Tips for soldering to IC pins?

TheVille · October 31, 2010, 09:12:38 PM

Hello! new guy here... Been bending about year now and totally love it =).

I've ruined several projects when soldering wires to IC pins. This happens nearly all the time: The solder spreads to multiple pins and in between them. Then i try to remove it by solder iron and solder sucker, but little success. Iäve fried some chips for doing this too long.... It doesn't help either that i have shaky hands. I even tried to hot glue the wires instead of soldering, but that was total fail.

So any tips concerning this would be of high appreciation!

Gordonjcp · October 31, 2010, 10:27:22 PM

Use a fairly fine-pointed soldering iron, tin the wire before you start, make sure the iron is really really hot, and don't add solder until both the wire and the chip pin are properly hot.

Oh, and practice on scrap boards until you can do it.

Circuitbenders · November 01, 2010, 12:55:56 AM

are you trying to solder from the component side or the solder side?

Don't try doing it from the component side unless you really have to.

jamiewoody · November 01, 2010, 03:55:47 AM

i struggled with this for a long time and here is what seems to work for me...

use solid core AND stranded core wire. make a small jumper, around 3/4", strip both ends of the wire. make a hook on one side with your needle-nose pliars. hook the wire around the IC pin, solder it. copper seems to adhere well with solder to the IC pin.

then you have something to grab on to when you solder the stranded core hookup wire to the pin! braid the stranded to the solid, solder it and there you go!

this works for me...

electoyd · November 01, 2010, 12:34:41 PM

sounds like your making this tricky for yourself

I would say always use leaded solder, it runs better than unleaded (but please take precautions if you use this). Get a thin wire (i use rainbow wire which is a flat strip of about 20 coloured wires and thin). When soldering directly to an ic (a non surface mount) make sure the wire is well tinned with no big blobs hanging off, get a pair of tweezers (you can get ones with a wooden handle so they dont heat up) pick the wire up with the tweezers and hold it to the bottom of the ic pin (where it is soldered to board) and then very quickly apply fresh solder to iron and touch lightly where you want to solder. Quite often i would go round the pins on the ic that i wanted to solder to and add a small blob of fresh solder so that it would be easier to add the wire later. Under no circumstances would i ever use single core wire for bends, it is next to useless for this as it always breaks.

If you get a solder bridge the best thing you can use is servisol copper braid or soldamop as it might be known, i would only use servisol as have used others and they dont work. Soldamop works by touching the braid next to the solder you want removed and heating it with the solder iron and it just soaks into the braid, wonder stuff great for removing components as well. I have never had any luck with solder suckers.

jamiewoody · November 02, 2010, 03:32:37 PM

the deal with making a hook with a solid core wire is golden! it wont come loose, since it is wrapped around the pin. just make sure it only comes in contact with one pin, which is not too hard.

also, another trick to soldering is adding a small amount of solder to the iron tip and to the pin. this will make the solder more cohesive when you make contact. there is nothing more frustrating than soldering, and nothing sticks.

also, remember, cleanliness really is next to godliness! a small piece of fine sand paper to clean the ic pin and strip the wire to clean wire will help. solder rejects impurities.

a fine diameter of solder (.32 or smaller) will also help in electronics. it will melt quicker, and is better for small c
components.

more food for thought, a variable control solder station can help. i do not own one, but it is a matter of time! o
everything gorden and the others posted in this thread too...good advice! on cleanliness, keep the tip of your iron clean of excess solder. this will save on your tip. letting solder just melt on your tip while not in use will deteriorate it.

practice! almost a year ago, i started a very similar thread and my soldering has improved like 200% since then! these are all good principals, but you may find a system which works for you.

Ciderfeks · November 02, 2010, 03:48:15 PM

Quote from: jamiewoody on November 02, 2010, 03:32:37 PM
the deal with making a hook with a solid core wire is golden! it wont come loose, since it is wrapped around the pin.

You can also do this with stranded wire - if you strip back, twist and tin slightly more end wire than normal you can bend the tinned wire into a loop using needle-nose pliers - and it's a pre-tinned loop too.

I just recently got around to buying one of those "Helping Hand" model makers gadgets with a built in magnifying glass and a light - it was one of those "why haven't I got one of these sooner" moments. Great. Makes soldering things so much easier.

jamiewoody · November 02, 2010, 04:17:32 PM

ciderfeks, i hear ya, but to me, it is still easier and less work with solidcore to make a hook. as long as the SC wire is left in a place where it does not flex, etc, it's all good. i make a tiny jumper, as in 1/2" or less.

on one of those "helping hands" systems, I WANT ONE BAD! lol!

Ciderfeks · November 02, 2010, 06:22:00 PM

Quote from: jamiewoody on November 02, 2010, 04:17:32 PM
ciderfeks, i hear ya, but to me, it is still easier and less work with solidcore to make a hook. as long as the SC wire is left in a place where it does not flex, etc, it's all good. i make a tiny jumper, as in 1/2" or less.

All good stuff Jamie, as with a lot of techniques, there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat

Going back to one of your earlier points, a decent soldering iron is definitely on my Christmas list this year! Any suggestions anyone?

Quote from: jamiewoody on November 02, 2010, 04:17:32 PM
on one of those "helping hands" systems, I WANT ONE BAD! lol!

You can pick them up on ebay in the UK for between £5-£10 including the delivery. I know it's money that could be spent on components or bending victims but so worth it imo.

electoyd · November 02, 2010, 06:56:58 PM

i picked up last week quite a cool helping hand device, it has the claws, the magnifier, an led light and a spring for your soldering iron to sit in, v. handy! was only £4.

jamiewoody · November 03, 2010, 02:00:02 AM

i might do well to buy from the united states since i'm a "damn yankee" lol! i have a feeling that shipping might make it not worth the price, unless i order a lot of one thing.

Ciderfeks · November 03, 2010, 11:23:05 PM

Quote from: electoyd on November 02, 2010, 06:56:58 PM
i picked up last week quite a cool helping hand device, it has the claws, the magnifier, an led light and a spring for your soldering iron to sit in, v. handy! was only £4.

Yeah that sounds like the one I got - good aren't they - the light is a real bonus for late night bleary-eyed work

Quote from: jamiewoody on November 03, 2010, 02:00:02 AM
i might do well to buy from the united states since i'm a "damn yankee" lol! i have a feeling that shipping might make it not worth the price, unless i order a lot of one thing.

Ah yes, good point Jamie! There's loads on ebay USA too.

Circuitbenders · November 04, 2010, 11:27:59 AM

Heres a tip so you don't have to solder to IC pins on some drum machines. If the ROM chip is socketed like on the kawai machines or the Alesis HR16 etc, you can just get a whats called a wire wrap socket like this.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Connectors-Multipole/DIL-Sockets/Wirewrap-turned-pin-DIL-sockets-TruConnect/63770/kw/wirewrap

essentially you pull out the ROM chip, plug in the wire wrap socket and solder your leads to the long pins of the socket. Then you can plug the ROM chip back in to the top, and you've soldered in all your connections to the component side of the board without overheating the chip.