Are my soldering points okay?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bigbembem
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bigbembem

bigbembem

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Bigbembem1994
All four pictures the soldering points look very bad (I'm being honest here) but they will function. Clean your board before putting back together, picture 4 where it says (AD) you have some solder splatter. Don't be afraid to use solder, also the next time after stripping wire solder the ends (this is called tinning) that way when you solder the wire to the board it will take solder better also go to electronics store and buy some liquid flux. I use to work at RAYTHEON soldering flex cables for the SM 2 missile. If you have an old circuit board laying around you could practice. Don't be afraid of burning the boards as they will withstand quite a bit of heat. What type of soldering iron are you using?

Here's a link that might help you a lot:
http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/How_To_Solder
 
opelgt1969
All four pictures the soldering points look very bad (I'm being honest here) but they will function. Clean your board before putting back together, picture 4 where it says (AD) you have some solder splatter. Don't be afraid to use solder, also the next time after stripping wire solder the ends (this is called tinning) that way when you solder the wire to the board it will take solder better also go to electronics store and buy some liquid flux. I use to work at RAYTHEON soldering flex cables for the SM 2 missile. If you have an old circuit board laying around you could practice. Don't be afraid of burning the boards as they will withstand quite a bit of heat. What type of soldering iron are you using?

Here's a link that might help you a lot:
http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/How_To_Solder
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply and for being honest. I don´t know what kind or soldering iron I used. I found it in the garage.
So, This will fuction and I will have no problems with using it with my PS3. That's nice.
Aren´t there any misconnections or something like that?
 
bigbembem
Thanks for the quick reply and for being honest. I don´t know what kind or soldering iron I used. I found it in the garage.
So, This will fuction and I will have no problems with using it with my PS3. That's nice.
Aren´t there any misconnections or something like that?
Click to expand...

Might want to look at picture 4 around (AL) make sure solder isn't touching each other (hard to tell in photo) went to 400% picture size. Also in picture 3 wires going to points look long you could wrap electrical tape on them to keep them from shorting out while replacing everything.
 
Ok. I will check them. Thanks.
I think I will use some electrical tape just to make sure.

I will post some pics when it´s done.:)
 
Curious; what controller are you using?

Controllers these days aren't as simplified as they used to be.
 
I don't think you'll be able to use that... Those are some very dry joints. If I were you I'd start again using thinner 22AWG wire (is that speaker cable?) and fluxed lead solder, it looks like you've used non-fluxed solder, possibly silver solder. In fact, if you look at the first image, you see those rows of connections above the pads? I'd work out which of those solder joints correspond to which pads and solder my switches directly to those instead, soldering to membrane pads is very difficult even if you're experienced.

Dry joints can also occur because of excessive heat, poorly tinned soldering iron tips and re-use of applied solder. If your soldering iron isn't shiny and clean you'll need to tin and clean it, look up some YouTube videos on how to do that because that would be easier to follow, I think. The way your joints are now, I'd expect a lot of intermittency, causing either ignored button presses or rapidly repeated ones as a result of a poor connection. Actually the one labeled 'analog' is probably ok, but the others aren't. Sorry if that sounds harsh but you did ask!
 
neema_t
I don't think you'll be able to use that... Those are some very dry joints. If I were you I'd start again using thinner 22AWG wire (is that speaker cable?)
Click to expand...

22Awg would work but I recommend Ethernet cable, find an old one kicking around and strip the outer casing off of it. You'll find 8 thin wires inside, all colour coded.

That way you can write down which colours go to which button, 4 pairs (8 cables) per side of the controller. I.e. X, O, TRI, SQR. And UP, Down, Right, Left. The. You can mix some cable colors for the buttons in the middle,(start, select, PS). And make sure you include a PS button so you can change the controller to #1!

My next project, a button box made from a keyboard! Let me know if you need any help :)
 
Thanks all for the tips. I will try this first and if it doesn´t work, I will probably start over again.
I´m going to use some hot glue, to secure the cables and to make sure there isn´t any tension on my soldering points.

Does anyone have tips for nice (and cheap) buttons?

@AOS: I do'n remember. It was a cheap controller I bought a year or so ago.
The bottons broke, so now I'm going to use it as a botton box
 
bigbembem
Does anyone have tips for nice (and cheap) buttons?
Click to expand...

You'll be looking at paying about $1.50 per button, you can try eBay or one of those China-direct websites.

If you have an electronic hobbyists shop near you, they'll be $2+, but at least you can see them up close.

You can usually buy project boxes there too.
 
 
Personally, I'd buy arcade buttons because they're fun to push.

You can buy quiet buttons like Sanwa, or you can go cheap and clickity like Happ.

Happs have long plungers, while Sanwas can have really short plungers.
 
Well done. Great job did the same myself would advise hot glue to secure soldered joints as they tend to work loose when setting up the button box.
 

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