24 Jun
2012
24 Jun
'12
1:49 p.m.
On 24 Jun 2012 at 20:24, Tony Duell wrote:
As regards RSI. I once upgraded the memory board in an
HP Integral.
The board I had was half-populakted with RAM chips, but it had (of
course) been wave-soldered at the factory, so all the spare holes were
blocked. I had to clar out 256 holes (16 RAM chips at 16 pins each)
plus those for decoupling capacitors etc, My hand ached a bit
afterwards, but no harm done...
Lately, I've been using one of those soldapullt-in-an-iron gizmos
that come from China. The iron has a solder-sucker as a handle and a
hollow tip on a 40W iron. It does a respectable job of clearing
plugged holes and desoldering through-hold components. It can be
cocked and triggered using one hand. The free-air equilibrium
temperature is low enough so as not to lift traces. For about
USD$30, it's not a bad thing to have, though it's pretty far from a
regular rework station. Like any desoldering iron, keeping the tip
tinned is a bother, but not too awful.
But Tony's right--when it comes to soldering, practice makes perfect.
There's no substitute for that.
The same goes for troubleshooting. You learn something, apply it,
lather, rinse, repeat. There's no magic silver bullet.
--Chuck