Time to mod the ol' PS2! (installing a mod chip)

Oh, Goot is the same brand as my solder wick! Man, Goot sodlering irons sure are pricy! It probably pales in comparison, but would THIS ONE do the trick for me? It's temperature adjustable (100C to 450C), and there's a 0.5mm tip available (same as jinn uses). There's also THIS ONE which looks to be higher quality, and has a much larger selection of tips available, but I have no idea what the final price would be.

Looking at the photos jinn posted, I think I'll do what he did for soldering those tiny legs, attach the wire to the top of the leg instead of trying to solder along the full length of the leg, which, now that I look at it, is rather silly since the leg bends in a few places which makes the process difficult.

Also jinn, do you have any tips for cutting the wires to size? It's really hard to strip the wire once you'd got one of ends soldered down, so I've been clipping the wire to size and melting the sleeve away with the soldering iron. This works ok, but does result in getting melted plastic all over the solder iron, which isn't ideal.

 

Because you don't use the sponge for cleaning the tips! Don't say to us you don't clean the tip and do all soldering with the dirty tip!?

 

No no, I do clean the tip, but it's certainly much harder to clean melted plastic off than simple carbon Perhaps I should be looking more towards one of those copper wire cleaners...

 

Or stop melting plastic with a soldering iron.

 

Just be wary filing the tip can wreck it as (they) usually have a coating on the tip. You can see the coating on the tip as the very tip is shiny and the back will be dull.

I recommend strongly to get an iron where you can get replacement parts, such as tips and the tube. BITD, we used Weller's and because we (were stupid and) left them on all day, the tubes would have to be replaced once a year or so.

BUT having said that my soldering station that I got from Jaycar (their Digitech brand) has lasted at least 10+yrs. Unfortunately they no longer support that iron, so no tips for me.

 

Honestly I've modded psx\ps2 with a cheap soldering iron with very thin tip, flux and a sponge for cleaning the tip.
I use kynar type wire and I strip the wires with the soldering iron, after, I simply clean the tip on the sponge without any problems

This is the stupidest metod for cleaning/other use the tip of an iron! Simply you kill the tip removing the protective material on it!

 

Hence why I asked if there was a better way to be doing it.

I'm thinking either THIS ONE or THIS ONE (they both appear to be very similar). They appear to be good quality and they have a large range of tips available. Thoughts?

Hmmm, I was having a rough time getting the plastic off, as you said, the protective coating has probably been removed. Eh, it was a cheap, crappy iron, and was due to be replaced anyway.

 

those irons are hakko clones, I use one (not that exact clone, but another brand). Works great for me, plenty of tips available.

 

Cool, they sound like the ones to go for! Thanks Bad_Ad! Speaking of tips, we've already established that 0.5mm is a good size for this kind of work, but would an even finer tip be better? Also, with regards to flux, what type would you recommend? The liquid kind, or the thick, greasy yellow kind?

 

liquid.

I use a 0.8mm tip, 0.5 should be plenty fine.

 

Interesting! I would have thought the paste would be better since you can stick it to the parts you want the solder to be attracted to, which would be helpful when gravity gets in the way. At least, that's the impressions I get from watching videos of flux use. In what scenarios would liquid be best and when would the paste be best?

 

Hey Bad!
Can you tell me the differences between the flux and the soldering paste?

 

Only time I use a paste style flux is for BGA reballing, rest of the time I use liquid.

 

Depending of the solder you use you might not need flux at all. I use a certain brand of rosin core solder (Brazilian stuff) and I only use flux to fix solder blotches or to perform drag soldering on QFPs or TSOPs.

Replacing a PS1 CPU (206 pin QFP)? No problem.

 

flux is for fixing bridges in this instance.

 

Yep, that's the intent here.

Would it also be useful for getting solder to exactly where you want it? For example, I'm not sure why, but the solder didn't seem to bond as readily to the Kynar wire as it would to normal multicore wire. It's probably my crappy soldering iron, but I have a feeling flux would have been helpful here. Also, how are do you use the liquid flux when you've got bridges on the vertical legs of the chip? I would think the flux will flow down and away from the bridges before you have the chance to heat it to the correct temperature, but if course I've never actually used flux before

 

Flux doesnt need to stay covering the connection. Just apply some and swipe the solder down/away

 

Cool, thanks, can't know until I try it out!

 

The purpose of the flux is keep oxygen away from the metals and remove any oxide that might be on their surface (hence the acidic nature of it) while you're working the bonding out so it's fine that the flux boils/evaporates when the joint is complete.

If you're using normal flux you're expected to clean the joints after finishing or else the residue (which is acidic) will corrode the joint/component pins/traces/wire.

 

Man, I can't seem to find any liquid flux for sale :\ Will the paste type do? With regards to acidity, if you used a PH-neutral flux, would it be necessary to clean it off?