engifineer

The stuff on the board most likely is covered with an epoxy to protect it from oxydation. This will cause issues when desoldering. If it isnt melting very fast try scraping off the connection a little with the end of a knife or something similar. Also, make sure you have fresh solder on the end of the iron, this will improve heat transfer (surface area is increased). It may take a little longer to take off the old solder than it does to solder the parts back on since the surface is not completely clean. That solder should work fine for you as well. Just dont get frustrated, it takes a little while to get it down when you are working on PCB parts.

Hope this helps!

firesquare

is that cold/heat soldering tool any good? i had used many soldering irong before. like electric and butane powered. is it worth spending my 19.99?

engifineer

I am not sure they would be very good at this type of soldering. I have never used one, but I cant imagine you would get the same results as with a normal electric iron. I would reccomend a 20W electric iron for this.

jmiller20874

DO NOT GET THE COLD HEAT IRON!

You WILL blow your gauges with that thing! If you're repairing jewelry or soldering wires together it's ok but if what you're soldering has sensitive electronic components, it will damage them.

The Cold Heat iron works by using whatever metal you're soldering to complete the circuit for the iron so it will heat up. In doing so it will spark as soon as it comes in contact. Not to mention that iron heats up FAST and HOT and you run the risk of pulling the traces clean off the board which is also fatal.

Get a cheap $15 15-20W iron from RadioShack, that's all you need.

engifineer

Good info. I was not familiar with how they worked, nor had I ever tried one. As mentioned, you can get a decent 15-20w iron from Radio Shack for around $20 - $30 that has the stand and the sponge holder and has a selector for either 20w or 40w.

firesquare

sounds good thanks for the tip! i would use the solderion iron for general crap as for some interior stuff too.

will the 15W be hot enough to solder stereo wires and small stuff like that?

is their such thing as a variable wattage Soldering iron?

engifineer

Yep, my radio shack iron switches from 20W - 40w. 40w is MUCH better for solder wiring.

More expensive lab setups have a variable temp setup. But that is a little more than you will need at home (especially for the money they cost )

If you cant find the one I mentioned above, just buy one 20w and one 40w. They are very cheap.

smokeyzx

I had zero experience with soldering so I went to the local electronics store and bought a starter kit. It came with the iron, stand, spounge, solder, and two practice boards. I practiced on the two boards while waiting for the leds to come in. It became very easy to do it after the first board. I would highly recomend to anyone that has never this before. So I did the led conversion last night without a problem. that is until I put the tach gauge back on! I have reset it but the needle keeps falling back down, so it reads 0 rpm at idle. I tried to fix it 5 times now. Can anyone help?

jmiller20874

Same thing happened to me. Sounds like you put the needle back on to tight. Just use the "2 spoon" method the lightly lift the needle. You should be fine then.

engifineer

Yep, sounds like it is pushed down too far. I did that at first with my tach... it worked but stayed at 1000 rpm when I shut it off Just loosen it up a bit as jmiller said. Glad to hear that the soldering went well! I had my first real tough hand soldering experience in my first electronics job during college. When troubleshooting bad equipment, I often had to replace 144 pin flat pack processors (which cannot be baked on as they are when constructed because all of the rest of the components would be damaged). Soldering 144 pins that are only about .010 inches apart will drive you mad!!!! But good practice nonetheless

smokeyzx

It is fixed now, the needle had actually moved. I had to keep prying off the needle and resetting it until it was right. Then I put it on too tight and had to loosen it up a bit. Thanks much guys.

engifineer

^^ did the same thing on one. they arent always the easiest thing to line up

kkawana

another little tip (hmm didnt realize how long this has been posted)
If soldering somthing and you are worreid about heat affecting the part... get one of those wires with aligator clips at each end.. put one side to a large piece of metal (other than what your soldering), and the other side on the lead between your connection point and actuall componant...
it will help "bleed" the extra heat before reaching any sensitive equipment.....
teachers at tech school recomendend that on just about any soldering job that wasnt just to pieces of wire being connected...

engifineer

^^ Good addition, and something I forgot to mention. Using some sort of heat sink is very beneficial when you can fit one on somewhere, especially when you are still learning and tend to overheat the connection more. But this is always a good technique when feasible.

BruceLeeJr

Many thanks to engifineer for all the good soldering tips'. My '06 Tc is on it's way, but I'm already thinking about taking out the stock Pioneer head unit. I already have an Alpine CDA 9833 with an Ipod interface (KCA 420 i) andf a Sirius interface as well. I plan on transferring that system into the Tc.

My dilemma is: How do I retain the functionality of the steering wheel audio controls once I swap in the Alpine?
It's such a cool feature that I don't want to lose.

My plan: 1) Find the harness for the steering control.
2) Open the infrared remote control that came
with the Alpine HU and solder the harness to
the corresponding points on the circuit board.
I'm no engineer, but I believe that this can be
done with a little bit of patience.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

ohcanada_00

moving to FAQ. Good write up!

ack154

iTrader: (7)

Added to Tech... will move to FAQ as soon as I figure out where it went.........

Solerusscion

Awesome write up I am gonna try it .... wish me luck