OT: anyone know of a good local electronics repair shop or someone good at soldering

[ucodegen]

Yes, tin the wire first.

The problem with applying heat to the opposite side of the wire that the solder is on, is heat transfer. You will have a very tiny point contact between the iron and the wire to heat the wire. The result is a lot of heat travels up the wire, damaging insulation etc upwire before the joint location ever gets hot enough.

I found the most effect way is to make sure the contact is clean and rosin fluxed and use a solder ball on the end of the iron (make sure the iron tip is clean too and maintain the tip in a ‘tinned’ state. The ball ensures maximum heat transfer when it makes contact with the wire. This allows you to ramp the temp of the joint up rapidly and complete the job before the heat travels up the wires and does damage further up. Also use a good iron like Metcal if you have one.

On that ribbon cable, your biggest problem is not going to be soldering the new on on.. it will be removing the old. This is generally done with a very specialized hot air gun (don’t try it with your run of the mill hot air gun).

Have we really gotten to the point of a disposable society in which you chuck out your electronics after 1 year or use or less because the cost of labor is too high to repair?

Yes.. need you ask. These days, if a seal on a rack and pinion steering rack goes bad, you replace the whole rack. If a distributor gear gets a little worn, you replace the entire distributor (newest cars don’t have distributors though)

Some older timers who use to build Heathkit TV’s, Ham Radio’s etc could solder it for you.

Nope.. don’t. The joints are much finer than these people have ever done. You want one of the assemblers that works currently at companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Cubic. They work with surface mount, the problem is that they don’t own their own tools and the tools are specialized.

[desmond]

[quote=flu][quote=desmond]Sorry for this random off topic post.

Right, anything to get your “hard driving” look at me posts.[/quote]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

[/quote]
No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise.

[desmond]

[quote=flu][quote=desmond]Sorry for this random off topic post.

Right, anything to get your “hard driving” look at me posts.[/quote]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

[/quote]
No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise.

[desmond]

[quote=flu][quote=desmond]Sorry for this random off topic post.

Right, anything to get your “hard driving” look at me posts.[/quote]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

[/quote]
No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise.

[desmond]

[quote=flu][quote=desmond]Sorry for this random off topic post.

Right, anything to get your “hard driving” look at me posts.[/quote]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

[/quote]
No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise.

[desmond]

[quote=flu][quote=desmond]Sorry for this random off topic post.

Right, anything to get your “hard driving” look at me posts.[/quote]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

[/quote]
No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise.

[drboom]

[quote=ucodegen]
On that ribbon cable, your biggest problem is not going to be soldering the new on on.. it will be removing the old. This is generally done with a very specialized hot air gun (don’t try it with your run of the mill hot air gun).[/quote]

You don’t have to use hot air or infrared to do surface mount work unless you’re talking about BGA packages and the like. A regular vacuum desoldering station or even skillfully applied and good quality solder wick will get stuff off just fine. Likewise, soldering stuff back on isn’t rocket surgery and can be accomplished with a fine tip and steady hands. And there are specialty tips for just this purpose: split tips for two terminal devices, wide knife tips for QFPs, etc.–the list goes on and on.

Likewise, there’s no law that says you have to use solder paste for SMDs; rosin core solder will work fine as long as you get a bit on the pads first and then quickly reflow (and possibly add a smidge) to connect the leads.

If it was my instrument cluster, I’d just have at it since I have a rework station. Since it’s not, I wouldn’t want to take a chance on buying the whole thing from the OP if something went wrong–and that’s his dilemma since most other technodweebs have had a bad experience helping someone out.

[quote][quote]Some older timers who use to build Heathkit TV’s, Ham Radio’s etc could solder it for you.[/quote]

Nope.. don’t. The joints are much finer than these people have ever done. You want one of the assemblers that works currently at companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Cubic. They work with surface mount, the problem is that they don’t own their own tools and the tools are specialized.
[/quote]

Erm, ever see the cat’s whisker wires in small motors, loopstick antennas and the like? Those are a hell of a lot smaller and fussier than PCB traces and tinned leads.

[drboom]

[quote=ucodegen]
On that ribbon cable, your biggest problem is not going to be soldering the new on on.. it will be removing the old. This is generally done with a very specialized hot air gun (don’t try it with your run of the mill hot air gun).[/quote]

You don’t have to use hot air or infrared to do surface mount work unless you’re talking about BGA packages and the like. A regular vacuum desoldering station or even skillfully applied and good quality solder wick will get stuff off just fine. Likewise, soldering stuff back on isn’t rocket surgery and can be accomplished with a fine tip and steady hands. And there are specialty tips for just this purpose: split tips for two terminal devices, wide knife tips for QFPs, etc.–the list goes on and on.

Likewise, there’s no law that says you have to use solder paste for SMDs; rosin core solder will work fine as long as you get a bit on the pads first and then quickly reflow (and possibly add a smidge) to connect the leads.

If it was my instrument cluster, I’d just have at it since I have a rework station. Since it’s not, I wouldn’t want to take a chance on buying the whole thing from the OP if something went wrong–and that’s his dilemma since most other technodweebs have had a bad experience helping someone out.

[quote][quote]Some older timers who use to build Heathkit TV’s, Ham Radio’s etc could solder it for you.[/quote]

Nope.. don’t. The joints are much finer than these people have ever done. You want one of the assemblers that works currently at companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Cubic. They work with surface mount, the problem is that they don’t own their own tools and the tools are specialized.
[/quote]

Erm, ever see the cat’s whisker wires in small motors, loopstick antennas and the like? Those are a hell of a lot smaller and fussier than PCB traces and tinned leads.

[drboom]

[quote=ucodegen]
On that ribbon cable, your biggest problem is not going to be soldering the new on on.. it will be removing the old. This is generally done with a very specialized hot air gun (don’t try it with your run of the mill hot air gun).[/quote]

You don’t have to use hot air or infrared to do surface mount work unless you’re talking about BGA packages and the like. A regular vacuum desoldering station or even skillfully applied and good quality solder wick will get stuff off just fine. Likewise, soldering stuff back on isn’t rocket surgery and can be accomplished with a fine tip and steady hands. And there are specialty tips for just this purpose: split tips for two terminal devices, wide knife tips for QFPs, etc.–the list goes on and on.

Likewise, there’s no law that says you have to use solder paste for SMDs; rosin core solder will work fine as long as you get a bit on the pads first and then quickly reflow (and possibly add a smidge) to connect the leads.

If it was my instrument cluster, I’d just have at it since I have a rework station. Since it’s not, I wouldn’t want to take a chance on buying the whole thing from the OP if something went wrong–and that’s his dilemma since most other technodweebs have had a bad experience helping someone out.

[quote][quote]Some older timers who use to build Heathkit TV’s, Ham Radio’s etc could solder it for you.[/quote]

Nope.. don’t. The joints are much finer than these people have ever done. You want one of the assemblers that works currently at companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Cubic. They work with surface mount, the problem is that they don’t own their own tools and the tools are specialized.
[/quote]

Erm, ever see the cat’s whisker wires in small motors, loopstick antennas and the like? Those are a hell of a lot smaller and fussier than PCB traces and tinned leads.

[drboom]

[quote=ucodegen]
On that ribbon cable, your biggest problem is not going to be soldering the new on on.. it will be removing the old. This is generally done with a very specialized hot air gun (don’t try it with your run of the mill hot air gun).[/quote]

You don’t have to use hot air or infrared to do surface mount work unless you’re talking about BGA packages and the like. A regular vacuum desoldering station or even skillfully applied and good quality solder wick will get stuff off just fine. Likewise, soldering stuff back on isn’t rocket surgery and can be accomplished with a fine tip and steady hands. And there are specialty tips for just this purpose: split tips for two terminal devices, wide knife tips for QFPs, etc.–the list goes on and on.

Likewise, there’s no law that says you have to use solder paste for SMDs; rosin core solder will work fine as long as you get a bit on the pads first and then quickly reflow (and possibly add a smidge) to connect the leads.

If it was my instrument cluster, I’d just have at it since I have a rework station. Since it’s not, I wouldn’t want to take a chance on buying the whole thing from the OP if something went wrong–and that’s his dilemma since most other technodweebs have had a bad experience helping someone out.

[quote][quote]Some older timers who use to build Heathkit TV’s, Ham Radio’s etc could solder it for you.[/quote]

Nope.. don’t. The joints are much finer than these people have ever done. You want one of the assemblers that works currently at companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Cubic. They work with surface mount, the problem is that they don’t own their own tools and the tools are specialized.
[/quote]

Erm, ever see the cat’s whisker wires in small motors, loopstick antennas and the like? Those are a hell of a lot smaller and fussier than PCB traces and tinned leads.

[drboom]

[quote=ucodegen]
On that ribbon cable, your biggest problem is not going to be soldering the new on on.. it will be removing the old. This is generally done with a very specialized hot air gun (don’t try it with your run of the mill hot air gun).[/quote]

You don’t have to use hot air or infrared to do surface mount work unless you’re talking about BGA packages and the like. A regular vacuum desoldering station or even skillfully applied and good quality solder wick will get stuff off just fine. Likewise, soldering stuff back on isn’t rocket surgery and can be accomplished with a fine tip and steady hands. And there are specialty tips for just this purpose: split tips for two terminal devices, wide knife tips for QFPs, etc.–the list goes on and on.

Likewise, there’s no law that says you have to use solder paste for SMDs; rosin core solder will work fine as long as you get a bit on the pads first and then quickly reflow (and possibly add a smidge) to connect the leads.

If it was my instrument cluster, I’d just have at it since I have a rework station. Since it’s not, I wouldn’t want to take a chance on buying the whole thing from the OP if something went wrong–and that’s his dilemma since most other technodweebs have had a bad experience helping someone out.

[quote][quote]Some older timers who use to build Heathkit TV’s, Ham Radio’s etc could solder it for you.[/quote]

Nope.. don’t. The joints are much finer than these people have ever done. You want one of the assemblers that works currently at companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Cubic. They work with surface mount, the problem is that they don’t own their own tools and the tools are specialized.
[/quote]

Erm, ever see the cat’s whisker wires in small motors, loopstick antennas and the like? Those are a hell of a lot smaller and fussier than PCB traces and tinned leads.

[Coronita]

[quote=desmond]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise. [/quote]

Well, I don’t get pissed easily…Unfortunately, occasionally I run into a few folks with axxhole as the middle name. And gee, your santa barbara home impresses me just as much as your oil contracts.

[Coronita]

[quote=desmond]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise. [/quote]

Well, I don’t get pissed easily…Unfortunately, occasionally I run into a few folks with axxhole as the middle name. And gee, your santa barbara home impresses me just as much as your oil contracts.

[Coronita]

[quote=desmond]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise. [/quote]

Well, I don’t get pissed easily…Unfortunately, occasionally I run into a few folks with axxhole as the middle name. And gee, your santa barbara home impresses me just as much as your oil contracts.

[Coronita]

[quote=desmond]

Desmond,

WTF is your problem? You got a bone to pick or something?

No, I just like to get you pissed (it does not take much). btw, I now live in Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara with my wife of 23 years. Besides the smoke it is paradise. [/quote]

Well, I don’t get pissed easily…Unfortunately, occasionally I run into a few folks with axxhole as the middle name. And gee, your santa barbara home impresses me just as much as your oil contracts.

[Author]

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