soldering courses

hi newbie here in peace with a question to the forum members

as one of my news years resoulution i was thinking of learning to solder and i was wondering were did you first learn to solder wires together and do mods for consoles did some members take a course or some learn off youtube

 

When I was a kid, my father tought me the basics of soldering, I actually fixed a small radio once, even though I was only 10.
When I got into modding, I Googled and watched YouTube videos.
Everything you need to know is available on the Internet.
It's a good idea to have a PCB to practise on, I used one from a broken Game Boy, but anything goes.

 

My Dad taught me how to solder just a couple years ago. Although I started out modding a Sega Genesis Model 1 VA6.5 for the region switches, I highly recommend starting on something you don't care about or a strip of veroboard/stripboard and some wires just to get the technique down. After that, you can move on to making simple circuits and then to easy game console mods like the Genesis Model 1 Region mods.

Soldering isn't difficult as long as you use the correct tips for your iron. It is difficult to do some of the advanced stuff but with practice you can do that stuff too. Do be careful with them as they can easily burn skin off and send you to the hospital or catch something on fire if it is too close to the iron. Also, solder in a well ventilated room like a garage with an open door or a workshed with open windows.

Sorry if I make it sound more difficult than it is lol.

 

I've been doing it for 5 years and I still have no clue what the hell I'm doing, so I say just wing it and pray it works out.

 

This, mostly. Read up on some basics (like what a good solder joint is supposed to look like), then just experiment and practice.

If you have no soldering skills whatsoever, I'd recommend starting with some through hole components. Get some cheap, really old radio (well, maybe not "wooden case" old...) and go to town. If you get a working one, you could try removing and reinstalling parts, then check if it's still working...
Or you could get some protoboard and a batch of random resistors off fleabay, probably costs about the same I think - upside is, you can start with installing things instead of removing them, downside, you get less variety.

 

As a poster said above there are some really good Youtube videos so that's a huge advantage if you're learning to solder which I never had.

I would just get some junk electronics, take them apart and desolder components then solder them back. Start with larger parts and work your way down to smaller components.

Obviously a good iron is beneficial and you can get a nice Chinese digital solder station for not much money nowadays. If you are starting with cheap stuff then the basic adjustable temperature stations are fine, just make sure you get something which can't be knocked over and keeps the iron safe when you aren't holding it. You'll want some replacement sponges, some fine tips, solder sucker and/or braid (I prefer braid), flux and also one of those little metal tubs with copper wool in for cleaning the tip.

 

I recommend just starting by simply soldering 2 wires together, then move up to some through-hole components as was mentioned. Remember, flux is your friend!!

 

I'll second this. I acquired a broken PS1, and then a broken PS2 to practice on. Solder and flux are cheap - practice attaching wires and removing them...start with the large pads and work your way smaller.

 

Dude this is me all the way minus the 5 years. It will still be me in 5 years.

 

I've been doing it for 2 years and half, and solder like every day or so, of course I watched tutorials on the web but I think practice is the best teacher, now I can do things I tought were impossible for me, just practice a lot

 

...and of course losing main job like in my case can help a lot in term of spare time to practice!

 

A former military electrician that I worked with showed me what soldering was about 20 years ago. I watched him do my playstation modchip in the late 90's. I did the 2nd one with him watching. Those 8 pin mods chips are pretty easy, playstation has really large solder pads, lots of space between pins, difficult to mess up. I just kept doing them over and over.
Soldering stuff you wont use can be boring, practicing on broken boards and stuff. Playstations are pretty cheap now as are chips, great real life scenario to start with.

 

I echo the comment about modchipping a Playstation. I only had minor soldering experience before, and I found it to be a not-to-difficult task that was good experience for soldering relatively small components. My previous soldering experience to that (and examples of even easier tasks that you might want to start with) were (1) replacing the fuse on a Sega CD, which is a simple through-hole component; (2) replacing the buttons on a Neo Geo controller with arcade buttons, which involves soldering some wires to pads, and (3) adding RGB modding (using the PCB from RetroRGB) to the N64, which is a number of through-hole connections and also some jumper wires. It was really frustrating at first, and I wouldn't consider myself any sort of expert, but you get the hang of it.

Also, for what its worth, the best advice anyone ever gave me on soldering was to use a chisel tip. I find these drastically easier to use than the typical pointed tip.

 

I watched YouTube videos and then bought a cheap Weller soldering iron and went at it. I personally like the pointed tip more than the chisel. Buy an iron a small jar of flux some electrical solder and a roll of desoldering braid. Often times the braid dries out over time, when it does it sucks. To fix this what I do is take the whole roll of braid and shove it in a mint container and put a little flux inside. Put the tin in the oven on a piece of aluminum foil and let bake in the flux for 5-10 minutes. Remove the braid and put it back on the original roll and then the roll in a ziploc. Obviously be practical in your choice of metal container to put the braid in the flux. Use only a little flux and don't pick something that will end up leaking flux all in the oven. Use the lowest bake setting on the oven, and no need to put it on a low oven rack. We simply want it to soak up the flux. Whenever I do this to dry braid it works GREAT. Are any of the consoles you want cartridge based? Go buy a crappy budget game for the system you want to mod and buy an everdrive PCB for the system to put in the case of the crappy game. Now you can use the crappy game PCB for soldering practice. That's basically how I started. First thing I ever soldered, I reflowed the joints of the power jack on my Sega Genesis 2. Had cold solder points and would only stayed powered on if I would bend the power cord......Easy Fix!!

If you are serious about modding/retro gaming the skill of soldering is ESSENTIAL.

 

I learned to solder through doing.

Started off by padhacking an Xbox 360 controller in order to play SF4.

From there I did a pro sound mod for a Game Boy, bit further on I did region/video mode switches in a Mega Drive and since then I've done plenty of mods.

Installing a PlayStation 2 modchip on certain revisions of the hardware is probably the most challenging thing that I've done. For the majority of simple fixes that I wish to perform I have no issues with them at all.

Used a plug in 40W iron for quite a while, got a Hakko FX-888D now though - it is freaking amazing.

 

I went in blind and learned as I went from job to job. My first fix was my Model 2 Genesis. I'm still learning new techniques as I go. I enjoy watching the Game-tech.us Youtube channel. As I watched those videos I learned of new techniques and the importance of having the right tool for the job when soldering. I wanted to learn to solder so that I could fix up game consoles so it was a good start for me to get the hang of how to do things properly.

 

I am still a noob to soldering and modding in general. At first it seemed quite impossible but after reading quite a lot on the subject and watching lots of YouTube videos I managed to teach myself. After I learned I felt like I can mod anything and just fell in love with it.

Here's some very important tips to keep in mind. The below is basically what stood between me and learning how to solder at first and it took some time to realize it.

1- One of the most important rules is making sure your soldering iron tip is ALWAYS kept shiny clean. If it isn't, oxidization and other dirt will prevent it from heating up properly and your solder won't melt. After a while your tip will just wither away and you will need a whole new iron.
2- Choose the right solder. I spent several weeks wondering why my solder won't melt. I then realized the brand I was using was sh*t. I tried a different brand and the difference was night and day.
3- Flux/solder paste is very helpful. I use it for a lot of things and it makes my life easier. I use it to easily desolder chips from boards because it helps heat up and melt old solder joints. I use it to tin wires. I use it to place solder on boards quickly and easily. And much more.

I am still a total noob though and there's still so much to learn. But ever since I learned the basics I was able to modify consoles, create repro games, fix broken games/consoles and much more.

Just keep at it and sooner or later you will learn.

Good luck

 

I never soldered anything until about 7 years ago. Soldering is simple, however you need to practice, when you get good at it, assuming you have a steady hand, you can do fine soldering work. I use a 30w pencil tipped soldering iron, metal shavings in a pot to clean the tip (don't use a sponge as it destroys the tip), some flux and desoldering braid. The 30w irons struggle sometimes to solder to some boards as the solder is stubborn however apply some more solder to the joint often does the trick. Using a 30w iron is less liable to damage a board than a higher rated iron, so make sense to use for electronics.

Good hint when soldering to small soldering places, when you've tinned the wire, apply a little flux, hold the wire exactly in place with a small screwdriver then apply the iron - the wire will solder to the joint without moving that way and makes it easier to prevent bridging.

 

For practice, I recommend you start on some old video cards. ebay is your friend.
You can get a lot of video cards for as little as $8 - $10 bucks.
Video cards also have a mixed variety of chips, solder point sizes, etc... so you can practice all sorts of soldering techniques at low cost.