just as not every PCB needs to be factory quality and is going to a customer. As someone who only occasionally needs to solder a custom circuit, this looks like a time saver. If I was frequently making PCBs by hand, maybe I'd think otherwise.

Jemm 4y ago

I like it. That solder ball from the expanding rosin is a bit concerning but that was just a demo.

jbverschoor 4y ago

Looks like a blob of solder used as hot glue.

orangepurple 4y ago

Soldering is good, BUT... You should avoid soldering when possible because connectors are detachable for module maintenance and solder is prone to cracking in high vibration environments. Typically you will see a connector soldered and otherwise secured mechanically to a PCB where vibrations are unavoidable. Crimping is better whenever feasible

InitialLastName 4y ago
This is probably true for scaled production, BUT... Most people following Instructables for tips on soldering wires to vector boards aren't likely to need to maintain their prototypes, and roughly 0% of those prototypes will be in a high-vibration environment.
- gw99 4y ago
  Actually this crap will probably be bodged into a rats nest nightmare project if it’s an instructables user. Anyone who has debugged one of them knows to do things properly or suffer the wrath of intermittent problems.
  - orangepurple 4y ago
    And intermittent problems make newbies lose motivation extra quickly and care even less until they eventually rage quit. It's better to just get connections done well right away
- DoingIsLearning 4y ago
  Still the GP comment is in the right direction. For wires like the ones in the video you can still use something like a small phoenix connector and just screw your wire connections in, just like you would wire up a choc box, no crimp tools required. The advice in the post will likely create a cold joint and intermittent/noisy connections.
- orangepurple 4y ago
  Soldered connections can be surprisingly crap (intermittent electrical gremlins) especially if you're a noob. You can't easily spot a cold solder as a noob. Meanwhile even a noob can easily judge basic crimp quality. Better to get an all-in-one box assortment of cheap male and female connectors off eBay I started out soldering but now it's mostly limited to installing connectors into PCBs followed by hot glue around the housing for mechanical rigidity

DanBC 4y ago

I feel like tutorials should make it clear when they're giving you correct technique or some quick and dirty hack. One of the images shows damaged insulation and too much solder. https://content.instructables.com/ORIG/FES/OFV3/KZ7C3ZX0/FESOFV3KZ7C3ZX0.png https://content.instructables.com/ORIG/FES/OFV3/KZ7C3ZX0/FES...

the_cat_kittles 4y ago

anyone have an opinion on what color to paint the bikeshed?

YeahNO 4y ago

I'm not a fan, this looks like terrible advise. If you want to do high quality work, solder header pins onto the board and use crimp-connectors on your lead wires. I don't use flux-core wire, I prefer to apply flux directly to the pads/pins/wires as applicable. As others have pointed out, use appropriate strain relief.

SkyPuncher 4y ago

This is extremely useful to me as a _hobbyist_. Many of the critiques in this thread are valid, but probably not relevant to the hobbyist environment. For me, I struggle to get solder even in the best of circumstances. It's just a skill that I cannot master. I really, really like this technique as it enables me to make passable hobby solders without risking messing up my project.

klyrs 4y ago
As a hobbyist, I've had my fair share of cold solder joints*, so I flinched when I saw what the linked article recommends. I once did something similar with cheap perf board, and ended up scrapping it because they can only take so much rework before the traces are destroyed. The only "good" I see in this is that they author has left a rat-tail of unmelted solder so at least it will have some flux left to wet the wire. * which show up as intermittent opens at DC with some fun dependence on position / temperature / humidity. At audio frequencies, they're disastrous -- I can only imagine what they'd do at HF.

MithrilTuxedo 4y ago

NAVAIR 01-2A-23 NAVSEA SE004-AK-TRS-010/2M MARINE CORPS TM 5895-45/1E USAF T.O. 00-25-259 STANDARD MAINTENANCE PRACTICES MINIATURE/MICROMINIATURE (2M) ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY REPAIR https://www.robins.af.mil/Portals/59/documents/technicalorders/00-25-259.pdf https://www.robins.af.mil/Portals/59/documents/technicalorde... I was a solder tech in the Navy. That was our Bible.

bsder 4y ago
Interesting. It looks just like the NASA guidelines, but with military slapped all over it. I wonder which ones came first given how much aerospace is miltary work.
gw99 4y ago
There’s some terrible advice in there which is merely cargo cult thinking. The whole thing needs garbage collecting. The final straw was when I saw someone using a wire brush on a Metcal tip after reading one of these mil spec guides. I was production engineer defence sector for a few years.
- linker3000 4y ago
  Best I saw during my apprenticeship days in the 1980s was when we had some EE degree students on work placement. We worked in R&D and all (Multibus II) boards were hand-soldered and had to be visually inspected by a supervisor before testing. One chap presented his board for checking and, after a visual and touch inspection, our supervisor said that some of the joints were a bit 'pointy' and would need fixing. So off went the student to the fab area of the workshop, the board was put in a vice and I just stopped him as he approached the bench with a sandpaper-wrapped block of wood.
  - gw99 4y ago
    Oh just reading that hurts!

armatav 4y ago

Hand soldering is a pain, also - ALL those joints are going to be cold and brittle - use a heat gun/headers and the paste.

sickcodebruh 4y ago

I just started working with soldering last week to do my own pickup replacements and basic electric guitar maintenance, so this is very timely! In my first two attempts, I managed to swap pickups successfully, where "success" is measured as "it sounds the way I expect, all knobs and switches work, there is no unexpected buzzing." I worry about how much I don't know about it, so I'm curious: is it possible that I need to expand my concept of success? Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Or is it enough to say that if it sounds right and doesn't look like trash, it is good enough?

toast0 4y ago
> Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Or is it enough to say that if it sounds right and doesn't look like trash, it is good enough? It depends on the application. If you're not performing, the cost of a joint that fails later is just a bit of annoyance. If you're on stage and your equipment fails, that's a lot worse. I wouldn't think guitar solder joints are stressed out too much though, so if it lasts a week, it'll probably last longer. There's a little bit of vibration and motion, but not a lot of power or heat. And most people try to take it easy on their guitars --- it's not like car wiring or anything.
analog31 4y ago
>>> Should I be concerned that a joint that's fine today won't be OK tomorrow? Yes. Things can go wrong with solder connections over time, such as: 1. So called "cold" solder joint eventually becomes non-conducting or semiconducting (interesting properties of tin) over time, resulting in weird behaviors such as AM radio pickup. 2. Effects of vibration. The guitar is probably getting handled a lot. 3. Other stuff coming loose, such as the nuts holding pots and jacks in place, causing wiggling of the solder joints. 4. Not directly related to soldering, but poor stripping can "nick" the conductors of the wires, leading to premature breakage. I'm an electric bassist, and I'm responsible for my gear being 100% reliable on the bandstand. I don't bring a spare bass, except that my electric is sometimes a spare for my upright, especially for outdoor gigs. I do keep some spare cables and other odds and ends in a bag that stays in my car. I'm also quite experienced with electronic tech work. There are some things that can give you a better than 0% chance of your stuff staying in business over time: 1. A good wire stripper that has fixed blade settings and can't nick the wire, such as a "T Stripper" or an "Ideal Stripmaster." 2. A commercial quality iron with a tip in good condition. 3. Lead based solder is still easier for beginners, but a lead-free alloy called Kester K100 is a lot better than the early lead-free alloys. 4. Make sure both sides of the joint are "tinned" before joining them together and soldering. Then you can complete the joint with just a touch of the iron and a bit of solder. For weird / old components, tinning is a good chance to make sure that the solder will actually wet the component, as opposed to balling up. 5. Strain relief. Wire runs of more than a couple inches should be tied with with zip ties or whatever. 6. Be on constant lookout for deterioration of your instrument, something that's just got to be part of being a musician. If a jack or pot comes loose, tighten the nut. You can sneak under the knobs with a bicycle cone wrench if the knob is hard to remove. You'll need the cone wrenches for your bike too.

phs 4y ago

As someone who only wants to occasionally perform one-off firmware flashes on my devices, soldering always felt clumsy and heavy-weight. For actual chips, SPI programmer clips have been great. For test pads, I just ordered one of these [1], which will hopefully work just a well. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MKHH7DY https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MKHH7DY

spfzero 4y ago
TAG-Connect makes a nice one of these. I use their target footprint on all my MCU projects now. The guide holes and pins make it easy to hold with one hand and know it will stay put as you initiate the programming with your other hand.
mmoskal 4y ago
I've been using a do-it-yourself connector [0] (aka Hack Connect) for my own boards - it stays in the board by itself. Interesting the link you posted - it seems 2x5p 1.27mm version with one pin cut would work as the pogo version of Hack Connect. [0]: https://arcade.makecode.com/hardware/dbg https://arcade.makecode.com/hardware/dbg

temporallobe 4y ago

As a soldering amateur, this looks effective, but it also seems to waste solder wire. Are there any other drawbacks? Either way, I’m definitely going to test this method out.

squarefoot 4y ago

Bad advice. Just use a good solder iron, thin solder (possibly leaded), and good no clean flux, then lots of practice. It's all about timing: too quick = cold solder joint; too slow = burned pad/track, or part. Learn also to understand about thermal mass and how to change the temperature and timings according to what you're soldering and its size. Also, that iron looks like a Hakko "936" cheap clone: they are barely above the garbage level; get a better one. Used Wellers aren't that expensive, and no, you won't need a microcontroller for digital temperature control and all those gimmicks they put in modern solder irons. I also have a PineCil from the same folks that made the PinePhone and was amazed by its quality. Yes, it has a mcu for digital temperature control, but I'd lie if I wrote that I used any of its functions beyond setting the temperature.

picture 4y ago
The PineCil looks like a TS100 clone, though I'm not too sure which came first. The huge benefit of these microcontroller irons are their monolithic heating element that integrates the temperature sensor. This allows for much better temperature control compared to cheap Hakko-style irons where the tip is a metal piece that sleeves over the heating and sensing elements. It makes a very meaningful improvement in terms of the time it takes to heat up parts with high "thermal inertia"
- stavros 4y ago
  The TS100 came first, but the Pinecil is better.
- MivLives 4y ago
  TS100 was first. I believe the Pinecil also takes TS100 tips. I've liked the Pinecil except sometimes mine crashes in the middle of me soldering. I need to update the OS but I'm lazy. It does fail cold (Says it's hot but it's not heating) which is probably the better of the two ways it could go.
  - type0 4y ago
    Let's get to the most important questions, can you play Tetris on Pinecil with the new OS update?

tzs 4y ago

I miss wire wrap. Simple, fast, and very reliable.

dogben 4y ago

Watch this before inventing a new way of soldering. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837

eternityforest 4y ago

I have done this stuff in production environments. Wires and connectors are like, 30% of the challenge on simple projects and can make or break the quality of a project. You MAY have a chance if the wire is pretinned or you use flux. Do not do this with bare copper even if it looks like it works, you will probably get at least a few cold joints. The better version is to coat the wire and pad with solder, put the wire on the pad, flux. then press it into the pad with the iron. Better yet, never ever solder wire directly to a board in hobby or low volume work unless small size is totally critical. Especially stranded. It makes a metal fatigue point if things move at all, and requires hot glue to stand even a few bend cycles. And even when you do have good connectors, it's probably still in your best interest to minimize the number of wires hanging around, learn about I2C as quick as you can. It can't be quickly disconnected for repairs and replacement and troubleshooting. It's a lot of work. Even if done perfectly it's just not very nice. Instead, solder connectors to the board directly. For short ranges use 2.54mm jumpers. Never use male jumpers if you can avoid it, they are delicate and annoying. For longer distances, there are lots of things that don't suck, USB-C, 2.1mm barrel, Ethernet, 3 pin XLR, and whatever your country has for mains electricity. Stay away from normal 4mn banana plugs unless you are in a field where they are already everywhere. The cheap ones shear off. and have bad connections and they are not particularly common. Even DMM test leads don't use them, they use the shielded versions. Common off the shelf stuff that you can buy extensions for. Don't solder long wires to stuff, it will just make a tangled mess when you put it away and make it hard to troubleshoot. When you do have a reason to do stuff like that, Wago connectors and pigtail adapters are your friend especially for tests and troubleshooting Because then when you realize you actually don't need 5 XT60 extensions, you can swap the ends for something else quickly. And most importantly Do. Not. Invent. Some. Crazy scheme of powering all your projects from a central point over long 12v wires. Every new electronics DIYer seems to do it, and cables and wires are often the enemy. Yeah it looks cool and sci-fi and seems like a good idea to have wires everywhere, but single purpose and custom made cables are a nuisance to deal with, they're heavy and expensive and trip hazards.

mrtweetyhack 4y ago

userbinator 4y ago

Congratulations, you have effectively reinvented solder paste, but without the flux. /s Like the others here, I'm not convinced this is better in any way than the "normal" method, or just using solder paste.

tjmc 4y ago

Tangential question. Why don't Americans pronounce the "l" in "solder"?

Eisenstein 4y ago
Why don't French people pronounce half their letters?