Blonde from St. Petersburg Learned to Solder in Silicon Valley

Maria graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, after which she came to Silicon Valley, where she now works as an embedded systems programmer at a large electronics company. And can you imagine – Maria didn't know how to solder until last Sunday! She went to the Hacker Dojo hacker club, where I was finishing a Verilog Meetup – and while I was assembling FPGA boards, she wandered into the workshop in the next room, where one of the local cool solderers taught her how to solder her first-ever pin. You should have seen the happiness in her eyes when she ran into the room and started showing everyone the pin! And then she soldered a whole header of pins, soldered an INMP441 microphone and an I2S audio interface, with solder bridges, excitedly showing how beautiful and neat the contacts are, not bubbles, but cones of solder flowing down correctly enveloping the pin!

In short, we will continue all this next Sunday. Moreover, at the request of radio listeners, we will connect everyone online via zoom, via the link https://bit.ly/yuri-panchul-zoom .

I have already described the event in the previous post “Soldering iron as a tool for simplification and for the atmosphere of communication”. In this post I will describe mainly what is needed for those participating via zoom. They need to buy a soldering iron, and a few other things, and also learn the five movements in the video below.

Since the working language of the meetup is English (although I will duplicate everything in Russian if possible), my note is also in English and with links to American conditions (participants from Russia can buy all this in “Chip and Deep”, as well as participants from Ukraine and Kazakhstan in their similar stores). So:

Maria, an embedded software engineer, came to our Verilog Meetup at Hacker Dojo last Sunday. Then she stepped into a lab next door and one of the serious solderers asked her if she wanted to try to solder. Maria said yes and soldered the first pin in her life!

You can do it too! Come to our Learn to Sold event on Sunday, August 11, 2024 at 2:30 pm US Pacific time at Hacker Dojo, 855 Maude Ave, Mountain View, California. If you cannot come in person, you can join by zoom and do soldering at home watching how we do it.

During the event, we will first train the participants to solder pins, then solder headers to digital microphones and audio boards. These boards are used in Verilog Meetupanother event at Hacker Dojo.

We will provide instructions, a demo and all the necessary equipment: Weller and Hakko soldering stations, TS101 and Pinecil soldering irons, solder, flux, microscopes to check the quality, and other accessories.

You can check whether the part you soldered works by connecting it to an FPGA board.

We expect you to donate $20 to Hacker Dojo and $10 to the event organizer for the materials (soldering wire, components, etc.). Students, the unemployed, the retired, people with modest means, and online participants can join for free.

We are in the geographic center of Silicon Valley – Google to the north, Intel to the south, Apple to the west, Samsung to the east:

Below is a I2S GY-PCM5102 component for sound output, soldered by Maria. However note that we plan to solder the header facing the opposite side. Also note the position of the solder bridges (toward right, right, right, then left):

More details about the components and the setup to test them.

Make sure to carefully watch the video below, especially if you participate into the meetup remotely. This video shows the basic movement in soldering a pin:

Heat the joint from one side.
Add the solder wire from the opposite side.
Let the wire melt.
Remove the wire.
Remove the iron.

The whole thing should take 3 seconds and the proper temperature should be between 300-330 C or 570-630 F.

A list of the essential items if you want to do this at home while watching our event at Hacker Dojo:

The iron. I have a good choice PINECIL – Smart Mini Portable Soldering Iron (Version 2) with a sensor integrated into the tip (we will explain why this is important) and conical B2 tip (which is standard when you buy PINECIL). Some people prefer BC2 tip because it transfers heat better but is less precise.

2. A power supply – you can use many laptop adapters, for example this one:

3. 63-37 Tin Lead Rosin Core Solder Wire (0.6mm 50g) – this solder wire has rosin inside which means you most likely do not need an additional flux outside

4. A PCB board for training, for example:

5. Headers for training, for example:

6. Soldering iron stand, with brass wool and cleaning sponge (you need to wet the sponge with water). For example:

7.Magnifying glasses with LEDs, for example:

Other items are less essential but useful if you do soldering on a regular basis: hit insulation mat, fume extractor and low-power microscope. You may also need external flux for some soldering irons, various desoldering tools, a good light, a helping hand tool, and a breadboard to keep some parts in place while soldering. We will go through these parts during the event. You can see some of them here on my table: