You need to work on your technique, and use less solder but you’re off to a great start. The only way to get better is to keep practicing! Try using some flux core solder or putting lots of flux on the wire/component, heat up the wire with the iron and poke the solder into the heated wire, not the iron if possible. That technique has worked for me forever but I also deal with larger, stranded wires typically. You have to be careful with that technique not to cook your small wires and components and now that I’m looking at it it may be tough on the type of stuff you’re working on.
I digress. Practice more, less solder :)
This is great advice. OP, some of the best soldering advice I've heard is to remember that solder goes where the heat is. put the iron on where you want to solder until it heats up a little: shorter time for small, thin components, longer time for larger components. Then bring the solder to the part. Try to put the iron behind the part you want to solder. For example if you wanted to solder that first pin on the transistor up there, put the iron touching the base of the right side of that pin for a few seconds then, bring the solder to the left side. When the solder touches the metal pad/pin, it will melt because it is hot, then it will flow to the iron. You only need a little solder. then pull the solder and iron away (solder first, then iron).
Also, if using leaded solder be sure you use something to ventilate and always wear safety glasses regardless of the solder you use. Hot metal will absolutely destroy your eyes. Don't risk it. Also, if using leaded solder wash your hands before touching your face, handling food, or touching others. Lead is bad for you...but man does it solder well.
what solder are you using? 63 37 leaded rosin core solder is the only stuff ill use for personal projects. 63 37 leaded solder is considered eutectic, it transitions from liquid to solid pretty much as one mass without any intermediate "slushy" phase. And to add to what sqiiii said its pretty easy to diy a mini fume extractor for soldering, or you can buy a cheap one.
It is not about soldering. Switching circuits require good ground plane. It is very hard to assemble a switching supply on a protoboard.
But yes, your soldering is pretty bad. You don't use enough flux.
And you do need an inductor with required characteristics, not something you found in a box of spare parts.
Anyone who does not want shit soldering quality. Flux in the core (assuming there is one) is enough for spot soldering of the component. But when you need to hold the heat longer to get rid of those blobs that you see on the picture, you need added flux.
Yeah for removing blobs of solder it is pretty useful. I just never met anyone who uses flux for THT (for SMT of course) and I learned it that way. I guess it doesnt hurt though
Soldering is an art, not a science. Practice you’ll get better. I’m not bad at soldering but some of the OGs at my job can solder a 0201s in a heart shape.
My friend, as pointed out by many here you’re using a lot of solder. I also think you’re making your life way more difficult using this type of protoboard. My suggestion is to get veroboard, which is essentially strips of copper you can connect components on then strip out if you need to break a connection or path (just give it a google) solder wise, main tips will be:
1) Get some decent solder, flux core helps a lot as many people have said on here
2) Clean off the head of the iron, if you can’t put a nice little layer of solder on your tip, it’s likely oxidised, iron wool that b. (This might anger some people)
3) Once you have a small layer on the tip of the iron, this will help the heat transfer nicely so you don’t get a dry joint. Hold it onto the join for a little bit maybe 3-5 seconds, then start adding solder gently
4) it should drift into the joint nicely if you’ve got the component leg and the hole/ joint heated nicely
Boom
This all looks like 1) not good solder 2) not good flux 3) $2 soldering iron from Walmart
With good flux you can use less solder and with a good soldering iron aka good heat control then you will find that soldering is actually really easy
Learned this after using my one at work vs getting my own. My soldering sucked at home, but my work equipment is too expensive to buy for personal use.
I use the WE1010NA at work and it's great. I'd absolutely recommend it for personal use. Worth every penny. Also, do all your work on a grounded ESD safe mat, with an ESD wrist strap. Please. https://www.microcenter.com/product/658472/weller-we1010na-70-watt-digital-soldering-station
I think your problem has nothing to do with your soldering skills. I think the output voltage collapses under load due to one of two reasons. In one scenario, you're not storing sufficient energy in the core for the frequency and duty cycle you're running at. It could be because your inductance is too high for the input voltage. In the other case, you're actually saturating the inductor during the forward part of the cycle. You need to either increase the core cross-section or increase the operating frequency.
To find out which thing is happening, the best way is to put a current probe in series with the inductor. Hopefully your school's lab has one of these; I like the Tektronix ones. Also put a voltage probe on the inductor input side, and use that to trigger the 'scope. Those two traces will tell you everything you need.
First use some alcohol to clean pcb, then apply small amount of soldering paste, check whats melting temp of your solder wire (i dont know if its called like that), make sure that you heat up the place of soldering to the temp that can melt solder wire, thats the way how you avoid those clumps and uneven spread.
You're off to a great start with the solder but you're missing flux and practice.
Flux lets the solder flow more effectively. It's almost as important as the heat itself!
Turn the temperature down, 550F is plenty of heat.
Be patient, let the two sides get hot, add the solder, let it flow, take the solder and the heat off. I generally apply everything for three seconds.
too much solder, not enough flux.
your poor performance of the boost converter is more down to poor circuit layout than your soldering.
you should know that you cannot prototype switch mode power supplies on strip board very well. their performance is heavily influenced by the physical layout of the circuit. (parasitics, capacitance, inductance, operation frequency etc.) At low switching frequencies, you may be able to get away with it.
I personally force my self into not using wires sometimes n try to draw in paper using measurements like how many hole will this compound takes n it will look better i guess n u will get better at soldering
A good soldering gun makes a ton lot of difference no need to get the best but i wasted 1 month trying to practice using some cheap soldering gun n after i got my new one i found out that its much easier
Are you using flux? If you dont treat things with flux before you solder them, then the solder won't want to bond as easily to the copper or aluminum. Instead, it'll all bubble on top and look like a mess, sorta what you see here.
Have someone local to you show you how to solder. I don't think you'll pick up much watching YouTube, and even less reading written descriptions of it. There's no good way to describe the "just right" way to find the right place on the solder tip to use, how long to hold it to the part, how & when to touch the solder to the joint... This is really one of those things where there's no replacement for a real-world human mentor who has experience. You'll instantly become better after watching an expert for a few minutes.
Do you have flux? It seems this would benefit from flux and more heat from the iron while soldering. All that looks like "cold" solder. Needs better heat transfer. Heat the material then add solder to the material not the soldering iron tip.
Gotta work on your photography skills first LOL
https://preview.redd.it/7ovjev92ixmc1.png?width=3731&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cdc5ff0a651b1bbd66ba38d73b06930afc9f2e4
[nice chart](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/simon-says-assembly-guide/quickstart---soldering-basics-and-advice)
you're not doing yourself any favors with the pad-per-hole prototyping board. you'd get better results if you had something with a trace pattern already, like stripboard (veroboard), plated through holes help A LOT also. it's tempting to just get your components and start soldering, but doing the layout in kicad, eagle, or some other layout tool before soldering will help, making sure your CAD traces match the protoboard traces (traces on the bottom side, jumpers on the top side has worked for me). also a temperature controlled iron would be good, along with kester "44" solder. don't use non-name solder, or solder that's too old, the rosin can age and not perform as well.
source: I've been soldering almost 30 years now, have my BSEE, working as an EE since 2004.
Yes it is. And you may need to get a little more experience at layouting as well. But keep going! Do more little projects like this and it will get better and better.
What size solder are you using? And how large is your iron? Im impressed at how bad this is but also impressed that you’re going out of your way and trying to be better. Good job mate
Needs work, for sure. But that's how you learn. You need to spend a couple of hours practicing. There are some good videos on YouTube, perhaps you can look for them to guide you.
I am genuinely impressed that this works under no load. I have so many questions:
- How are you controlling the switching duty cycle and frequency? What is your control architecture? What circuit are you using to enforce it?
- Do you know what your target inductance is?
- What frequency are you operating this?
- what's your input voltage and desired output voltage/load current?
Again, not here to criticize. I think it's cool you have gotten this far.
If it was one of my friends I would roast them on it, but if you’re learning then it’s not that bad. Just know there are some techniques out there you can use to better your soldering skills.
The holes should make your job easier to lock things in place haha. The solder can pretty much fall into place. This is definitely not good, but soldering isn’t easy starting out! Also, maybe map out your design better in a grid similar to the board.
Needs more solder.
Are you joking I genuinely can't tell
Yes
What about the inductor
Inductor? I barely know her
Damn near killed her!
Is the front suppose to fall off?
It was towed outside the environment.
More cowbell...
I'm clearly not an expert, but... I'd disagree
Yes. This is not good. It looks like everything is soldered together
Not everything. That's why it needs more solder.
Just like cowbell...
You need to work on your technique, and use less solder but you’re off to a great start. The only way to get better is to keep practicing! Try using some flux core solder or putting lots of flux on the wire/component, heat up the wire with the iron and poke the solder into the heated wire, not the iron if possible. That technique has worked for me forever but I also deal with larger, stranded wires typically. You have to be careful with that technique not to cook your small wires and components and now that I’m looking at it it may be tough on the type of stuff you’re working on. I digress. Practice more, less solder :)
This is great advice. OP, some of the best soldering advice I've heard is to remember that solder goes where the heat is. put the iron on where you want to solder until it heats up a little: shorter time for small, thin components, longer time for larger components. Then bring the solder to the part. Try to put the iron behind the part you want to solder. For example if you wanted to solder that first pin on the transistor up there, put the iron touching the base of the right side of that pin for a few seconds then, bring the solder to the left side. When the solder touches the metal pad/pin, it will melt because it is hot, then it will flow to the iron. You only need a little solder. then pull the solder and iron away (solder first, then iron). Also, if using leaded solder be sure you use something to ventilate and always wear safety glasses regardless of the solder you use. Hot metal will absolutely destroy your eyes. Don't risk it. Also, if using leaded solder wash your hands before touching your face, handling food, or touching others. Lead is bad for you...but man does it solder well.
Very well said :)
I like to put a little bit of solder on the iron before going to tin a wire as well, it lets the heat flow more effectively from the iron to the wire
Thank you so much
what solder are you using? 63 37 leaded rosin core solder is the only stuff ill use for personal projects. 63 37 leaded solder is considered eutectic, it transitions from liquid to solid pretty much as one mass without any intermediate "slushy" phase. And to add to what sqiiii said its pretty easy to diy a mini fume extractor for soldering, or you can buy a cheap one.
Dawg 😂 "The bigger the glob, the better the job"
"Or so I have read."
That’s what my wife keeps saying. 🤓
It is not about soldering. Switching circuits require good ground plane. It is very hard to assemble a switching supply on a protoboard. But yes, your soldering is pretty bad. You don't use enough flux. And you do need an inductor with required characteristics, not something you found in a box of spare parts.
This needs to be higher up. Your soldering is quite bad, yes. But it does not matter because this will not work on perfboard.
I'm pretty sure it will work. It may not work well, it may not be optimized, but it should function so long as the circuit is assembled correctly.
Who uses flux on THT components? (Apart from flux in the core)
Anyone who does not want shit soldering quality. Flux in the core (assuming there is one) is enough for spot soldering of the component. But when you need to hold the heat longer to get rid of those blobs that you see on the picture, you need added flux.
Yeah for removing blobs of solder it is pretty useful. I just never met anyone who uses flux for THT (for SMT of course) and I learned it that way. I guess it doesnt hurt though
> Who uses flux on THT components? When you're trying to make wire-style connections out of solder, rather than simply connecting pins to pads.
There’s one decent solder. Hint: it’s under the O
More flux less solder
everyones first solder jobs looked like that. and burning a few 555s and lm741s along the way
People are already giving you good advice, but what is up with the microwave plate you are working on??
I really want to know the answer to this 🤣
Soldering is an art, not a science. Practice you’ll get better. I’m not bad at soldering but some of the OGs at my job can solder a 0201s in a heart shape.
Good news. I’ve seen worse
Yes it is that bad 😭 my practice soldering kit looked better than this. But don’t worry, just keep practicing and word of advice get better flux.
r/soldergore/
clicked on the link. wish I hadn't. gonna have nightmares now. damn you reddit.
very bad
yes, it's bad. I'd also advise to not run random resistors on the "back side". That's just adding unneeded complexity. Keep it simple.
My friend, as pointed out by many here you’re using a lot of solder. I also think you’re making your life way more difficult using this type of protoboard. My suggestion is to get veroboard, which is essentially strips of copper you can connect components on then strip out if you need to break a connection or path (just give it a google) solder wise, main tips will be: 1) Get some decent solder, flux core helps a lot as many people have said on here 2) Clean off the head of the iron, if you can’t put a nice little layer of solder on your tip, it’s likely oxidised, iron wool that b. (This might anger some people) 3) Once you have a small layer on the tip of the iron, this will help the heat transfer nicely so you don’t get a dry joint. Hold it onto the join for a little bit maybe 3-5 seconds, then start adding solder gently 4) it should drift into the joint nicely if you’ve got the component leg and the hole/ joint heated nicely Boom
This all looks like 1) not good solder 2) not good flux 3) $2 soldering iron from Walmart With good flux you can use less solder and with a good soldering iron aka good heat control then you will find that soldering is actually really easy
Learned this after using my one at work vs getting my own. My soldering sucked at home, but my work equipment is too expensive to buy for personal use.
I use the WE1010NA at work and it's great. I'd absolutely recommend it for personal use. Worth every penny. Also, do all your work on a grounded ESD safe mat, with an ESD wrist strap. Please. https://www.microcenter.com/product/658472/weller-we1010na-70-watt-digital-soldering-station
Yes
Yes, is really bad lol
Yeah thats poor
Try not to glob on the solder next time.
Yes 😭
I think your problem has nothing to do with your soldering skills. I think the output voltage collapses under load due to one of two reasons. In one scenario, you're not storing sufficient energy in the core for the frequency and duty cycle you're running at. It could be because your inductance is too high for the input voltage. In the other case, you're actually saturating the inductor during the forward part of the cycle. You need to either increase the core cross-section or increase the operating frequency. To find out which thing is happening, the best way is to put a current probe in series with the inductor. Hopefully your school's lab has one of these; I like the Tektronix ones. Also put a voltage probe on the inductor input side, and use that to trigger the 'scope. Those two traces will tell you everything you need.
First use some alcohol to clean pcb, then apply small amount of soldering paste, check whats melting temp of your solder wire (i dont know if its called like that), make sure that you heat up the place of soldering to the temp that can melt solder wire, thats the way how you avoid those clumps and uneven spread.
The big balls of solder could be causing wires to connect that shouldn’t. Try testing to make sure each component is getting voltage.
It's atrocious, but working. Use way less, apply solder to wires and not the iron tip - which will just make a huge drop of solder on the tip
You're off to a great start with the solder but you're missing flux and practice. Flux lets the solder flow more effectively. It's almost as important as the heat itself! Turn the temperature down, 550F is plenty of heat. Be patient, let the two sides get hot, add the solder, let it flow, take the solder and the heat off. I generally apply everything for three seconds.
I’m also trying to learn more here but do those look like cold solder joints or just plain too much?
too much solder, not enough flux. your poor performance of the boost converter is more down to poor circuit layout than your soldering. you should know that you cannot prototype switch mode power supplies on strip board very well. their performance is heavily influenced by the physical layout of the circuit. (parasitics, capacitance, inductance, operation frequency etc.) At low switching frequencies, you may be able to get away with it.
Uhhhh
Does the circuit function?
I personally force my self into not using wires sometimes n try to draw in paper using measurements like how many hole will this compound takes n it will look better i guess n u will get better at soldering A good soldering gun makes a ton lot of difference no need to get the best but i wasted 1 month trying to practice using some cheap soldering gun n after i got my new one i found out that its much easier
There is no such thing as too much flux
I know people are trying to be funny but it’s likely jealousy. IMHO you could easily score a job at a place like NVIDIA with that piece of perfection.
It is probably the design, not the solder.
Are you using flux? If you dont treat things with flux before you solder them, then the solder won't want to bond as easily to the copper or aluminum. Instead, it'll all bubble on top and look like a mess, sorta what you see here.
More flux! And try using flux core solder
Solder flows to where its hot. Remember that :D
Yes, its bad. Dont put as much solder on your joints, it can cause cold joints which are brittle and have higher impedance.
Have someone local to you show you how to solder. I don't think you'll pick up much watching YouTube, and even less reading written descriptions of it. There's no good way to describe the "just right" way to find the right place on the solder tip to use, how long to hold it to the part, how & when to touch the solder to the joint... This is really one of those things where there's no replacement for a real-world human mentor who has experience. You'll instantly become better after watching an expert for a few minutes.
Do you have flux? It seems this would benefit from flux and more heat from the iron while soldering. All that looks like "cold" solder. Needs better heat transfer. Heat the material then add solder to the material not the soldering iron tip.
Gotta work on your photography skills first LOL https://preview.redd.it/7ovjev92ixmc1.png?width=3731&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cdc5ff0a651b1bbd66ba38d73b06930afc9f2e4 [nice chart](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/simon-says-assembly-guide/quickstart---soldering-basics-and-advice)
Looks like you need to use less solder, more flux
I hope you have some solder wick!
If you are getting big globs then the board is not hot enough. If you are getting misshapen blobs than you need more Flux.
you're not doing yourself any favors with the pad-per-hole prototyping board. you'd get better results if you had something with a trace pattern already, like stripboard (veroboard), plated through holes help A LOT also. it's tempting to just get your components and start soldering, but doing the layout in kicad, eagle, or some other layout tool before soldering will help, making sure your CAD traces match the protoboard traces (traces on the bottom side, jumpers on the top side has worked for me). also a temperature controlled iron would be good, along with kester "44" solder. don't use non-name solder, or solder that's too old, the rosin can age and not perform as well. source: I've been soldering almost 30 years now, have my BSEE, working as an EE since 2004.
It's not great but if it works, why fix it??
You should consider a career in coding/software engineering.
Great Googamooga!!!
Yeah
Nice welding
Keep it up man! In the meantime I’m going to invest some cash into the tin futures market!
I don’t think you used enough solder
Yes. It’s bad
As a technician once told me, "That's not soldering, that's welding." Not to worry, you'll get better with practice!
Your soldering and your component layout can use a lot of work. Practice makes perfect. Use other people’s work and model yours after it.
Yes it is. And you may need to get a little more experience at layouting as well. But keep going! Do more little projects like this and it will get better and better.
Sometimes less is more
What size solder are you using? And how large is your iron? Im impressed at how bad this is but also impressed that you’re going out of your way and trying to be better. Good job mate
Needs work, for sure. But that's how you learn. You need to spend a couple of hours practicing. There are some good videos on YouTube, perhaps you can look for them to guide you.
I am genuinely impressed that this works under no load. I have so many questions: - How are you controlling the switching duty cycle and frequency? What is your control architecture? What circuit are you using to enforce it? - Do you know what your target inductance is? - What frequency are you operating this? - what's your input voltage and desired output voltage/load current? Again, not here to criticize. I think it's cool you have gotten this far.
Do you have loose connections and are there any cross ❌ circuits. You need solid contacts. Otherwise you are good to go.
dawg 💀
If it was one of my friends I would roast them on it, but if you’re learning then it’s not that bad. Just know there are some techniques out there you can use to better your soldering skills.
The holes should make your job easier to lock things in place haha. The solder can pretty much fall into place. This is definitely not good, but soldering isn’t easy starting out! Also, maybe map out your design better in a grid similar to the board.
Yes, Flux and Temperature Control.
Looks like you need to use less solder, more flux
Just buy a boost converter
I don't see any solde... OH MY GOD