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Author Topic: Soldering thin wires  (Read 2037 times)

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Offline ivernTopic starter

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Soldering thin wires
« on: February 26, 2012, 09:16:06 AM »
I finally completed my $50 robot circuit last night (with possibly the messiest backplane soldering job in the history of robotics), and everything seems to be working fine.  However, I'm pretty unhappy with how the connections to the programmer header ended up.  The problem is that the thin wire I tried to use initially overheats pretty much instantly when I apply the iron to it, and the sheath melts off before I can get it secured in place.  So I had to settle for thicker wire (20 gauge stranded, which seems to be able to sink enough heat for me to do the job without the wire falling off its sheath), with the effect that I actually have no idea how on earth the header isn't shorting (it isn't--I tested it with a multimeter *and* the MC programs successfully, runs servos, etc.)  But I'd like to redo the programmer header wiring later on so that it doesn't suck (sooner or later one of these cables is going to get pushed the wrong way and short everything).

Any tips on successfully soldering thin sheathed wires?  Should I reduce the heat on the iron? (I've been using 750F for the entire circuit, which worked well until I got to these thin wires).  Use a different wire?  Try to clip a heatsink of some sort onto the wire?

Offline joe61

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Re: Soldering thin wires
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2012, 09:34:02 AM »
I generally use 26AWG wire and don't have a problem, and I run my iron about the same temperature.

Before I put the wire to the pin, I put a dab of solder on the pins being connected. Then I use a pair of tweezers to hold the wire to the solder before applying the iron. For me it snaps into place right away and I just hold the wire still with the tweezers for a couple seconds till it sets.

Joe

Offline ivernTopic starter

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Re: Soldering thin wires
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2012, 10:54:55 AM »
That's pretty much what I was doing...maybe I just need to get faster and more precise.  I'll redo this after I get more practice.

 


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