1
00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:02,880
Hello friends, Joe here from HackerBoxes.

2
00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:04,760
Today we're going to learn how to solder.

3
00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:14,480
And we're going to learn to solder using this cool little kit, which we call a badge buddy.

4
00:00:16,020 --> 00:00:19,660
It has some blinking LEDs and a battery and a switch.

5
00:00:19,660 --> 00:00:22,520
So not many components, it's pretty easy to make.

6
00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:24,900
It's a nice first start if you haven't soldered before.

7
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:27,800
So first let's talk about what is soldering.

8
00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:34,220
So soldering is just melting solder, which is an alloy, a metal alloy, that has a very low melting point.

9
00:00:34,220 --> 00:00:45,480
So we melt the solder using a soldering iron, a tool like this, and we melt it between things that we want to connect together, usually connecting them electrically, although we will discuss that there's more to it than that.

10
00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:54,460
We see things that are soldered all the time and we have the entire world around us is full of electronic gizmos that have components soldered onto circuit boards.

11
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,300
So it's a big part of our lives whether we stop and think about it or not.

12
00:00:58,300 --> 00:01:05,980
Being able to solder is a really nice skill to have because you can repair things, modify things, connect wires to things to read data in and out of them.

13
00:01:06,260 --> 00:01:09,800
It's a really excellent hacker skill, a nice DIY skill.

14
00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:17,440
Once you get into it, you'll find that it comes in handy a lot and it's one of these skills that you can kind of apply to a lot of different things.

15
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:25,900
Alright, I thought I would start by just saying, you know, kind of big picture, there's kind of two things that we want to kind of keep in mind that are really important.

16
00:01:27,620 --> 00:01:30,940
The first one is pretty obvious and it's almost sort of a joke.

17
00:01:30,940 --> 00:01:32,520
You've probably seen these pictures online.

18
00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:33,280
This is a soldering iron.

19
00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:34,540
It's off, obviously.

20
00:01:34,900 --> 00:01:37,680
If it smells like chicken, you're holding it wrong, okay?

21
00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:39,340
Always hold the rubber handle.

22
00:01:39,340 --> 00:01:42,680
So that's the first big picture item.

23
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,740
The next big picture item is to realize that you always need more solder.

24
00:01:47,300 --> 00:01:52,420
And I don't mean by that that you need to go out and always buy some more solder because you need to have lots of solder.

25
00:01:52,420 --> 00:02:01,760
But when you're working, soldering, working on some work that needs to be soldered, you'll find initially that generally you need more solder than you think you need.

26
00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:04,520
And when something isn't working right, you need to add more solder to it.

27
00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,600
And sometimes that's counterintuitive, especially when we're trying to unsolder something.

28
00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,360
Adding more solder is a vital part of unsoldering.

29
00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:13,320
So just keep those two things in mind.

30
00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:14,280
You know, the first one's obvious.

31
00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:16,700
The second one can be a little counterintuitive.

32
00:02:16,740 --> 00:02:18,560
Smells like chicken, you're doing it wrong.

33
00:02:18,580 --> 00:02:21,480
Number two, you probably always need more solder.

34
00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:23,700
Just don't be afraid to add more solder.

35
00:02:23,860 --> 00:02:26,780
So solder serves three purposes.

36
00:02:27,060 --> 00:02:36,140
And I think this is one of these important things because there's some subtle importance to these three different things.

37
00:02:36,140 --> 00:02:46,720
And they're different and contained in the fact that these three things that solder does are separate jobs of the solder.

38
00:02:46,820 --> 00:02:51,300
Contained in that are some of the common problems that people have as they're getting into soldering.

39
00:02:51,300 --> 00:02:53,900
So the first one is almost obvious.

40
00:02:53,900 --> 00:02:56,540
It's that soldering mechanically connects two things.

41
00:02:56,540 --> 00:02:57,400
So it's almost like glue.

42
00:02:57,400 --> 00:02:59,100
You're almost using it like a hot glue.

43
00:02:59,100 --> 00:03:01,460
You melt it between two things and it connects them.

44
00:03:01,460 --> 00:03:02,980
You know, but is that enough?

45
00:03:02,980 --> 00:03:03,660
Certainly not.

46
00:03:03,660 --> 00:03:10,040
Because really often the main point of the solder, aside just holding two things together, is you have to have a good electrical connection.

47
00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:11,840
Something that current will flow through.

48
00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:15,880
Not something that will easily break apart and not something that actually has small gaps in it.

49
00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:28,380
So if you go at it thinking I just need to get these two things stuck together like glue and you don't think about needing to have that really nice electrical bond, you might be missing something.

50
00:03:28,380 --> 00:03:33,760
And the third thing, which is this is the part that's a little subtle that often people miss in the very beginning.

51
00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:39,560
And usually this is one of these things where when you get this, usually your soldering game goes up to the next level.

52
00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,620
And that's that one of the jobs of the solder is actually a thermal conduction.

53
00:03:43,660 --> 00:03:46,900
And what I mean by that is because there's two different ways that that's true.

54
00:03:46,900 --> 00:03:53,320
But the one that's really important is that it is the solder that allows heat to flow from the soldering iron onto the work.

55
00:03:53,320 --> 00:04:07,780
Okay, so if you don't have solder in the play before you even start soldering, in other words, if your tip isn't tinned, if you don't have the work, the pieces of work, meaning the wire and the pad or whatever it is you're trying to solder together, you don't have solder in play,

56
00:04:07,780 --> 00:04:15,580
there won't be a thermal conduit for heat to go from the tip of the soldering iron into the work, which is really what you want to do as we'll discuss.

57
00:04:15,580 --> 00:04:19,820
So just remember that part of the job of the solder is to actually be a thermal conductor.

58
00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:24,620
Okay, so it's a mechanical bond, it's an electrical conductor, but it's also a thermal conductor.

59
00:04:24,620 --> 00:04:30,120
And the second way in which it's a thermal conductor is in some instances where you have components that get warm while they're operating.

60
00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,540
So maybe let's say a linear regulator or something.

61
00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:43,040
It being bonded with solder onto a PCB or some other substrate can allow the thermal energy to flow out of it to keep it cool so it doesn't overheat.

62
00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,540
So that's kind of a secondary way.

63
00:04:45,540 --> 00:04:54,140
But what I'm really talking about when I say this subtle thing about thermal conduction is while you're soldering, you need the solder to help do the soldering.

64
00:04:54,420 --> 00:04:59,440
It isn't just a glue, it's actually a conduit of the making of the connection.

65
00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:01,060
So try to keep that in mind.

66
00:05:01,060 --> 00:05:04,800
So let's talk about some of the tools and supplies that we use when we're soldering.

67
00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:07,540
The first obvious one is a soldering iron.

68
00:05:07,540 --> 00:05:17,080
The really cool thing about soldering irons is in the last 15 years or so, the price profile of soldering irons has changed quite a lot.

69
00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:28,440
Now for what would have been unheard of 20-30 years ago, you can get for a price that would have been unheard of, meaning even as little as like $20, $30, $40, you can get a very nice soldering iron.

70
00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:35,820
I know the soldering irons that I came up wishing that I could have had but I only had access to in a lab because they were $250.

71
00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:42,880
Now we get soldering irons all the time that are in the $20 range that are of similar quality.

72
00:05:43,220 --> 00:05:49,840
Controllable temperature and very nice tips that stay very clean for a very long time.

73
00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:56,160
So that's a nice thing is soldering irons are readily available now and they're not super expensive.

74
00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:04,180
I mean you can still spend a lot of money on a really nice soldering iron but generally what you really want is just one that has a nice quality tip that's replaceable.

75
00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,180
Although you'll find you might not actually need to replace it very much if it's a nice tip.

76
00:06:08,180 --> 00:06:15,060
And you need to be able to adjust the temperature because there are times when you want a little more heat on the tip or a little less heat.

77
00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:18,880
You also just don't want it to just always be some preset random amount.

78
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,560
So, you know, really inexpensive soldering irons don't have a temperature adjustment.

79
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:30,620
All right, another tool or part of a tool you'll need is you'll need to always be able to clean the tip of your soldering iron.

80
00:06:30,940 --> 00:06:33,140
You basically have to keep it clean all the time.

81
00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:38,560
If you're thinking always clean the tip or constantly clean the tip, you'll end up cleaning it a lot which is what you really need.

82
00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:41,900
You need to clean that tip very, very frequently while you're using it.

83
00:06:41,900 --> 00:06:44,180
It's not just something you do at the very end while you're putting it away.

84
00:06:44,380 --> 00:06:54,380
So most soldering iron stands come with a little sponge, SpongeBob, SpongeBob Square Sponge like this that's just at the bottom of the stand.

85
00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:55,860
Just get that wet.

86
00:06:55,960 --> 00:07:06,280
Some people keep a little bottle, like a little drinking water bottle next to their soldering station so they can always just keep that thing wet without having to run off to get it into the sink.

87
00:07:07,300 --> 00:07:09,020
That's fine for when you're starting out.

88
00:07:09,020 --> 00:07:10,320
You know, just rub it on that sponge.

89
00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:15,040
Rub the tip of your iron on that sponge frequently, like almost every time you put the soldering iron down or pick it up.

90
00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:16,560
Just constantly be cleaning it.

91
00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:31,180
And then as you get a little more into soldering, kind of like a style point tool, you might get one of these little kind of shaved metal tip cleaners.

92
00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:33,200
These are pretty nice.

93
00:07:34,180 --> 00:07:39,140
You just kind of stab the soldering iron into it.

94
00:07:39,140 --> 00:07:39,980
Scrape, scrape, scrape.

95
00:07:39,980 --> 00:07:42,500
And it scrapes the tip of the soldering iron.

96
00:07:42,500 --> 00:07:44,480
You can just do that frequently while you're using it.

97
00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,460
Every time you go to set the soldering iron down or pick it up, just kind of stab it in there a couple times.

98
00:07:48,460 --> 00:07:52,500
So the nice thing about the metal, the kind of... it's almost like a little Brillo pad.

99
00:07:52,500 --> 00:07:56,120
It's like a... I think they're usually made of brass.

100
00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:57,380
And it's like metal wool.

101
00:07:57,380 --> 00:07:59,820
I think people call it metal wool or steel wool.

102
00:07:59,820 --> 00:08:01,100
It's not technically steel wool.

103
00:08:01,100 --> 00:08:07,700
But these type of cleaners, the really nice thing about them is because they're not wet, they don't conduct as much heat away.

104
00:08:07,700 --> 00:08:10,020
So that's really good.

105
00:08:11,820 --> 00:08:14,240
Yeah, so those are probably the main tools you need.

106
00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:20,860
It's also nice to have some flush cutters like, you know, these little guys, which are really very tiny.

107
00:08:20,900 --> 00:08:25,020
And one side of them is flat so you can cut wires off flush to a circuit board.

108
00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:36,420
At some point, you will want to be able to remove the residue that's left on a circuit board after you solder it.

109
00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:38,520
You know, this is called cleaning the flux.

110
00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:49,120
So you'll want a flux cleaner or a lot of people just use rubbing alcohol, isopropanol, and a little very stiff brush, an acid brush, to just clean the back of the board.

111
00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,240
In the beginning, you don't really need to worry about that too much.

112
00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:57,400
You can just clean it with a tissue or just, you know, don't worry about it too much for a board like the one we're going to do today.

113
00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:01,960
But when you start making circuit boards you want to be able to keep for a while, you want to be able to take that residue off.

114
00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:03,820
And we'll discuss why you want to do that.

115
00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:07,960
So you'll want whatever solvent you're going to use for that.

116
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:10,320
Like I said, isopropanol is usually fine.

117
00:09:10,340 --> 00:09:11,960
And maybe a little brush or something.

118
00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:19,760
And at some point you're going to want to have a flux that you can deliver to the board.

119
00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:25,180
So flux is the thing that cleans the work.

120
00:09:25,180 --> 00:09:27,040
It cleans the surface that you're going to be soldering on.

121
00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:31,640
It also breaks the surface tension of the solder when it's liquid so that it can flow a little easier.

122
00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:34,020
So it's a cleaner and a flowing agent.

123
00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:36,500
And flux is just kind of important.

124
00:09:36,500 --> 00:09:38,860
I've heard some people refer to flux as grease.

125
00:09:38,860 --> 00:09:40,940
So if you've heard people say that, that's what they mean.

126
00:09:40,940 --> 00:09:42,140
But it's not grease.

127
00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:48,800
It comes in a liquid or gel or it comes in little pen dispensers that look like a fat magic marker.

128
00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:51,520
A lot of people these days really like the gel.

129
00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:52,580
It's become readily available.

130
00:09:52,580 --> 00:09:54,560
I usually use the liquid just because that's what I've always used.

131
00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:56,680
And I get a little dispenser bottle.

132
00:09:56,680 --> 00:09:58,920
Let's see if I have one of these.

133
00:09:58,920 --> 00:09:59,920
A little dispenser bottle.

134
00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:03,600
These are extremely inexpensive so you can have a few of them loaded up.

135
00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,100
And you can see the flux that I have in there is a liquid.

136
00:10:06,100 --> 00:10:08,120
So you're going to want some flux.

137
00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:11,940
Like I said, there's a bunch of different kinds of flux.

138
00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:14,640
The most basic kind of flux is rosin.

139
00:10:16,740 --> 00:10:18,600
I don't know if it says it on here.

140
00:10:19,300 --> 00:10:20,900
It says flux on there.

141
00:10:20,900 --> 00:10:21,600
I don't know if you can see it.

142
00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:23,120
It's very tiny.

143
00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:31,640
But for the most part, all the solders you're going to use, we'll discuss solder again in a second, they're rosin core, meaning they have rosin flux inside the solder.

144
00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:34,180
So when you're using the solder, it's kind of auto-fluxing.

145
00:10:34,180 --> 00:10:34,900
It's self-fluxing.

146
00:10:34,900 --> 00:10:37,900
So you don't need to apply flux from a pen or a bottle.

147
00:10:37,900 --> 00:10:43,000
But as you get a little more advanced in soldering, you're going to want to have flux.

148
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:47,280
But for the very beginning, using the flux that's inside the solder is totally acceptable.

149
00:10:47,620 --> 00:10:53,220
You'll be able to get away with doing a lot of work just using the flux that's inside the solder.

150
00:10:53,220 --> 00:10:55,300
But I'll speak more to that in a minute.

151
00:10:55,300 --> 00:10:58,480
There are some things you have to keep in mind when you're using the flux in the solder.

152
00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:05,340
So that flux is what leaves a residue on the board sometimes when you're done soldering.

153
00:11:05,340 --> 00:11:11,900
And you might want to clean that off because the way the flux cleans the surfaces, it's usually an acid.

154
00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,260
It's not a super strong acid, but it's acidic.

155
00:11:14,260 --> 00:11:23,640
And if you leave it on there, it's great when you're trying to solder because it'll clean the oxidation and dirt and oils off of the work so that your solder will flow.

156
00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:28,140
But if you leave it sitting on there for a long time, it might eat into the board a little bit or pit the surface.

157
00:11:28,140 --> 00:11:30,220
And you know, plus it just usually looks a little yucky.

158
00:11:30,220 --> 00:11:31,440
So it's kind of nice to clean it off.

159
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:37,640
But for your first few projects, and certainly for soldering this first batch, buddy, don't worry about that.

160
00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:40,060
But just know what flux is.

161
00:11:40,060 --> 00:11:48,780
At the point where you want to start cleaning flux or using a separately applied flux other than just the flux core in the solder, it'll come to your mind that, oh, I want this other thing.

162
00:11:48,780 --> 00:11:50,460
And just worry about it then.

163
00:11:50,460 --> 00:11:52,460
You don't need to worry about that for right now.

164
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:58,280
But yeah, as far as the solder goes, there's a lot of different options when it comes to solder.

165
00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:03,440
The basic options are tin-lead alloy.

166
00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:08,360
A lot of people call it 60-40, although there's slight variations.

167
00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,340
They're not always exactly 60-40, 60%.

168
00:12:10,340 --> 00:12:13,720
I think it's 60% lead, 40% tin, or it might be the other way around.

169
00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:14,280
I'm not sure.

170
00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:16,760
But let's see, it might tell us on here.

171
00:12:17,220 --> 00:12:19,480
60% tin, 40% lead.

172
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:22,460
That's the basic solder.

173
00:12:23,420 --> 00:12:25,440
Like I said, it has a flux core in it.

174
00:12:25,460 --> 00:12:28,700
And this one right here, you can see it's fairly thin.

175
00:12:28,700 --> 00:12:31,880
This is a 0.6 millimeter solder.

176
00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,760
I usually get 0.6 or 0.8 millimeter.

177
00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:35,200
I've used one millimeter before too.

178
00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:36,560
That's fine as well.

179
00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,160
But you generally want something that's fairly thin.

180
00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:46,380
If it's too thin, when you're soldering something larger like a connector or something or something that has like a big heat pad or something, you'll find that you need to use a long length of it.

181
00:12:46,380 --> 00:12:47,140
That's not a big deal.

182
00:12:47,140 --> 00:12:48,240
Just use a little more.

183
00:12:48,580 --> 00:12:54,920
Some people like to have a thicker one for doing stuff like that and then the thinner one for doing smaller work.

184
00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:58,220
That's not nothing you really need to worry about right now.

185
00:12:58,380 --> 00:13:04,760
One thing I do want to comment on is a lot of people get caught up in the lead-free solder.

186
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:08,060
And of course, we'll talk about safety in a little bit.

187
00:13:08,060 --> 00:13:12,020
Lead is a potentially toxic substance.

188
00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:16,060
So if you're concerned about it, you can use lead-free solder.

189
00:13:16,740 --> 00:13:17,560
I don't.

190
00:13:17,560 --> 00:13:20,820
Most people that are really into soldering really hate lead-free solder.

191
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:23,420
It has a much higher melting point.

192
00:13:23,420 --> 00:13:25,380
It's very annoying to work with.

193
00:13:25,380 --> 00:13:26,940
It's really hard to rework.

194
00:13:27,700 --> 00:13:29,260
It's just not the best thing in the world.

195
00:13:29,260 --> 00:13:36,100
And if you're pretty careful, you know, you shouldn't be sticking soldered wires or circuit boards in your mouth anyway or letting children play with them.

196
00:13:36,140 --> 00:13:40,260
So , you know, you don't get lead inside of you by simply by touching it.

197
00:13:40,260 --> 00:13:42,100
You have to touch it and lick your hands.

198
00:13:42,100 --> 00:13:45,300
Or you have to, you know, chew on the thing that has the lead on it.

199
00:13:45,300 --> 00:13:46,960
Lead doesn't just float up in the air.

200
00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:54,620
So, you know, of course, you know, if you're working somewhere and they have safety policies on this, you know, read your safety data sheets and all that.

201
00:13:54,620 --> 00:13:55,780
That's not my expertise.

202
00:13:55,780 --> 00:14:03,860
But, you know, I can just tell you that most people that are soldering experts, you know, they prefer to use the standard 60-40 leaded solder.

203
00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,070
It's just much, much easier to work with.

204
00:14:07,070 --> 00:14:08,970
And lead has a very low melting point.

205
00:14:08,970 --> 00:14:11,970
So anyway, those are the kind of solder things you need.

206
00:14:13,370 --> 00:14:22,230
Speaking of melting point, if your soldering iron has an adjustable temperature on it, a common question is, well, what do I set that at?

207
00:14:22,230 --> 00:14:25,750
So I usually set mine right at about 350 degrees.

208
00:14:26,550 --> 00:14:27,750
That's Celsius.

209
00:14:28,770 --> 00:14:30,570
Maybe a little higher than that sometimes.

210
00:14:30,570 --> 00:14:37,630
And that works out to about 660 Fahrenheit if you have an older rig that has a Fahrenheit rating on it.

211
00:14:38,130 --> 00:14:41,550
So yeah, just kind of keep in mind like 350, 360, something like that.

212
00:14:41,550 --> 00:14:45,570
And you can go a little lower if you're working on something really fine and you're worried about heating it up too much.

213
00:14:45,630 --> 00:14:52,150
Or a little higher if you're soldering like some big screw lugs or something that needs a lot more heat delivered.

214
00:14:52,450 --> 00:14:58,710
You know, if you kind of sense that your tip is getting cool too quickly, you might want to turn the temperature up a few degrees.

215
00:14:58,710 --> 00:15:09,470
So yeah, remember that 350C or 660F will kind of keep you in the right range for melting the lead tin alloy solder.

216
00:15:09,470 --> 00:15:13,690
If you decide to use lead-free solder, you're going to need to go up a little bit.

217
00:15:13,690 --> 00:15:15,930
And you can find the specifications for whatever solder you're using.

218
00:15:15,930 --> 00:15:20,970
It'll have a melting point, but the tip temperature needs to be much higher than that melting point.

219
00:15:20,970 --> 00:15:23,590
So it'll usually have a melting point than a specified tip temperature.

220
00:15:24,070 --> 00:15:28,950
All right, so temperature... soldering irons are really hot.

221
00:15:28,950 --> 00:15:30,890
So we joked before about the chicken thing.

222
00:15:31,110 --> 00:15:33,990
I'm going to mention it a few times because you just want to be careful not to burn yourself.

223
00:15:36,010 --> 00:15:38,130
There's a few safety points to keep in mind here.

224
00:15:38,170 --> 00:15:40,350
That's probably the one that we almost don't need to mention.

225
00:15:40,350 --> 00:15:41,290
I mean, we're melting metal.

226
00:15:41,290 --> 00:15:42,030
Of course, it's hot.

227
00:15:42,030 --> 00:15:43,150
Don't stick your fingers in it.

228
00:15:43,150 --> 00:15:44,410
Don't clean it on your tongue.

229
00:15:44,770 --> 00:15:45,790
All those things, right?

230
00:15:45,790 --> 00:15:47,330
So just remember it's hot, okay?

231
00:15:47,330 --> 00:15:49,890
The next safety point... we're going to have four safety points.

232
00:15:49,890 --> 00:15:50,810
The first one is heat.

233
00:15:50,810 --> 00:15:51,930
Don't burn yourself, all right?

234
00:15:51,930 --> 00:15:52,610
Don't burn yourself.

235
00:15:52,610 --> 00:15:53,570
Don't burn your desk.

236
00:15:53,950 --> 00:15:55,010
Don't start a fire.

237
00:15:55,010 --> 00:15:55,910
Just remember it's hot.

238
00:15:55,910 --> 00:15:56,350
Heat.

239
00:15:56,350 --> 00:15:57,730
The first one is heat, okay?

240
00:15:57,850 --> 00:15:58,550
Number one, heat.

241
00:15:58,550 --> 00:16:01,010
Number two are fumes, okay?

242
00:16:01,130 --> 00:16:03,150
And a lot of people think this has something to do with the lead.

243
00:16:03,150 --> 00:16:03,790
It doesn't.

244
00:16:03,790 --> 00:16:06,310
It's when you're soldering, there's that rosin core in there.

245
00:16:06,310 --> 00:16:09,490
And the flux, that rosin core, it will gas off.

246
00:16:09,490 --> 00:16:11,090
It'll make kind of a smoky smoke.

247
00:16:11,130 --> 00:16:12,790
And you don't want to breathe that, all right?

248
00:16:12,990 --> 00:16:14,970
So you want to have a little...

249
00:16:14,970 --> 00:16:19,590
what I have on my workstation is I actually just have a small fan and it just kind of blows into the corner.

250
00:16:19,950 --> 00:16:25,070
Because that smoke, that residue, it'll settle very quickly.

251
00:16:25,070 --> 00:16:28,350
So if you just blow it away from your work, that's probably fine.

252
00:16:28,350 --> 00:16:38,830
I don't recommend this, but I've actually noticed even with my fan on, just because I've been soldering for so long, when I solder, every once in a while I'll just go... and I'll just blow the smoke away.

253
00:16:38,830 --> 00:16:41,710
If the smoke is rising up into my face, I don't want to inhale it.

254
00:16:41,710 --> 00:16:43,790
So I just... and then I inhale.

255
00:16:43,850 --> 00:16:44,830
Probably not smart.

256
00:16:44,830 --> 00:16:45,770
Probably not safe.

257
00:16:45,770 --> 00:16:46,710
Just keep the fan on.

258
00:16:46,710 --> 00:16:51,370
You can buy a really nice little fume extractor hood that has a little like a filter.

259
00:16:51,370 --> 00:16:55,790
I think it's a charcoal filter in it that keeps the... gets the soot trapped.

260
00:16:55,790 --> 00:16:56,390
And it's very nice.

261
00:16:56,390 --> 00:16:58,370
So if you're going to solder a lot, you might want to get one of those.

262
00:16:58,370 --> 00:16:59,970
You don't want to be breathing those fumes, okay?

263
00:16:59,970 --> 00:17:01,030
So number one was heat.

264
00:17:01,030 --> 00:17:01,870
Number two was fumes.

265
00:17:01,870 --> 00:17:03,290
Number three is lead.

266
00:17:03,370 --> 00:17:04,810
We already talked about the lead.

267
00:17:05,210 --> 00:17:10,650
So when you're soldering with lead solder, lead can get on your hands.

268
00:17:10,650 --> 00:17:13,850
Just like, you know, if you were touching a lead pipe or something like that.

269
00:17:13,850 --> 00:17:16,130
Also, little bits of lead break off.

270
00:17:16,130 --> 00:17:17,250
I think it's called dross.

271
00:17:17,250 --> 00:17:18,810
And, you know, maybe even...

272
00:17:19,830 --> 00:17:21,830
they're almost microscopic.

273
00:17:21,830 --> 00:17:23,390
Sometimes they are macroscopic.

274
00:17:23,390 --> 00:17:29,690
But... and you'll even notice little bits of... little tiny balls of solder around your work area after you've soldered a lot.

275
00:17:29,690 --> 00:17:30,990
That stuff is called dross.

276
00:17:30,990 --> 00:17:36,950
And if that's sticking on your hands and then you lick your finger or you eat your lunch and haven't washed your hands, that lead can get in you.

277
00:17:36,950 --> 00:17:38,750
That is particularly a problem for children.

278
00:17:38,750 --> 00:17:42,730
So if you're soldering in an area where there's children, you want to clean that lead up.

279
00:17:42,730 --> 00:17:47,150
So after you work with leaded solder, you need to wash your hands.

280
00:17:47,150 --> 00:17:47,330
Okay?

281
00:17:47,330 --> 00:17:51,850
And this isn't a hand sanitizer situation because this is not... you're not trying to kill bacteria or something.

282
00:17:51,850 --> 00:17:57,330
You're literally trying to wash a metal away and get it off of your hands so that it doesn't get inside your stomach, in your mouth.

283
00:17:57,330 --> 00:17:57,850
Okay?

284
00:17:58,010 --> 00:18:11,110
And also, if you have these little dross bits and there's a child that comes through your work area and they're very little and they might, you know, drop a toy somewhere where you have these little dross droppings or whatever and put it in their mouth.

285
00:18:11,130 --> 00:18:15,830
Or if you saw... if you've recently soldered something and they might say, oh look, that's a cool badge buddy and stick it in their mouth.

286
00:18:15,830 --> 00:18:16,750
That's not cool.

287
00:18:16,870 --> 00:18:18,170
You don't want to get lead inside you .

288
00:18:18,170 --> 00:18:19,970
You do not want a child getting lead inside them.

289
00:18:19,970 --> 00:18:20,310
Okay?

290
00:18:20,350 --> 00:18:21,470
It's not that big of a deal.

291
00:18:21,470 --> 00:18:27,570
There's other things in your house that's lead, but you do not want little chunks of lead, you know, that break off of things sitting around.

292
00:18:27,570 --> 00:18:29,050
Just wipe it up with a wet wipe.

293
00:18:29,190 --> 00:18:29,950
Wash your hands.

294
00:18:29,950 --> 00:18:30,450
Clean it up.

295
00:18:30,450 --> 00:18:31,150
Just keep it clean.

296
00:18:31,150 --> 00:18:32,910
Don't get this lead around the place.

297
00:18:33,110 --> 00:18:35,590
Wash your hands after you work with leaded solder.

298
00:18:35,650 --> 00:18:36,010
All right.

299
00:18:36,010 --> 00:18:38,190
So heat, fumes, lead.

300
00:18:38,210 --> 00:18:38,570
Right?

301
00:18:38,570 --> 00:18:39,450
Those are three things.

302
00:18:39,450 --> 00:18:43,030
And then this last one is huge because people just don't think about it that much.

303
00:18:43,030 --> 00:18:45,910
But please wear safety goggles.

304
00:18:46,170 --> 00:18:49,470
You don't want to get... you don't want to fling a little drop of hot solder in your eye.

305
00:18:49,470 --> 00:18:55,050
You know, a really big thing is, you know, you're cutting your leads off, especially ones that might be a little thick.

306
00:18:55,050 --> 00:18:58,630
And they go... and the lead flies off and it hits the wall.

307
00:18:58,670 --> 00:19:01,270
And you're always like, oh that sounded nice.

308
00:19:01,270 --> 00:19:03,150
Well, that doesn't sound nice if it hits you in the eye.

309
00:19:03,150 --> 00:19:03,710
All right?

310
00:19:03,770 --> 00:19:07,290
You only get... no , you actually get two eyes.

311
00:19:07,350 --> 00:19:09,030
Anyway, you probably want to keep both of them.

312
00:19:09,030 --> 00:19:09,990
So protect them.

313
00:19:09,990 --> 00:19:11,490
Wear some eye protection.

314
00:19:11,490 --> 00:19:11,610
All right?

315
00:19:11,610 --> 00:19:12,850
You only get those two eyes.

316
00:19:13,210 --> 00:19:13,690
All right.

317
00:19:13,690 --> 00:19:14,870
So great.

318
00:19:14,870 --> 00:19:19,150
So let's actually get the soldering now that we've covered sort of the theoretical background stuff.

319
00:19:19,150 --> 00:19:22,570
And I guess this might be a good time for me to say there's a lot of great soldering videos out there.

320
00:19:22,570 --> 00:19:27,730
If you just get on YouTube and look for things about soldering, you'll hear mostly all these things I already said.

321
00:19:27,730 --> 00:19:29,550
But, you know, maybe you'll pick up some other pointers.

322
00:19:29,550 --> 00:19:32,050
And sometimes it's good to hear things explained from different people.

323
00:19:32,050 --> 00:19:35,790
So, you know, if you like soldering and want to get better at it, definitely watch some other videos.

324
00:19:35,790 --> 00:19:40,170
You know, we're only going to barely touch on, for example, surface mount soldering.

325
00:19:40,170 --> 00:19:43,070
So there's some great surface mount soldering videos out there that you can find.

326
00:19:43,910 --> 00:19:46,450
So that's a nice segue to our next thing.

327
00:19:46,450 --> 00:19:49,570
You know, I like to think of there being three structures for soldering.

328
00:19:50,450 --> 00:19:52,130
Two of them we're going to do here today.

329
00:19:52,130 --> 00:19:57,410
And that's through-hole soldering, when you have a hole in a circuit board, like, you know, it's called a through-hole, a plated through-hole.

330
00:19:57,410 --> 00:20:00,890
And you put a wire or a post through it and then you solder it into that hole.

331
00:20:00,970 --> 00:20:01,150
Right?

332
00:20:01,150 --> 00:20:02,130
There's through-hole soldering.

333
00:20:02,130 --> 00:20:07,750
And then there's surface mount soldering, where you have a pad on a circuit board and you solder something onto that pad.

334
00:20:07,750 --> 00:20:10,270
So it doesn't go through the board, it just solders onto the surface.

335
00:20:10,470 --> 00:20:22,370
And, you know, when you see these, like, really large chips that have, you know, many tens or even hundreds of little leads sticking out of the sides, those are all surface mounted, or these little tiny resistors that look like little rectangles that don't have any wires,

336
00:20:22,370 --> 00:20:23,630
like, those are surface mounted.

337
00:20:24,230 --> 00:20:28,370
Today we're just, we're going to do one really big surface mount thing, and that's our battery clip.

338
00:20:28,390 --> 00:20:31,910
But it gives you the idea of what surface mounting is, so it's a nice exposure for that.

339
00:20:31,910 --> 00:20:33,730
So we have through-hole surface mount.

340
00:20:33,730 --> 00:20:36,090
Through-hole is something called TH, sometimes called TH.

341
00:20:36,170 --> 00:20:39,250
Surface mount is often called SMT, surface mount technology.

342
00:20:39,510 --> 00:20:45,590
And then the third thing is just, I guess I might call it point-to-point soldering, and it's when you just solder two wires together.

343
00:20:45,770 --> 00:20:53,890
You usually strip the two wires, twist them together, and then solder them, and making sure you get solder flowed completely into the joint.

344
00:20:54,050 --> 00:20:58,730
Another example of that kind of point-to-point soldering is when you're soldering a wire into a connector or something like that.

345
00:20:58,730 --> 00:21:04,770
So that isn't exactly through-hole, and it's not exactly surface mount, it's just a different kind of soldering.

346
00:21:04,770 --> 00:21:13,810
But, you know, if you always think of those three things, they all kind of work the same, but they all have little, you know, differences that, and it's nice to make sure you get some practice in doing all three of those.

347
00:21:14,350 --> 00:21:19,210
All right, so let's get right into this example.

348
00:21:19,250 --> 00:21:28,430
Actually, first let me just say, you know, so the basics of soldering are, and we've already touched on this a little bit, so I'm going to say these things a few times just to make sure they really sink in.

349
00:21:28,950 --> 00:21:31,990
So you have two, let's say, let's say you just have two surfaces.

350
00:21:31,990 --> 00:21:43,970
You either have the hole with the wire in it, which is, you know, the hole is a surface and the wire is a surface for through-hole, or you have a pad with a terminal of a component sitting on the pad if it's surface mount.

351
00:21:44,090 --> 00:21:45,950
So, but there's usually two things, right?

352
00:21:46,050 --> 00:21:52,110
The pad and the lead, or the hole, the through-hole and the lead, the plate of through-hole and the lead.

353
00:21:52,350 --> 00:21:58,270
And what you want to do is heat up the junction, so both of those things.

354
00:21:58,270 --> 00:22:04,490
You want to heat both of the things you're trying to connect hot enough so that solder will flow onto them, all right?

355
00:22:04,490 --> 00:22:08,330
So there's a few things that you're trying to do all at once here.

356
00:22:08,330 --> 00:22:13,590
So when you go to heat them, you need to have some solder between the soldering iron and the connection.

357
00:22:13,630 --> 00:22:18,370
And this is not the solder that you need to flow into the connection later.

358
00:22:18,570 --> 00:22:20,790
This is just the thermal connecting solder.

359
00:22:20,790 --> 00:22:23,230
So you have the two components sitting together.

360
00:22:23,230 --> 00:22:26,750
So often what you'll do is you'll have the two components, you know, near each other in some way.

361
00:22:27,110 --> 00:22:30,630
They're next to each other, either inside of each other or sitting on top of each other.

362
00:22:30,630 --> 00:22:40,010
So you put the iron near them, get a little solder on it, on the iron, just so that that solder can touch to the work and conduct heat into the work, right?

363
00:22:40,010 --> 00:22:42,050
So that's not the solder that makes the connection.

364
00:22:42,050 --> 00:22:52,730
It's the solder that is used to enable the connection to be made by allowing the soldering iron to then heat the items up, right?

365
00:22:52,730 --> 00:23:00,230
So that first little bit of solder you put on there, you're really putting it on the iron and it heats up the two items, that heats up the work, let's call it the work.

366
00:23:00,290 --> 00:23:09,570
And then once the work is hot enough, it's up to that melting point of solder, then you touch the solder to the work, not to the iron, and the work will melt the solder onto itself.

367
00:23:09,570 --> 00:23:18,550
And that's how you get a beautiful, nicely flowed solder connection where the solder flows onto the work and is not just kind of being brushed on there by a soldering iron, right?

368
00:23:18,550 --> 00:23:22,690
So again, you do not use the soldering iron to apply the solder.

369
00:23:22,710 --> 00:23:30,370
You use the soldering iron with a little preliminary bit of solder on it to heat up the work enough so then the solder melts onto the work, right?

370
00:23:30,470 --> 00:23:43,930
So anyway, that's a thing that, you know, when you get it, when you get that really nice flow of solder on something, when you have the metal really hot, and then the metal melts the solder, not the soldering iron.

371
00:23:43,930 --> 00:23:46,350
The soldering iron immediately heats the metal up.

372
00:23:46,350 --> 00:23:51,490
The trick is you need a little solder initially to be able to get the heat from the soldering iron into the metal or the work.

373
00:23:51,490 --> 00:23:54,610
So that's one of the main things you're doing there.

374
00:23:54,610 --> 00:24:05,310
The other thing is, remember, your solder has your, especially, you know, if you're using, you don't have a bottle of flux, you're just using rosin core solder, your solder has your flux in it.

375
00:24:05,310 --> 00:24:07,310
So you need to be adding solder.

376
00:24:07,710 --> 00:24:23,610
I don't want to say constantly, but the process of making the solder connection, you need to be adding solder because the flux comes out when you melt the So before you make the connection between the two pieces of metal, those surfaces need to have flux on them.

377
00:24:23,610 --> 00:24:30,450
So you have to melt the solder in their vicinity so that the flux gets on them, and then that allows the solder to flow onto them.

378
00:24:30,450 --> 00:24:38,650
So the two things kind of happen at once, the heating and flowing of solder and the application of flux, because they're coming in the same delivery package, right?

379
00:24:38,790 --> 00:24:46,810
The strand of flux you're using has the rosin, the strand of solder you're using has the rosin flux inside of it, okay?

380
00:24:47,410 --> 00:25:01,890
And another important thing about that is, sometimes when you get solder on a connection and you're moving it around or you're still working the connection in some way, the smoke that came up, that's your flux burning.

381
00:25:01,890 --> 00:25:03,270
It's your flux boiling off.

382
00:25:03,270 --> 00:25:09,470
That smoke that came up that got sucked away or that, you know, if you followed my incorrect instructions, you blew away.

383
00:25:09,470 --> 00:25:12,410
So now that flux is gone, okay?

384
00:25:12,410 --> 00:25:16,950
So that's one of these things where you need to add more solder, because the solder has the more flux in it, right?

385
00:25:16,950 --> 00:25:22,150
So if you're continuing to work the item, you only have so long before your flux is gone, okay?

386
00:25:22,150 --> 00:25:30,870
And then, you know, if you get to the point where you've melted a bunch of solder on it and there's this big mess, you need to take the solder away, which sometimes you can just lift it off with iron.

387
00:25:30,870 --> 00:25:38,110
It'll stick on the iron and you can, you know, clean it on your sponge or your metal tip cleaner.

388
00:25:38,250 --> 00:25:44,390
And then you can apply some more fresh solder, which will have new flux in it, releasing a little more smoke.

389
00:25:45,730 --> 00:25:51,990
So this is part of that thing I said, where you need to be always ready to put a little more solder on, because you need the solder because it conducts the heat.

390
00:25:51,990 --> 00:25:54,390
You also need the solder because it has the flux inside of it.

391
00:25:54,490 --> 00:25:56,150
And the flux doesn't stick around.

392
00:25:56,150 --> 00:25:59,750
You only get a few seconds to use, to flux the surface with the solder.

393
00:25:59,750 --> 00:26:01,790
That's why, you know, you need to keep adding more solder.

394
00:26:02,130 --> 00:26:06,630
Even if then you get to the point where there's too much metal on there, too much solder, you just pull it off, just clean it off.

395
00:26:06,630 --> 00:26:08,050
You're going to need the flux.

396
00:26:08,130 --> 00:26:21,070
And when you get a little more advanced with this stuff and you're doing a lot of connections, you know, really small packages that have a lot of pins, that's where you just want to get a bottle of flux and just drench the thing with flux or put gel flux on it so it's all soaked with flux.

397
00:26:21,070 --> 00:26:31,010
Because then you can work it, you can move the solder around, you can add and remove solder, and the flux is still there doing its job of cleaning and breaking the surface tension of the molten solder.

398
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:36,900
So this is the badge buddy.

399
00:26:37,580 --> 00:26:42,840
Comes in a Ziploc bag like this and there's some stickers in there.

400
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,760
We got this during Defcon 28.

401
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:46,880
We did some sticker swapping.

402
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:53,740
So there's a bunch of different stickers in here from lots of our friends and members in the community and other vendors.

403
00:26:54,840 --> 00:27:01,500
You see such as Hack5 and Hacker Warehouse and just random stickers.

404
00:27:01,500 --> 00:27:02,840
So that's lots of fun.

405
00:27:07,500 --> 00:27:09,040
And yeah, let's see.

406
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:10,460
Yeah, there's some good ones in here.

407
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:16,760
Yeah, there's a Hack5 sticker, a couple Hacker Boxes stickers,

408
00:27:24,270 --> 00:27:26,170
hologram sticker.

409
00:27:28,170 --> 00:27:29,710
Yeah, Hacker Warehouse gave us these.

410
00:27:29,710 --> 00:27:33,770
They have some little camera covers on them to keep your camera safe.

411
00:27:34,150 --> 00:27:47,230
So all right, yeah, the parts that are in here are fairly basic and represent opportunity to do a little bit of surface mount and also some through-hole soldering.

412
00:27:48,090 --> 00:27:54,490
There's a bead chain that you can use to connect the badge buddy to your lanyard or your backpack or whatever when you're done.

413
00:27:56,130 --> 00:27:57,730
There's a coin cell battery.

414
00:27:57,730 --> 00:28:02,750
It's a lithium battery, CR2032.

415
00:28:02,750 --> 00:28:05,430
It's a pretty common lithium battery coin cell.

416
00:28:09,220 --> 00:28:16,400
That's the clip that holds the coin cell onto the back of the PCB.

417
00:28:30,490 --> 00:28:33,790
All right, let's get these things out of our way here.

418
00:28:34,550 --> 00:28:42,950
We'll solder these four items to the PCB, to the circuit board with the logo on there.

419
00:28:42,950 --> 00:28:44,190
It's the Hacker Boxes logo.

420
00:28:44,190 --> 00:28:49,430
His name's Bithead or Circuithead, depending on which version he is.

421
00:28:50,850 --> 00:28:52,070
So we're going to get some solder out.

422
00:28:52,070 --> 00:28:54,750
We're going to start by tinning the tip of the soldering iron.

423
00:28:54,750 --> 00:28:57,250
This one's already tinned because we use it a lot.

424
00:28:57,250 --> 00:29:03,230
Then we're going to tin these three pads, these surface mount pads on the board.

425
00:29:03,230 --> 00:29:05,690
But you want to always keep the tip of your soldering iron tinned.

426
00:29:05,690 --> 00:29:07,070
Keep some solder on it.

427
00:29:07,130 --> 00:29:09,590
The flux will help clean it.

428
00:29:09,830 --> 00:29:16,550
And every time you see the soldering iron going off the screen here, that's just me cleaning the tip in a tip cleaner.

429
00:29:16,550 --> 00:29:21,390
So we're going to tin these three pads by just getting some solder flowed onto them.

430
00:29:21,410 --> 00:29:23,030
And again, we're not just melting it on there.

431
00:29:23,210 --> 00:29:29,630
It's actually bonding into the pad, the solder that's already on the pad from the manufacturing process.

432
00:29:30,430 --> 00:29:36,590
And when you're surface mount soldering, well, with any soldering, you really want to pay attention to the orientation.

433
00:29:36,590 --> 00:29:41,990
So this little clip is oriented according to the white paint on the board that's called the silkscreen.

434
00:29:42,310 --> 00:29:45,430
So the board has been silkscreened with these positioning indicators.

435
00:29:45,430 --> 00:29:47,250
And most boards have this.

436
00:29:47,430 --> 00:29:50,490
When you lay out a circuit board, you can design the silkscreen.

437
00:29:50,490 --> 00:29:54,790
So the silkscreen shows you which direction that the battery holder goes.

438
00:29:54,790 --> 00:29:56,410
And in this case, you could put it the other way.

439
00:29:56,410 --> 00:29:58,590
It's just a little harder to put it in.

440
00:29:58,590 --> 00:30:04,130
So we intentionally oriented it so the clip opens downward.

441
00:30:04,130 --> 00:30:14,250
So now what we're doing is we're getting solder to flow onto the little wings on the side of this battery clip, battery holder.

442
00:30:14,330 --> 00:30:19,730
And we're actually heating the clip up enough so that solder flows onto it.

443
00:30:19,730 --> 00:30:24,170
So remember, we need a little solder on there just to conduct into the metal of the clip.

444
00:30:24,170 --> 00:30:28,150
And then you can see the solder flows really nicely and makes a nice shiny surface.

445
00:30:28,410 --> 00:30:35,590
So you want to make sure when you're soldering, you always end up with a shiny surface that flows neatly onto all of the metal around it.

446
00:30:35,590 --> 00:30:38,410
And that lets you know you do not have what's called a cold solder joint.

447
00:30:38,410 --> 00:30:43,650
If you just dump hot solder on a cold metal, it won't flow onto the metal and it won't bond.

448
00:30:43,650 --> 00:30:49,210
And that will be a cold joint, which is mechanically unstable and can be broken off pretty easily.

449
00:30:49,210 --> 00:30:50,690
And you do you never want that.

450
00:30:50,690 --> 00:30:54,870
That's like the most important thing to avoid while you're soldering is getting cold solder joints.

451
00:30:54,870 --> 00:30:59,430
But you can see these are nice, well flowed, well... it's called wetted.

452
00:30:59,430 --> 00:31:01,650
The solder is fully wetting the board.

453
00:31:01,650 --> 00:31:08,430
So yeah, so the indicator on the silk screen for the LEDs shows the flat side.

454
00:31:08,430 --> 00:31:14,090
So the LED has a flat side on it and the flat side goes to the short pin.

455
00:31:14,090 --> 00:31:25,630
So the short pin is going through the board so that it lines up with the flat side on the leads through the holes.

456
00:31:26,590 --> 00:31:27,730
And we're going to get them on the other side.

457
00:31:27,730 --> 00:31:30,690
And you can usually just bend the leads a little bit to hold it in place.

458
00:31:31,030 --> 00:31:37,610
But then also we're going to set the board down on the component side down, which will hold the pieces into place.

459
00:31:37,610 --> 00:31:44,190
And that's why when you're soldering, you often start with the lowest altitude or the lowest thickness parts first.

460
00:31:44,190 --> 00:31:50,190
Because then as you flip it over, you can get basically the table to help you hold them into place.

461
00:31:50,190 --> 00:31:52,570
And then just things don't get in your way when you do that.

462
00:31:52,970 --> 00:31:54,910
So again here we're just flowing solder.

463
00:31:54,910 --> 00:32:03,230
We're using a little tiny bit of solder to heat up the joint and then getting the solder in there so that the heat of the joint melts the solder into the joint.

464
00:32:03,590 --> 00:32:05,370
And there's just four little through-hole posts here.

465
00:32:05,690 --> 00:32:07,090
It's actually quite easy.

466
00:32:07,090 --> 00:32:14,290
And you can see I'm moving pretty quickly because, you know, like I said earlier, you want to be able to use the flux.

467
00:32:15,070 --> 00:32:18,130
And the flux will disappear over time.

468
00:32:18,130 --> 00:32:21,810
See, it's not smoking anymore because the flux is gone.

469
00:32:21,810 --> 00:32:25,070
So while the flux is still in there, you want to get the work done.

470
00:32:25,190 --> 00:32:32,470
So you do want to move a little bit as quickly as possible without creating errors or making a mess.

471
00:32:33,290 --> 00:32:35,330
All right, now we're going to cut the leads off.

472
00:32:35,350 --> 00:32:37,370
This is where you need to be wearing your safety goggles.

473
00:32:42,810 --> 00:32:45,070
And then some people like to go back.

474
00:32:45,070 --> 00:32:58,670
I usually like to do this and hit the cut-off part with the soldering tip again just to get the solder, basically the wound that was left behind by the cutter, just to make it nice and smooth.

475
00:32:58,670 --> 00:32:59,930
But, you know, that's your option.

476
00:33:00,310 --> 00:33:01,830
And the switch is also through-hole.

477
00:33:01,830 --> 00:33:03,150
You can put it on the front or the back.

478
00:33:03,150 --> 00:33:05,910
I think since, you know, it doesn't really matter.

479
00:33:05,910 --> 00:33:07,850
Putting it on the back means you don't have to see it.

480
00:33:07,850 --> 00:33:10,390
It leaves the board looking kind of nifty.

481
00:33:10,390 --> 00:33:13,390
So you can just push it through those three holes here.

482
00:33:13,390 --> 00:33:16,770
If I can get that to stick in there right.

483
00:33:16,770 --> 00:33:19,370
The leads are really short on that on that switch.

484
00:33:19,750 --> 00:33:24,990
And so here's a good example where you want to get one of the pins soldered.

485
00:33:25,050 --> 00:33:27,130
And then maybe, you know, just get one soldered here.

486
00:33:27,130 --> 00:33:31,250
And then maybe check and see, make sure the other three or the component is lined up.

487
00:33:31,250 --> 00:33:37,230
Because, you know, while only one pin is soldered, you can reflow it very easily and move the component around a little bit.

488
00:33:37,470 --> 00:33:40,870
This is important when you're doing like a chip that has a lot of pins.

489
00:33:40,930 --> 00:33:47,370
You just get a corner tacked down and then you can move the chip around just a little bit by just reflowing that corner.

490
00:33:47,370 --> 00:33:50,790
And then once everything's lined up, you can go ahead and solder down the rest of them.

491
00:33:52,250 --> 00:33:55,350
But it's even useful for just a little switch like this.

492
00:33:55,970 --> 00:33:58,590
There's a lot of play in those holes.

493
00:33:58,590 --> 00:34:00,150
You can move that the switch around a bit.

494
00:34:00,150 --> 00:34:03,190
So it just helps you line it up nice and straight.

495
00:34:09,650 --> 00:34:11,510
All right, all three pins of those.

496
00:34:11,510 --> 00:34:13,090
And that switch is just an on-off switch.

497
00:34:13,090 --> 00:34:17,690
It just opens the circuit between the battery and the two LEDs.

498
00:34:17,690 --> 00:34:19,650
And now these are not just regular old LEDs.

499
00:34:19,650 --> 00:34:23,190
They actually have a little circuit inside of each of the things.

500
00:34:23,190 --> 00:34:25,470
They're in an LED, a five millimeter LED package.

501
00:34:25,470 --> 00:34:30,550
But there's a little circuit in there that actually cycles three different LEDs inside the package.

502
00:34:30,550 --> 00:34:39,470
So each of those packages, while it looks like an LED, it's actually three LEDs and then a little circuit that will make some cool flashing patterns.

503
00:34:40,390 --> 00:34:43,010
We're going to get this coin cell open.

504
00:34:43,350 --> 00:34:44,610
It's a lithium coin cell.

505
00:34:44,990 --> 00:34:46,930
I'll show you how to install that.

506
00:34:49,170 --> 00:34:54,350
These are packaged really well because the manufacturer of the batteries doesn't want them shorting out and causing any trouble.

507
00:34:54,350 --> 00:34:58,830
So they completely encapsulate the battery to keep it safe.

508
00:35:00,270 --> 00:35:03,610
Anyway, we take that and we flip the positive side up.

509
00:35:03,610 --> 00:35:05,750
I'm going to show you there's a little on the top.

510
00:35:05,810 --> 00:35:09,690
Flip the positive side up and that obviously means the bottom is ground.

511
00:35:09,910 --> 00:35:10,990
And then slip it in there.

512
00:35:10,990 --> 00:35:19,630
And the part of the reason why we tinned that pad underneath the clip is because the center pad actually becomes the terminal.

513
00:35:20,070 --> 00:35:21,070
And there you go.

514
00:35:21,070 --> 00:35:22,970
That's Bad Buddy.

515
00:35:22,970 --> 00:35:25,390
Nice, beautiful blinking lights.

516
00:35:26,490 --> 00:35:30,390
It's very colorful and the lights blink quickly and then slowly in different speeds.

517
00:35:30,390 --> 00:35:36,290
And if you leave it on for a few seconds, the colors will get out of sync, which makes it look a little more discotheque.

518
00:35:36,290 --> 00:35:37,310
It's pretty cool.

519
00:35:41,690 --> 00:35:42,910
Okay, so that was pretty cool.

520
00:35:42,910 --> 00:35:49,150
So I said we would talk a little bit about... just give you some of the keywords about removing solder.

521
00:35:49,350 --> 00:36:00,310
If you need what's called rework, meaning something's already soldered and now you need to rework it or reflow it, you need to heat the solder up so that you can take the parts apart.

522
00:36:00,450 --> 00:36:02,650
Sometimes you want to remove the solder.

523
00:36:02,650 --> 00:36:09,390
So you can use this thing called solder braid, which is basically just this really finely braided wire, and it has a lot of flux in it.

524
00:36:09,430 --> 00:36:17,230
And it'll suck... if you just put it between your iron and a piece of work, once it gets warm, it'll kind of draw the solder out of the work.

525
00:36:17,230 --> 00:36:19,190
You can also use a solder sucker.

526
00:36:21,010 --> 00:36:22,210
One of these guys right here.

527
00:36:22,210 --> 00:36:28,190
So you create a vacuum in there and then when you trigger it, it sucks the solder out.

528
00:36:28,190 --> 00:36:36,110
So yeah, I wanted to point out when I did that, a couple little chunks of solder flux flew out of there and you do not want to eat that or leave it where a child might need it, okay?

529
00:36:36,390 --> 00:36:46,450
If you get that on your hands like I just did, you want to wash it off before you eat or, you know, floss or whatever you might do that might get in your mouth, all right?

530
00:36:47,690 --> 00:36:52,990
Yeah, so braid, suction... just remember you're going to need more solder either of those things you're doing.

531
00:36:52,990 --> 00:36:54,710
You need more solder, you might need flux.

532
00:36:55,510 --> 00:36:58,030
Again, you know, you'll figure these things out, you get to them.

533
00:36:58,030 --> 00:36:59,850
Just don't be afraid to use more solder.

534
00:36:59,850 --> 00:37:04,470
Don't be afraid to get some flux going on things when you need it or add more solder to get the flux melted in there.

535
00:37:04,750 --> 00:37:06,590
All right, so hopefully this is useful.

536
00:37:07,270 --> 00:37:09,430
There are a lot of resources online you can find about soldering.

537
00:37:09,430 --> 00:37:11,970
If you have any questions, you know, hit us up here at Hackerboxes.

538
00:37:13,550 --> 00:37:15,910
Yeah, and like I said, I hope that was interesting.

539
00:37:15,910 --> 00:37:18,530
I hope you're open to soldering some more projects.

540
00:37:19,090 --> 00:37:22,790
You know, we sell a lot of kits at hackerboxes.com and there are a lot of fun things out there to solder.

541
00:37:23,410 --> 00:37:32,230
Even if you don't get them from your actual like kits, just things that you might want to rework or modify or try to repair.

542
00:37:32,230 --> 00:37:34,490
You know, like I said, it's a very handy skill.

543
00:37:34,650 --> 00:37:35,510
I hope you enjoy it.

544
00:37:35,510 --> 00:37:37,150
Thanks for spending this time with us.

545
00:37:37,150 --> 00:37:37,610
Take care.