Prototype PCB board soldering tips needed

Using Arduino General Electronics
1

Hi

I am pretty skilled in soldering, but i always

Get stuck in soldering ICs since most of the times the pins
Are not arranged in a comfortablee way (for example the 4051).

I end up soldering tiny wires from every pin to the destination,
I do not minde doing this, but then the isolation of the wires
Starts melting and i risk in creating a short.

Does anyone here have a good way for soldering ICs on a prototype
PCB board?

I must mention that the boards i have, have copper only
In the pin holes, no bridges.

Thanks.

2

Tin your tip!
Clean off the tip and then have some fresh melted solder on the tip of the iron, just before you touch it to your work, so that you don't have to heat the joint so long - touch the joint and hit it with a bit more solder.

3

wipe the tip between every usage - I mean for each pin!
cleanliness is essential

you can use a damp sponge or a ball of copper strands or both

4

I generally use stripboard for analog circuits, and the Verowire system (http://www.verotl.com/en/category/Wiring%20Systems) for digital circuits. Glue the IC sockets to the board, make the power supply connections, add the decoupling capacitors, then place wiring combs between the rows of ICs. Wiring is then very quick using the wiring pen, you just wrap the wire around the IC socket pins and route it through the wiring combs. When a run is finished, you just solder the pins you have connected. The insulation melts and evaporates (so you need to do it in a well-ventilated area), and the joint is made.

5

dc42:
I generally use stripboard for analog circuits, and the Verowire system (http://www.verotl.com/en/category/Wiring%20Systems) for digital circuits. Glue the IC sockets to the board, make the power supply connections, add the decoupling capacitors, then place wiring combs between the rows of ICs. Wiring is then very quick using the wiring pen, you just wrap the wore around the IC socket pins and route it through the wiring combs. When a run is finished, you just solder the pins you have connected. The insulation melts and evaporates (so you need to do it in a well-ventilated area), and the joint is made.

Sounds interesting,

Is there any chance for a video of this procedure?

Thanks!

6

Get a soldering tip cleaner like this one.
It's cheap and works perfectly.
Just dip your tip in the metal scrap in there, and it's instant cleaned.
Does a better job than these spongy things that have to be kept wet (and cool down your iron more than this thing does).
I discovered the existence of these about a year ago, and i love it.

If you're going to solder on chips, don't solder each next pin, but leave a few pins after soldering one.
Of course you need to solder all the pins you need, just do not solder 1, 2, 3, 4... but for instance 1, 16, 8, 9, 5, 10 ... you get the drift.
That gives the wires or components you're soldering time to cool down and isolation to do some "curing".

7

Use wirewrap sockets - only tack the sockets in place, then twist wires onto the pins to make connections.
Nick Gammon did a nice wirewrap writeup here

This box is all wirewrapped!
You can see a duemilanove hanging off where a promini eventually installed.

The other boards are individual LEDs, we soldered them down then wirewrapped right on the legs.

debugging the hardware.jpg
debugging the hardware.jpg1824×1368 954 KB

8

"blob board" or "tripad board" is good - the holes are connected in threes, not all separate, which is a nice
compromise between prototype board and stripboard. Not sure if its sold under other names.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/tripad-board-1922

9

Yarash:

dc42:
I generally use stripboard for analog circuits, and the Verowire system (http://www.verotl.com/en/category/Wiring%20Systems) for digital circuits. Glue the IC sockets to the board, make the power supply connections, add the decoupling capacitors, then place wiring combs between the rows of ICs. Wiring is then very quick using the wiring pen, you just wrap the wore around the IC socket pins and route it through the wiring combs. When a run is finished, you just solder the pins you have connected. The insulation melts and evaporates (so you need to do it in a well-ventilated area), and the joint is made.

Sounds interesting,

Is there any chance for a video of this procedure?

Maybe I'll video it next time I wire a board. There is a short write up and photo at Wiring pencil - Wikipedia, although the wiring combs in that photo are not the Vero ones that I use.

Wire wrap is an alternative, but with significant disadvantages:

  • you have to use expensive wire-wrap sockets
  • you have to strip the wires to the required length, or else pick from a selection of expensive pre-stripped wires
  • if N component pins are to be connected together, you have to wire N-1 runs (with a wiring pen, you connect them all in a single run)
  • you end up with a very deep board that is difficult to fit in an enclosure
10

The attached link actually looks terrible :slight_smile:

And for a prototype is incredibly hard to troubleshoot.

I did get some ideas from this thread.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

11

Wirewrap "disadvantage" counterpoint:
Inexpensive sockets can be found. I regularly purchase lots of 30-and 40-pin long strips and breakoff only the amount needed. Since sockets are used, components can easily be removed & changed without potentially disastrous unsoldering.
Stripping wire is not difficult - and each and every joint does not need soldering afterwards. Since there is no soldering, changes and/or corrections are easy to make.
N components need a wire if all are daisychained - but its also very easy to make a change on a board if needed.
Board does not have to be deep - different level wirewrap pins are available if fewer connections are being made.
No wiring combs are needed.

In the end: Either method can be used for prototypes.

12

Yarash:
The attached link actually looks terrible :slight_smile:

Why do you say that?

Yarash:
And for a prototype is incredibly hard to troubleshoot.

Why do you think so? It's very easy to check the connections with a multimeter. About 35 years ago, I built a computer using the Verowire system (that was before the days of northbridge/southbridge chips that did nearly everything for you), and had no problems troubleshooting it. [The only problem I had was due to the Z80 at the heart of it not meeting its specifications, which they amended in a subsequent revision of the datasheet.]

13

CrossRoads:
Wirewrap "disadvantage" counterpoint:
Inexpensive sockets can be found. I regularly purchase lots of 30-and 40-pin long strips and breakoff only the amount needed.

OK, I learned something.

CrossRoads:
Since sockets are used, components can easily be removed & changed without potentially disastrous unsoldering.

I always use sockets with Verowire too; but I don't need wire-wrap sockets, almost any sort of DIP socket will do.

CrossRoads:
Stripping wire is not difficult

No, but measuring the required length, cutting and stripping it does take time.

CrossRoads:

  • and each and every joint does not need soldering afterwards.

Soldering the joints takes very little time. I suspect that wrapping the Verowire wire around the IC socket with the wiring pen and soldering it takes no more time than wire wrapping 1 wire, and certainly less than wire-wrapping 2 wires.

CrossRoads:
Since there is no soldering, changes and/or corrections are easy to make.

The number of corrections should be much lower than the number of wires initial wired. But corrections are easy to make with Verowire. Use a solder sucker to remove most of the solder from the socket pin, cut out any wires you don't want, add new wires, and resolder.

CrossRoads:
N components need a wire if all are daisychained - but its also very easy to make a change on a board if needed.

If I wire A-B and B-C using wire wrap, that's no different to wiring A-B-C with Verowire. If I decide I don't want A-B or B-C, then I can just snip it out. If I don't want A-C, then it's no different whether I use wire wrap or Verowire, I have to remove or snip out both A-B and B-C.

CrossRoads:
Board does not have to be deep - different level wirewrap pins are available if fewer connections are being made.

Where does that leave you when you need to make corrections?

CrossRoads:
No wiring combs are needed.

OK, I'm spending £0.02 (about 3c) on wiring combs, but by using non-wire-wrap IC sockets, I've probably saved more than that already.

CrossRoads:
In the end: Either method can be used for prototypes.

Quite so.

14

CrossRoads:
Nick Gammon did a nice wirewrap writeup here
Gammon Forum : Electronics : Microprocessors : Minimal circuit for Atmega328 processor (shows wire-wrapping)

Sorry for offtopic question, but I just noticed a 10k resistor between RX and TXD in the schematic above. Why is it there? Is it an error? I have always connected it directly... Link to the schematic:

800×637 84.5 KB

15

Well, this is an idea i got,
I think at least for main GND and + strips it could be fun :slight_smile:

I will atempt to use it with a magnet wire, the height is just
An example, will probably be lower

Also these specific pins reject the soldering, waiting
For copper pins.

Inspired by the High-Voltage lines running in the street :smiley:

image.jpg
image.jpg2448×3264 1.62 MB

image.jpg
image.jpg2448×3264 1.8 MB

16

@yarash—I know soldering the IC requires the very good soldering skills and there are chances of the short circuit while soldering the IC. The best thing you can do I just solder the corner pins of the IC because it helps to make the IC stable and the rest of the pins you can easily solder without holding the IC. The other thing you can do is just use the maximum flux as we know flux is used to prevent the oxidization of soldering joints but I also observed that it prevents the spreading of the solder and concentrate the flux that helps us to finish with smooth connection with less chances of short circuiting.

montaje superficial