Soldering is the process of using a metal alloy with a low melting temperature (solder) to fuse the electrical contacts of a component to the pads of a circuit board. Proper soldering maximizes the ...

A highlight of last year’s Hackaday Remoticon was a soldering competition that had teams from around the world came together online and did the well-known MakersBox SMD Challenge kit in which a series ...

There are two types of Hackaday readers: those that have a huge stock of parts they’ve collected over the years (in other words, an enormous pile of junk) and those that will have one a couple of ...

SMD soldering – At first, I tinned all the circuit board pads for the SMD chips before trying to mount them. That was a mistake. With both pads for chip tinned, heating up one end of the chip caused ...

Modding today's hardware often means moving or removing tiny surface mount components, and using a standard soldering iron feels about as effective as using a hammer to kill a fly. If buying an ...

Tombstoning is a defect where a two-leaded, wrap-around lead-style termination chip component fails to lay down appropriately and allow solder to simultaneously make a required electrical/mechanical ...

For most of us, soldering electronics means soldering on “through hole components,” that are large and easy to handle. However, when machines build components, they use “surface mount components,” ...

Ok, so I'm trying to replace some joysticks on PS5 controllers. I've tried stuff like this in the past to mixed success. I have a cheap solder iron and solder pump. This is not fun. Soldering? Not ...

Improves wetting: Flux helps molten solder flow smoothly (or “wet”) across the surfaces, promoting even coverage and a strong ...