Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: roborg on May 05, 2010, 06:51:31 PM
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Hi,
I was trying to solder few wires to a small bi-polar stepper motor with 4 pins/lead blobs. Had I bought this motor separately it would have come with wires, but in my case I plucked this from old floppy drive and it has 4 pins/solder-heads (small blobs). I wanted to solder jumper cables to these blobs so I can hook this motor to breadboard but they are so close to each other it is becoming difficult to solder wires without short circuiting them. I have been examining few boards and there I can see soldering was done pretty cleanly even when the pins are very very close. How is it done normally ? If I can't solder the wires this motor is pretty much useless to me. Please send me suggestions or easy workarounds. If you want I can post pictures of what I am talking about.
Thanks,
RO.
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If you're asking how things like floppy drives and stuff are soldered so nicely... Well, I'm going to guess it's all soldered by machines.
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If you're asking how things like floppy drives and stuff are soldered so nicely... Well, I'm going to guess it's all soldered by machines.
well some folks build custom boards/shields for their hobby projects ... how about them ?
Thanks,
RO.
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They use a solder wick.
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Nah, it's a question of using the right tool (a fine point iron), a steady hand, just the right amount of solder and pre-tinned wire of the right gauge.
But... When you compare the motor pads to regular boards, I kinda get the idea that those pads aren't all that small after all - what size are your pads and what is the minimum distance between them?
Anything from 2mm pads with 0.5mm between them and up is quite trivial for a trained hobbyist.
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When I have wires that close, I use heat shrink to insulate everything.
See the pics here:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/schematics_photoresistor.shtml (http://www.societyofrobots.com/schematics_photoresistor.shtml)
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factories use wave soldering. board slides alonf a track over a pot of molten solder. solder is agitated into standing waves. like this...
wavesoldering (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH2tE9Wct4U#)
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That's cool! I'm guessing flux is sprayed on? Then the solder only touches the tips of the pins and flows to the coldest point (the board) thus creating a nice joint? If so then... cool!
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It sounds like you are talking about surface mount soldering. It requires flux, fine tipped tweezers, a soldering iron with a fine pitch, an exacto knife and a magnifying device. They suggest using a chizel soldering iron (1/32nd of an inch) because it can hold the solder and they generally want you to have a temperature controlled iron. When it doesn't work, you need to remove the solder with solder wick.
There are youtube tutorials online and I'm still learning.
Surface Mount Soldering 101 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NN7UGWYmBY&feature=player_embedded#)