I agree on this video about 'anchoring the first pin' - but drowning the pins with solder and suck it off afterwards is not really how I handle these SMD / TSSOP devices; - Just add a little bit of flux to the PCB traces for the device you want to solder. - Carefully place your device on the fluxed traces. - yes, anchor the first pin like in this video but keep in mind the technique below: - Put a small ball of solder on your (preferred chisel-tip) welder and just place it on the outer area of the PCB trace. The solder will follow the trace to the pin and the all ever beautiful cohesive power will suck the solder underneath the pins of the device, making an instant clean solder, no bridges; clean. Just a dot of solder on your welding tip will probably allow you to nicely connect about three pins of the device. It's a much more economic way to use your solder too!
I was poking fun at mike for not using a comma after "flux" and also capitalizing Dude. Such a combination technically implies a name even though in context it makes sense that he's saying "Flux, dude!"
Watch out for the QFP chips with a central bottom pad. While some of those center pads are just for thermal dissipation others actually are important ground connections. On those that have important grounding requirements, your technique will not provide reliable results. On those where the central pad is only for thermal reasons, you may have to watch out for heat dissipation. Getting that bottom center pad actually soldered is nearly impossible using only a soldering iron. But one technique that could work is instead of soldering the single corner pin, use a low temperature solder and lightly tin the bottom pad on the PCB and the pad on the chip. A very thin coating. Then heat the PCB from the under side to re-melt the solder and make that the first connection to a QFP, not the corner pin. If you can get your hand on a small tube of solder bearing paste, then use a small drop of paste on the PCB pad instead of tinning the PCB pad and the chip. Still very difficult to make that solder connection with a soldering iron. if the PCB has thermal vias the transfer heat quickly through the PCB to the pad, that will make it easier. But the whole process will be quite a bit easier to do with a hot air gun. With a hot aid gun you can also do BGA chips. If you're doing a lot of QFP chips, buy a hot air gun and a small tube of solder bearing paste. You'll eliminate a lot of problems. Keep the solder paste in the fridge so it doesn't go bad (it will separate if you don't) and use it for those special chips.
I was told by a hand pocket watch maker, "never drink caffeine when dealing with small parts." It allows you to be more precise in your body movements.
+Nick Farrow Exactly. I do most of my manual SMD work before first coffee. Collin generally knows his stuff, but if I would have submitted this board for approval back when I was in school, my teacher would have given me a C at best, with the warning that the board may as well stop working within a year or so.
+Kaj Schulten Being hyper critical is in no way a good thing. He did a way better job in my book, than what I could do. Knowing how and watching someone do it is very different. Collin is defiantly not a muggle indeed.
No no no, don't solder like this! Use flux and don't go over all the solders with that solder wick it will damage the pads, pcb and the risk of shorts are really high.
I’m very noob about soldering, just two questions. 1) what solder do you use? (If you could link one) 2) what temperature do you use for solder wires! Chips, desoldering?
this de-soldering pump is really nice looking, i ended up buying one. could you maybe consider doing a video on de-soldering? (if you haven't already) maybe including some of the other methods like electronic/powered vacuum pumps?
I use painter's tape cut into thin strips to hold down large multipin devices before soldering. This lets you reposition and align the device before applying any solder at all.
I personally think you did great! If you think about it, flux is to move the heat across the solder surface point rapidly to get the solder to flow across that point. The points of heating are so small here that the only difference it would probably make is making a mess to clean up. Keep up the good work and I do like the comedy added. If anyone noticed?? LOL!
For those saying use flux, do you put the flux on the pads before you begin to solder? How precise do you have to be with the flux? When I'm soldering my solder gets really sticky and sticks to my tip.
with your final example no exposed pins i have found tinning everything seperatly and then setting the chip down to solder with a hot air station makes for an easier and cleaner looking install
Hi Collin! Love your tutorials! One question, I noticed that you used the Hakko soldering station for this (SMS) project. What temperature did you set your Hakko to? What soldering tip did you use? Thanks much!!
Getting set up to film this has to be a huge pain in the ass. The shots look great though - whatever camera & rig is being used to film him doing the actual soldering (while not getting in his way I hope) must be cool.
Soldering components is so much harder than I expected it to be. I grew up using a soldering iron to make stain glass projects, but I’m finding now that I’m trying to solder electronic components it’s much more difficult.
+Sebastien Bournival In my college lab, we've always used 650°F on our HAKKO-888 stations. My professors basically recommended that initially, keep the temp down a bit while you get used to how SMD soldering feels and then you can turn it up a bit (I use 700°F now) when you feel more comfortable and can make quicker connections. Otherwise you'll put too much heat in your components.
+Red Ambassador 650 celsius?! Don't you mean 650 fahrenheit? 650 celsius is WAY too hot, I've never had to go much past 400C for even the most stubborn soldering jobs.
Derp. I was being stupid... Yeah, Fahrenheit wouldn't make any sense. Matter of fact, I checked the Hakko website and the FX-888D has a temperature range of 120° - 899°F (50° - 480°C). So, yeah, obviously it can't go up to 650°C. Thanks for correcting me!
I found out the hard way that brushing the solder wick crosswise on ic chips with extra fine legs just mangled them. I brush the wick parallel with legs now.
I need suggestions for how to deal with very unsteady hands. I have considered trying to build a remote control arm/robot with filtering to remove the shake frequencies. Or has someone already invented that?
I prefer using Solder paste and a hot air gun. the speed is about the same, but you get much cleaner results. The main problem I feel is that solder wire doesn't have enough flux for the job, and most liquid (and even jel) fluxes are poor quality; they just stink/stick up the board with little effect. decent LEAD solder paste has plenty of flux and reworks like a dream. it actually makes QFN's the easiest of all to solder, as the chip easily locates itself and squashing it down a few times with a pair of tweezers while hot quirts out any excess solder without creating bridges.
It's a great video and thank you!! On my Chuwi Hi9Air tablet, I want to disconnect battery. Manufacturer has two battery poles ending not on a pin connector, so, pole cables are connected on the motherboard soldered. Two pole cables are extremely thin, and also, soldered cables ending are extremely small. I have never seen such a tiny solder. I find it too difficult to unsolder. And if we suppose I unsolder correctly, without any damage, soldering back, e.g. battery replacement, the new battery, I mean the pole cables, is extremely difficult and risky to solder without doing any e.g. bridging damage, and finally damaging completely the motherboard. Would you have something to suggest me in all that? Thank you for your time!
In uni solder class we had 2 hours to solder and we had some really good chats with the people on our table. Couldn't help but notice, the table with the girls and guys together (only 4 chicks in the session, there were 25 guys) was the one having the cheerful convo. The guys just didn't talk...
This video have good explanation with it. The problem is the quality of soldering. Technically, idea and theoretical explanation is very good but the actual soldering is the problem. Try to improve soldering, the way you teach it verbally.
Uh, I guess the buried thermal pad on the QFN device doesn't need to be connected... for this circuit. For some devices, you need to connect it for both thermal reasons and electrically.
at 3:37s. the three ic's looks like the solder is exess. how do we correctly deal with excess solder on small areas like those. ITS LIKE THE SOLDER JOINED TWI ICs of the three aligned on the right handside. (pause video at 3:37)
I had to reheat the soldering to a motherboard on a laptop that had taken about a year of an abusive environment, got the laptop running solid, the SSD was another story, and while giving it the same treatment one of the caps just fell off so it got stuck to the iron and I placed it back on, it did work, ran super fast as normal.. 3 minutes in it screwed up again.. I was getting a headache with this stuff so I looked up this video to see how it's properly done, my lighting sucked so I was using one hand to solder and the other to hold a LED light XD x.X as for the SSD it might have deeper issues, I've been experiencing surges and EMP waves at this place.. at least I believe.. "one light started messing around being a flourecent with a ballast and it interfered with the security camera's ontop of one time this place surged and killed 2 cameras specifically that were pointing inward while the outward pointing cameras with metal casings did not die.. and it also killed the computer power supply and those 2 channels off the reciever... got my work cut out for me o.o being broke and all" could an EMP leave something functioning but unstable?
Instead of tweezers, I like to use my thumbnail. I get too shaky with tweezers. There is also the added fun of accidentally starting a game of tiddly winks as the occasional resistor flicks off the board, never to be seen again.
![โอ้เธอช่าง... - บี้เดอะสกา ft. ต๋อง เทวัญ (Prod. by ป๋าเพชร) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zbWhiLFmVL0/mqdefault.jpg)
I agree on this video about 'anchoring the first pin' - but drowning the pins with solder and suck it off afterwards is not really how I handle these SMD / TSSOP devices;
- Just add a little bit of flux to the PCB traces for the device you want to solder.
- Carefully place your device on the fluxed traces.
- yes, anchor the first pin like in this video but keep in mind the technique below:
- Put a small ball of solder on your (preferred chisel-tip) welder and just place it on the outer area of the PCB trace. The solder will follow the trace to the pin and the all ever beautiful cohesive power will suck the solder underneath the pins of the device, making an instant clean solder, no bridges; clean.
Just a dot of solder on your welding tip will probably allow you to nicely connect about three pins of the device.
It's a much more economic way to use your solder too!
Yep that's what I do. But I'm lucky to have a Metcal MX-5000 solering iron and use SMTC-0167 tips for this sort of work.
talk about overkill jesus
Overkill Jesus sounds like a pretty metal dude.
That would also be easier for people who do not have great fine motor skills.
I thumb him up because it leads to your comment.
The thumbnail for this video is a work of art.
+gummiflummi91 Thanks - I am surprised they aren't offering it as a print or something.
+Afrotechmods I dont expect that you was here before... :)
Wish i could see it because i "overclocked" my phone
Omg the master knows Collin and Scott
Afrotechmods well, if you had a print I think someone might get the wrong idea of what it means!
More Colins lab please. This man inspired me to give hobby electronics a try.
4years later yeah man more!!! More!!!
FLUX Dude!
+mikeselectricstuff "Soder-wick" Heheh.
Who is this "Flux Dude"? :P
I was poking fun at mike for not using a comma after "flux" and also capitalizing Dude. Such a combination technically implies a name even though in context it makes sense that he's saying "Flux, dude!"
I'm legally changing my name to Flux Dude now.
james moreton Now, would you please welcome to the stage, the new #1 hit rapper, Solda Wik Flux Dude!
I didn't realise how good this guy really is until I tried SMD soldering for myself
He is terrible at soldering ic components, too much solder and if u do it correctly with flux u dont need desolder tools
Use some liquid flux first.
+bkupiec And a flux remover when you're done. As Dave Jones would say - that looks a bit crusty!
Watch out for the QFP chips with a central bottom pad. While some of those center pads are just for thermal dissipation others actually are important ground connections. On those that have important grounding requirements, your technique will not provide reliable results. On those where the central pad is only for thermal reasons, you may have to watch out for heat dissipation. Getting that bottom center pad actually soldered is nearly impossible using only a soldering iron. But one technique that could work is instead of soldering the single corner pin, use a low temperature solder and lightly tin the bottom pad on the PCB and the pad on the chip. A very thin coating. Then heat the PCB from the under side to re-melt the solder and make that the first connection to a QFP, not the corner pin. If you can get your hand on a small tube of solder bearing paste, then use a small drop of paste on the PCB pad instead of tinning the PCB pad and the chip. Still very difficult to make that solder connection with a soldering iron. if the PCB has thermal vias the transfer heat quickly through the PCB to the pad, that will make it easier. But the whole process will be quite a bit easier to do with a hot air gun. With a hot aid gun you can also do BGA chips. If you're doing a lot of QFP chips, buy a hot air gun and a small tube of solder bearing paste. You'll eliminate a lot of problems. Keep the solder paste in the fridge so it doesn't go bad (it will separate if you don't) and use it for those special chips.
You're the only reason I'm subscribed to this channel.
I was told by a hand pocket watch maker, "never drink caffeine when dealing with small parts." It allows you to be more precise in your body movements.
+Nick Farrow Exactly. I do most of my manual SMD work before first coffee. Collin generally knows his stuff, but if I would have submitted this board for approval back when I was in school, my teacher would have given me a C at best, with the warning that the board may as well stop working within a year or so.
+Kaj Schulten Being hyper critical is in no way a good thing. He did a way better job in my book, than what I could do. Knowing how and watching someone do it is very different. Collin is defiantly not a muggle indeed.
No no no, don't solder like this! Use flux and don't go over all the solders with that solder wick it will damage the pads, pcb and the risk of shorts are really high.
I’m very noob about soldering, just two questions. 1) what solder do you use? (If you could link one) 2) what temperature do you use for solder wires! Chips, desoldering?
this de-soldering pump is really nice looking, i ended up buying one.
could you maybe consider doing a video on de-soldering?
(if you haven't already)
maybe including some of the other methods like electronic/powered vacuum pumps?
I use painter's tape cut into thin strips to hold down large multipin devices before soldering. This lets you reposition and align the device before applying any solder at all.
I personally think you did great! If you think about it, flux is to move the heat across the solder surface point rapidly to get the solder to flow across that point. The points of heating are so small here that the only difference it would probably make is making a mess to clean up. Keep up the good work and I do like the comedy added. If anyone noticed?? LOL!
1206 - I could do it
0805 - Still fair...
0603 - It's getting tricky
0402 - Where did it fly now?! It's the fifth component that did this this hour!
After a long time a video from Collin's Lab
Please upload a video of Collin's Lab regularly every one week or two week
For those saying use flux, do you put the flux on the pads before you begin to solder? How precise do you have to be with the flux? When I'm soldering my solder gets really sticky and sticks to my tip.
I've been a long fan of Collins videos. they're very well done and clear
Super useful, always been terrified of surface mount despite cost advantages, but this video has inspired me to have a go. Thank you!
FLUX FLUX FLUX.......
It's quite relaxing, Mr. Anderson.
with your final example no exposed pins i have found tinning everything seperatly and then setting the chip down to solder with a hot air station makes for an easier and cleaner looking install
Your very steady hands help a lot too. Great video Collin :)
Glad to see you back
Hi Collin! Love your tutorials! One question, I noticed that you used the Hakko soldering station for this (SMS) project. What temperature did you set your Hakko to? What soldering tip did you use? Thanks much!!
Getting set up to film this has to be a huge pain in the ass. The shots look great though - whatever camera & rig is being used to film him doing the actual soldering (while not getting in his way I hope) must be cool.
stryk187 its most probably a microscope, like what Louis Rossman uses
Soldering components is so much harder than I expected it to be. I grew up using a soldering iron to make stain glass projects, but I’m finding now that I’m trying to solder electronic components it’s much more difficult.
Wow! Thank you for this video! I'm blown away... I wish I saw this video before I started connecting my neopixels!
you can actually remove the excess solder with just the iron tip, if you have flux, you don't need the braid or solder extractor
The best tutorial in electronics!great video!!
Very nice video on SMT hand soldering.
You missed the centre pad on the QFN. Also, the resistors didn't have enough solder.
some flux and less solder will be better than your way
WAY less
Frank Alvarez less solder and a finer solder too, he's using one that is too think for small smd pads, it will be hard to control otherwise
and maybe a smaller soldering iron
Best SMD video ever.
I would recommend spending the $20 on a cheapo hot air station and some solder paste. Makes the process worlds easier
This has made me so much happier about my SMD soldering videos...use some flux man!
Is there any specific breadboard to prototype your project with SMD?
Or just prototype with through hole components first then go to SMD?
On EEVBLOG Dave would say your soldering looks a bit how ya doin'. Why wouldn't you use flux and a hot air gun? Faster, easier, and better results.
What a fantastic video. Great job Collin!
Collin's Labs are the best, I watch every single one, I may have an addiction
Me three
me four
Collin is my hero! Who else can hand build a metro while wearing a suit?
What's your recommend temperature on your soldering station, in particular for the bridge and desolder technique on ICs?
+Sebastien Bournival In my college lab, we've always used 650°F on our HAKKO-888 stations. My professors basically recommended that initially, keep the temp down a bit while you get used to how SMD soldering feels and then you can turn it up a bit (I use 700°F now) when you feel more comfortable and can make quicker connections. Otherwise you'll put too much heat in your components.
+Red Ambassador 650 celsius?! Don't you mean 650 fahrenheit? 650 celsius is WAY too hot, I've never had to go much past 400C for even the most stubborn soldering jobs.
+Red Ambassador Unless you're using lead-free solder... in which case you might have to get that hot but I still doubt it.
Derp. I was being stupid... Yeah, Fahrenheit wouldn't make any sense. Matter of fact, I checked the Hakko website and the FX-888D has a temperature range of 120° - 899°F (50° - 480°C). So, yeah, obviously it can't go up to 650°C. Thanks for correcting me!
I found out the hard way that brushing the solder wick crosswise on ic chips with extra fine legs just mangled them. I brush the wick parallel with legs now.
i can't watch how you drag that wick and scrape that board with hard copper and tin-lead alloy (solder)
you can lift sooo many traces with it...
this is not a good technical skill at all
Yeah, he should probably be using a chisel tip iron and applying heat to multiple pins simultaneously...
Louis uses wick to get excess off a board, but he doesn't press on it with an iron and drag.
Messy work on the chips with that wick was painful to watch. Less solder and using a clean tip to pull away solder gives much nicer results.
I believe everything this guy says because he has glasses and a very nice suit.
I'am bought
Collin u r always a relaxing man. I am your great fannnn
Is there a direct contact with the solder tip and the surface? Or are you letting the metal drip to the surface?
+Adafruit Industries
Great video. Why not just use reflow? Are there any advantages to using this?
+jagjit bhatia also, wouldn't a chisel tip iron have been better for this? The flat tip would seem to match the pins well.
I need suggestions for how to deal with very unsteady hands. I have considered trying to build a remote control arm/robot with filtering to remove the shake frequencies. Or has someone already invented that?
I prefer using Solder paste and a hot air gun. the speed is about the same, but you get much cleaner results. The main problem I feel is that solder wire doesn't have enough flux for the job, and most liquid (and even jel) fluxes are poor quality; they just stink/stick up the board with little effect.
decent LEAD solder paste has plenty of flux and reworks like a dream. it actually makes QFN's the easiest of all to solder, as the chip easily locates itself and squashing it down a few times with a pair of tweezers while hot quirts out any excess solder without creating bridges.
Well done Mr. Collin, well done . . . love the music bro.
watching smd work is so satisfying!
solder paste & reflow soldering is much easier whenever you are able to
does the process change when using homemade circuit boards that may not have solder mask, and how do you keep from removing too much solder?
Very Helpful Video. However, what Microscope and Camera did you use?
It's a great video and thank you!! On my Chuwi Hi9Air tablet, I want to disconnect battery. Manufacturer has two battery poles ending not on a pin connector, so, pole cables are connected on the motherboard soldered. Two pole cables are extremely thin, and also, soldered cables ending are extremely small. I have never seen such a tiny solder. I find it too difficult to unsolder. And if we suppose I unsolder correctly, without any damage, soldering back, e.g. battery replacement, the new battery, I mean the pole cables, is extremely difficult and risky to solder without doing any e.g. bridging damage, and finally damaging completely the motherboard. Would you have something to suggest me in all that? Thank you for your time!
I have same smd soldering process using iron box method simple and easy to use .
Thank you Mr. Collin
"Quite relaxing" ?!?! You're a freak !!!
Aaand subscribed xD
Thanks for the tips.on SMD soldering
Nice beard! You look very distinguished.
that relaxing part reduced my fear quite a bit :D
In uni solder class we had 2 hours to solder and we had some really good chats with the people on our table. Couldn't help but notice, the table with the girls and guys together (only 4 chicks in the session, there were 25 guys) was the one having the cheerful convo. The guys just didn't talk...
This is too satisfying...
quite relaxing indeed. thanks for sharing
hi what kind of solder paste are you using ?
I've heard tomestoning can be a problem. Any suggestions on this and other common issues when first starting?
+Rouverius keep your parts in place until the solder is actually cooled down on the first pin. Don't apply heat for too long
+Kyle McNicoll Thanks
nice work sir....................keep going on
This video have good explanation with it. The problem is the quality of soldering. Technically, idea and theoretical explanation is very good but the actual soldering is the problem. Try to improve soldering, the way you teach it verbally.
I definitely need a new soldering iron. Looks such a breeze using a good one, fast to heat pads, etc.
1.2mm chisel tip on a Hakko. And lead solder.
Uh, I guess the buried thermal pad on the QFN device doesn't need to be connected... for this circuit. For some devices, you need to connect it for both thermal reasons and electrically.
aha, have a hole under the package
It seemed like the iron was in contact fro a long time in some cases. Any risk of damaging the component? What setting is the iron on?
5 seconds is ok.
How much can direct contact with the soldering iron these parts take?
Isn't solder wick leaving a ton of residue and making a general mess of the finished product?
+Deses solder does, solder wick not so much. just clean the board with alcohol on a qtip
+Lasse Langwadt Christensen I refer to that yellow gunk, isn't that the burnt Flux?
Deses
yes
Love Collin's Lab
Solder Paste and a heat gun will do the trick too!
Exactly
hello Collins beard, nice to meet you.
That was cool and relaxing...
collin your beard is epic!
at 3:37s. the three ic's looks like the solder is exess. how do we correctly deal with excess solder on small areas like those. ITS LIKE THE SOLDER JOINED TWI ICs of the three aligned on the right handside. (pause video at 3:37)
i got the answer at 5:44 mark. thanks
2 questions: what about temps. and do I have to wash my hands afterwards?
350 degrees Celsius ...yes wash your hands!
I use solder paste and hot air gun. Looks nicer and easier to work.
as a kid i watched every video from you
im still only 17 tho
Thanks Collin.
4:15 Hey, it looks like you accidentally soldered those 2 pins together. OH MY GOD, What are you doing!?!?
I missed Collin!
I had to reheat the soldering to a motherboard on a laptop that had taken about a year of an abusive environment, got the laptop running solid, the SSD was another story, and while giving it the same treatment one of the caps just fell off so it got stuck to the iron and I placed it back on, it did work, ran super fast as normal.. 3 minutes in it screwed up again.. I was getting a headache with this stuff so I looked up this video to see how it's properly done, my lighting sucked so I was using one hand to solder and the other to hold a LED light XD x.X as for the SSD it might have deeper issues, I've been experiencing surges and EMP waves at this place.. at least I believe.. "one light started messing around being a flourecent with a ballast and it interfered with the security camera's ontop of one time this place surged and killed 2 cameras specifically that were pointing inward while the outward pointing cameras with metal casings did not die.. and it also killed the computer power supply and those 2 channels off the reciever... got my work cut out for me o.o being broke and all" could an EMP leave something functioning but unstable?
Who holds a flashlight in their hands instead of their mouth? LOL
Nice work sir
Instead of tweezers, I like to use my thumbnail. I get too shaky with tweezers. There is also the added fun of accidentally starting a game of tiddly winks as the occasional resistor flicks off the board, never to be seen again.
"...you too can work like a machine." Agent Smith confirmed!!!
Looking good Collin!
Your shorts are great, you are the Sagan of electronics :D
Thank you very much for the great video.
😊
is that unloaded solder ? so sticky and uneven.....
Yeah, looked a lot like like chipquick.
iceberg789 Nah, just the lack of flux, and improper technique.
Why not use solder paste instead?
"You too, can work, like a machine... Mr. Anderson"
Yo ! How do I dissolder my ring from the board without getting burnt ?
Does anyone know what is the best temperature for the soldering iron for soldering SMD?
350c
What temp range is this for SMD?
This is very good
Thank you, Collin! =)
wheres your metcal at?