Ive got a REALLY tiny chip that I need to solder 3 wires onto, on a laptop (for password reset), ive never done soldering anywhere near this tiny before, anyone on here who does this sort of stuff, can you recomend me what soldering iron to buy? as obviously its not exactly the sort of stuff you can do with a halfords soldering iron etc like you can on an L8, lol

Any tips as well would be useful, obviously I know I need to be using tiny solder, so any recomendations on where to get the really thin stuff from would be good, and Ive got a fairly decent magnifying glass too.

 

You can use a cheapy iron as long as you can change the tip. Get yourself a 1mm or smaller tip, a magnifying glass, a decent light and a suitable flux pen and give it a go. Don't worry about thin solder I used whatever I had laying to do this...





James

 

See the pins on the big square chip on what you are doing there? those are similar size to the ones I have to deal with, direct to the chip legs themselves not further out on nicely spaced out bits like you did.
The stuff you did is MUCH bigger and yeah im sure you would be ok with a 1mm tip but for what im trying to so a 1mm tip would touch 3 legs at once I reckon!

 

you're fucked then

the blue sheathed wire I'm soldering there is Kynar wire, .25mm thick..

 

Might have to offer to buy some beer for clarkey at the middlesex meet I think, he's pretty good at shit like this, lol

 

Maplins sell a 0.5mm pointed tip, if thats to big, solder paste and an oven will be needed, to do the likes of surface mount stuff.

 

not sure if a .5mm will be ok or not. Possibly

This is what it needs to look like


Its definately doable by a "keen ameteur" as ive read quite a few success stories.

 

That enormous brass bolt hole in the picture (well so it looks) its about 3mm or so diameter, lol

 

That looks do-able, tin the wires (don't bother trying to add solder while you're soldering) then hold the iron (with the smallest tip) on top for a couple of seconds. Make sure you coat the pins in flux first and it should be fine.

 

If you get stuck, send it to me Chip, i will do it.

 

Looks like a flash memory chip? As per Stu, if you get stuck I can do it for you.

 

my shacky hand would be great at doing that LOL

 

Thanks for the offers lads, might take you up on that stu