[drboom]

I think you’re on solid ground. Further, the very definition of “unemployment”, just like the Consumer Price Index, is changed to suit the spinmeisters’ needs.

See shadowstats.com if you want more realistic numbers.

[drboom]

I think you’re on solid ground. Further, the very definition of “unemployment”, just like the Consumer Price Index, is changed to suit the spinmeisters’ needs.

See shadowstats.com if you want more realistic numbers.

[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.

[drboom]

[quote=sdduuuude]afx – Buy a book on neat little electronics projects and try to build one of them. Little timer circuits, blinky lights, noise-makers, etc.[/quote]

Yes, and get a decent temperature-controlled soldering iron. Weller is the default choice for a lot of people, but Hakko, Xytronic, and (especially) Metcal are good choices. Buy used! I got my first decent iron for $30 many years ago from Industrial Lquidators, and it worked great.

[quote]I’d say go to Gateway Electronics, but they closed and I forget the name of the place that replaced it.[/quote]

Whaaaaa….? When did this happen? I haven’t been there in a while since I moved back to east county, but they were my go-to source for Canare audio cable.

I guess our cool surplus joints are down to a couple of places on Johnson in El Cajon (California Electronic & Industrial Supply and the other place a block north) and that place in National City whose name always escapes me.

[drboom]

[quote=sdduuuude]afx – Buy a book on neat little electronics projects and try to build one of them. Little timer circuits, blinky lights, noise-makers, etc.[/quote]

Yes, and get a decent temperature-controlled soldering iron. Weller is the default choice for a lot of people, but Hakko, Xytronic, and (especially) Metcal are good choices. Buy used! I got my first decent iron for $30 many years ago from Industrial Lquidators, and it worked great.

[quote]I’d say go to Gateway Electronics, but they closed and I forget the name of the place that replaced it.[/quote]

Whaaaaa….? When did this happen? I haven’t been there in a while since I moved back to east county, but they were my go-to source for Canare audio cable.

I guess our cool surplus joints are down to a couple of places on Johnson in El Cajon (California Electronic & Industrial Supply and the other place a block north) and that place in National City whose name always escapes me.

[drboom]

[quote=sdduuuude]afx – Buy a book on neat little electronics projects and try to build one of them. Little timer circuits, blinky lights, noise-makers, etc.[/quote]

Yes, and get a decent temperature-controlled soldering iron. Weller is the default choice for a lot of people, but Hakko, Xytronic, and (especially) Metcal are good choices. Buy used! I got my first decent iron for $30 many years ago from Industrial Lquidators, and it worked great.

[quote]I’d say go to Gateway Electronics, but they closed and I forget the name of the place that replaced it.[/quote]

Whaaaaa….? When did this happen? I haven’t been there in a while since I moved back to east county, but they were my go-to source for Canare audio cable.

I guess our cool surplus joints are down to a couple of places on Johnson in El Cajon (California Electronic & Industrial Supply and the other place a block north) and that place in National City whose name always escapes me.

[drboom]

[quote=sdduuuude]afx – Buy a book on neat little electronics projects and try to build one of them. Little timer circuits, blinky lights, noise-makers, etc.[/quote]

Yes, and get a decent temperature-controlled soldering iron. Weller is the default choice for a lot of people, but Hakko, Xytronic, and (especially) Metcal are good choices. Buy used! I got my first decent iron for $30 many years ago from Industrial Lquidators, and it worked great.

[quote]I’d say go to Gateway Electronics, but they closed and I forget the name of the place that replaced it.[/quote]

Whaaaaa….? When did this happen? I haven’t been there in a while since I moved back to east county, but they were my go-to source for Canare audio cable.

I guess our cool surplus joints are down to a couple of places on Johnson in El Cajon (California Electronic & Industrial Supply and the other place a block north) and that place in National City whose name always escapes me.

[drboom]

[quote=sdduuuude]afx – Buy a book on neat little electronics projects and try to build one of them. Little timer circuits, blinky lights, noise-makers, etc.[/quote]

Yes, and get a decent temperature-controlled soldering iron. Weller is the default choice for a lot of people, but Hakko, Xytronic, and (especially) Metcal are good choices. Buy used! I got my first decent iron for $30 many years ago from Industrial Lquidators, and it worked great.

[quote]I’d say go to Gateway Electronics, but they closed and I forget the name of the place that replaced it.[/quote]

Whaaaaa….? When did this happen? I haven’t been there in a while since I moved back to east county, but they were my go-to source for Canare audio cable.

I guess our cool surplus joints are down to a couple of places on Johnson in El Cajon (California Electronic & Industrial Supply and the other place a block north) and that place in National City whose name always escapes me.

[drboom]

[quote=flu][quote=drboom]
I’d bet the change in my pocket (currently zero) that there’s a connector under that module. The module housing is probably soldered to the board, but that’s easy to desolder and a lot less fragile than the flex connector.[/quote]

Good thing you had no change in your pocket…There isn’t a connector under the module. It really is a surface mounted ribbon. It’s probably why a lot of them are breaking over time. Some dude wrote a FAQ on how to do this, but the last time I tried to solder something this fine, it didn’t work that well.

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=1637467%5B/quote%5D

Like I said, stupid design if so. Would it kill these cheapass companies to make things that can be, you know, repaired by human beings? It’s not like flex cable connectors are expensive new technology.

[drboom]

[quote=flu][quote=drboom]
I’d bet the change in my pocket (currently zero) that there’s a connector under that module. The module housing is probably soldered to the board, but that’s easy to desolder and a lot less fragile than the flex connector.[/quote]

Good thing you had no change in your pocket…There isn’t a connector under the module. It really is a surface mounted ribbon. It’s probably why a lot of them are breaking over time. Some dude wrote a FAQ on how to do this, but the last time I tried to solder something this fine, it didn’t work that well.

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=1637467%5B/quote%5D

Like I said, stupid design if so. Would it kill these cheapass companies to make things that can be, you know, repaired by human beings? It’s not like flex cable connectors are expensive new technology.

[drboom]

[quote=flu][quote=drboom]
I’d bet the change in my pocket (currently zero) that there’s a connector under that module. The module housing is probably soldered to the board, but that’s easy to desolder and a lot less fragile than the flex connector.[/quote]

Good thing you had no change in your pocket…There isn’t a connector under the module. It really is a surface mounted ribbon. It’s probably why a lot of them are breaking over time. Some dude wrote a FAQ on how to do this, but the last time I tried to solder something this fine, it didn’t work that well.

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=1637467%5B/quote%5D

Like I said, stupid design if so. Would it kill these cheapass companies to make things that can be, you know, repaired by human beings? It’s not like flex cable connectors are expensive new technology.

[Author]

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