Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: gamefreak on January 08, 2008, 08:12:22 PM

Title: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 08, 2008, 08:12:22 PM
Alright, my soldering isnt great, in order to make my connections with wires I require lengths that are failry large with a good metal length, but this presents a problem that if one wire gets accidently bent I may short my battery or cause a programming error. Is there anything I could dip the bottom of my board in to preserve my soldering and connections and stop any accidental problems?
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Kohanbash on January 08, 2008, 08:51:29 PM
After you solder the leads you can clip the remainder of the lead from the bottom of the board leaving just a small mound.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 08, 2008, 09:18:08 PM
The biggest problem isnt the leads of components, its the leads of wires, and larger mounds, since im clumsy and my end of the school year goal is to go one day without hurting myself, my soldering isnt neat, I spent the last two days trying to desolder and resolder various short circuits, right now the longest leads belong to the voltage regulator so the problem is my long wires that can get bent if someone accidently touches it.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: ed1380 on January 08, 2008, 10:07:27 PM
cut your wires so they reach point a and pont b with minimal excess lengththen they wont touch anything.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 08, 2008, 10:10:46 PM
yea then i have trouble with soldering, Also both of my soldering tips are pretty pitted out.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Kohanbash on January 08, 2008, 10:30:18 PM
cut the leads after soldering it in place
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 09, 2008, 06:50:18 AM
they are, but they are not the problem, its the long wires that I have underneath it, certain parts of the board had its copper pad pulled off during desoldering and so some of my solder blobls are fairly bad, if certain wires get bent so far then I would have a short circuit and would be unable to rpogram it anymore.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Rebelgium on January 09, 2008, 07:23:09 AM
uuhm, wires are isolated...
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 09, 2008, 01:43:50 PM
The wires are soldered on the underside of the board, its from the 50$ robot.

Some of them are longer and protrude out funnily and can be bent to short and make it so i cant program the bot, Is there anything other then resoldering shorter wires that i can do to make it so they dont move and bend to short out the board.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Kohanbash on January 09, 2008, 01:58:16 PM
It seems something is being lost between you asking and us answering. Can you post a picture of what you are talking about.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: ed1380 on January 09, 2008, 02:58:10 PM
are your wires bare or insulated?

on mine i used phone cable wires



behold the beauty
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 09, 2008, 06:54:47 PM
WOW!!!
I just saw something so beautiful that i made me drop to my knees and cry, oh
and you board is nice too :P

heres mine, there are still a few thigns that need fixing, such as the short circuit that happens if I put the battery in wrong.
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a90/monkey4sale/100_0647.jpg)
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a90/monkey4sale/100_0646.jpg)

The thing is that i worry that those 4 white wires that go from the programmer pins to the microcontroller might short and cause problems, but I dont want to resolder.

out of curiosity what is the reasoning behind the aluminum foil?

Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: ed1380 on January 09, 2008, 07:04:15 PM
its duct tape. so if some of teh stuff moves it doesnt short

your wires have insulation so i wouldnt worry about it too much
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 09, 2008, 07:08:15 PM
yes, but if you look on the programming side there is an exposed area that can be bent....

ie. the second wire from the end. and the reset wire.

lol, it looks like my soldering skills may actually be better then someone(besides everyone in my school, including the teachers)
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Rebelgium on January 10, 2008, 04:58:27 AM
well, you can always put some hot glue from a hot glue gun on the ends of the wires against the board.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Trumpkin on January 11, 2008, 09:42:19 AM
your circuit make me feel better about mine, thx  ;D
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Admin on January 13, 2008, 01:06:28 PM
Quote
Is there anything I could dip the bottom of my board in to preserve my soldering and connections and stop any accidental problems?
I think there is a spray for this, but not sure . . .

I sometimes coat my electronics in RTV. Make sure it says it's non-corrosive for electronics . . .
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: gamefreak on January 13, 2008, 01:07:59 PM
Im going with the hot glue, easy to do, fairly cheap, and If need be it can be removed. Thanks for the ideas.
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Admin on January 13, 2008, 04:03:33 PM
actually, RTV fits all those requirements too  ;)

just be careful the heat from the hot glue doesn't damage any components . . .
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: SmAsH on January 14, 2008, 07:36:25 PM
yea i had that problem with hot glue...i was glueing an expensive part on to my robot and my friend told me it would dammage it so i tried to pull it all off with my fingers....i got a ruinned circuit and glued fingers...LOL
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: Trumpkin on January 15, 2008, 01:31:26 PM
ha ha  :D
Title: Re: Electronic preservation
Post by: SmAsH on January 16, 2008, 01:46:50 AM
its not funny...lol it was a $65 part!