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720	4760	Hello friends, Joe here from HackerBoxes. Today we're going to learn how to solder.
5360	14480	And we're going to learn to solder using this cool little kit, which we call a badge buddy.
16020	21140	It has some blinking LEDs and a battery and a switch. So not many components, it's pretty
21140	24900	easy to make. It's a nice first start if you haven't soldered before.
25600	29980	So first let's talk about what is soldering. So soldering is just melting solder, which
29980	35540	is an alloy, a metal alloy, that has a very low melting point. So we melt the solder using
35760	40160	a soldering iron, a tool like this, and we melt it between things that we want to connect
40160	44440	together, usually connecting them electrically, although we will discuss that there's more
44440	49680	to it than that. We see things that are soldered all the time and we have the entire world
49680	54460	around us is full of electronic gizmos that have components soldered onto circuit boards.
54680	58680	So it's a big part of our lives whether we stop and think about it or not. Being able
58680	63400	to solder is a really nice skill to have because you can repair things, modify things,
63400	67980	connect wires to things to read data in and out of them. It's a really excellent hacker
67980	73180	skill, a nice DIY skill. Once you get into it, you'll find that it comes in handy a lot
73180	77440	and it's one of these skills that you can kind of apply to a lot of different things.
78080	82880	Alright, I thought I would start by just saying, you know, kind of big picture, there's kind
82880	88220	of two things that we want to kind of keep in mind that are really important. The first
88220	92040	one is pretty obvious and it's almost sort of a joke. You've probably seen these pictures
92040	96300	online. This is a soldering iron. It's off, obviously. If it smells like chicken, you're
96300	102680	holding it wrong, okay? Always hold the rubber handle. So that's the first big picture item.
102680	108220	The next big picture item is to realize that you always need more solder. And I don't mean
108220	111680	by that that you need to go out and always buy some more solder because you need to have
111680	117120	lots of solder. But when you're working, soldering, working on some work that needs to be soldered,
117120	122000	you'll find initially that generally you need more solder than you think you need. And when
122000	125160	something isn't working right, you need to add more solder to it. And sometimes that's
125160	129480	counterintuitive, especially when we're trying to unsolder something. Adding more solder
129480	133760	is a vital part of unsoldering. So just keep those two things in mind. You know, the first
133760	137520	one's obvious. The second one can be a little counterintuitive. Smells like chicken, you're
137520	142560	doing it wrong. Number two, you probably always need more solder. Just don't be afraid to
142560	150580	add more solder. So solder serves three purposes. And I think this is one of these important
150580	156660	things because there's some subtle importance to these three different things. And they're
156660	163440	different and contained in the fact that these three things that solder does are separate
164980	169720	jobs of the solder. Contained in that are some of the common problems that people have
169720	175260	as they're getting into soldering. So the first one is almost obvious. It's that soldering
175260	178220	mechanically connects two things. So it's almost like glue. You're almost using it like
178340	182540	a hot glue. You melt it between two things and it connects them. You know, but is that
182540	187120	enough? Certainly not. Because really often the main point of the solder, aside just holding
187120	190580	two things together, is you have to have a good electrical connection. Something that
190580	193960	current will flow through. Not something that will easily break apart and not something
193960	199220	that actually has small gaps in it. So if you go at it thinking I just need to get these
199220	203960	two things stuck together like glue and you don't think about needing to have that really
203960	210280	nice electrical bond, you might be missing something. And the third thing, which is this
210280	214580	is the part that's a little subtle that often people miss in the very beginning. And usually
214580	218460	this is one of these things where when you get this, usually your soldering game goes
218460	222660	up to the next level. And that's that one of the jobs of the solder is actually a thermal
222660	226900	conduction. And what I mean by that is because there's two different ways that that's true.
226900	231540	But the one that's really important is that it is the solder that allows heat to flow
231540	236860	from the soldering iron onto the work. Okay, so if you don't have solder in the play before
236860	240700	you even start soldering, in other words, if your tip isn't tinned, if you don't have
240700	244800	the work, the pieces of work, meaning the wire and the pad or whatever it is you're
244800	250800	trying to solder together, you don't have solder in play, there won't be a thermal conduit
250800	254280	for heat to go from the tip of the soldering iron into the work, which is really what you
254280	258180	want to do as we'll discuss. So just remember that part of the job of the solder is to actually
258180	263340	be a thermal conductor. Okay, so it's a mechanical bond, it's an electrical conductor, but it's
263340	266920	also a thermal conductor. And the second way in which it's a thermal conductor is in some
266920	270720	instances where you have components that get warm while they're operating. So maybe let's
270720	277920	say a linear regulator or something. It being bonded with solder onto a PCB or some other
277920	282480	substrate can allow the thermal energy to flow out of it to keep it cool so it doesn't
282480	287500	overheat. So that's kind of a secondary way. But what I'm really talking about when I say
287500	292400	this subtle thing about thermal conduction is while you're soldering, you need the solder
292400	298600	to help do the soldering. It isn't just a glue, it's actually a conduit of the making
298600	302960	of the connection. So try to keep that in mind. So let's talk about some of the tools
302960	307540	and supplies that we use when we're soldering. The first obvious one is a soldering iron.
307540	315260	The really cool thing about soldering irons is in the last 15 years or so, the price profile
315260	320360	of soldering irons has changed quite a lot. Now for what would have been unheard of 20-30
320360	324620	years ago, you can get for a price that would have been unheard of, meaning even as little
324620	329540	as like $20, $30, $40, you can get a very nice soldering iron. I know the soldering
329540	333960	irons that I came up wishing that I could have had but I only had access to in a lab
333960	340520	because they were $250. Now we get soldering irons all the time that are in the $20 range
340520	348180	that are of similar quality. Controllable temperature and very nice tips that stay very
348180	354740	clean for a very long time. So that's a nice thing is soldering irons are readily available
354740	357660	now and they're not super expensive. I mean you can still spend a lot of money on a really
357660	362260	nice soldering iron but generally what you really want is just one that has a nice quality
362260	366720	tip that's replaceable. Although you'll find you might not actually need to replace it
366720	371840	very much if it's a nice tip. And you need to be able to adjust the temperature because
371840	375480	there are times when you want a little more heat on the tip or a little less heat. You
375480	379740	also just don't want it to just always be some preset random amount. So, you know, really
379740	386480	inexpensive soldering irons don't have a temperature adjustment. All right, another tool or part
386480	390360	of a tool you'll need is you'll need to always be able to clean the tip of your soldering
390360	395040	iron. You basically have to keep it clean all the time. If you're thinking always clean
395040	398060	the tip or constantly clean the tip, you'll end up cleaning it a lot which is what you
398060	401980	really need. You need to clean that tip very, very frequently while you're using it. It's
401980	405600	not just something you do at the very end while you're putting it away. So most soldering
405600	412860	iron stands come with a little sponge, SpongeBob, SpongeBob Square Sponge like this that's just
412860	417840	at the bottom of the stand. Just get that wet. Some people keep a little bottle, like
417940	422660	a little drinking water bottle next to their soldering station so they can always just
422660	428000	keep that thing wet without having to run off to get it into the sink. That's fine for
428000	431340	when you're starting out. You know, just rub it on that sponge. Rub the tip of your iron
431340	434780	on that sponge frequently, like almost every time you put the soldering iron down or pick
434780	439720	it up. Just constantly be cleaning it. And then as you get a little more into soldering,
439720	449240	kind of like a style point tool, you might get one of these little kind of shaved metal
450100	459460	tip cleaners. These are pretty nice. You just kind of stab the soldering iron into it. Scrape,
459460	463760	scrape, scrape. And it scrapes the tip of the soldering iron. You can just do that frequently
463760	466780	while you're using it. Every time you go to set the soldering iron down or pick it up,
466780	470580	just kind of stab it in there a couple times. So the nice thing about the metal, the kind
470580	475460	of... it's almost like a little Brillo pad. It's like a... I think they're usually made
475460	480000	of brass. And it's like metal wool. I think people call it metal wool or steel wool. It's
480000	484520	not technically steel wool. But these type of cleaners, the really nice thing about them
484520	490020	is because they're not wet, they don't conduct as much heat away. So that's really good.
491820	495580	Yeah, so those are probably the main tools you need. It's also nice to have some flush
495580	501740	cutters like, you know, these little guys, which are really very tiny. And one side
501740	509360	of them is flat so you can cut wires off flush to a circuit board. At some point, you will
511380	516420	want to be able to remove the residue that's left on a circuit board after you solder it.
516960	520720	You know, this is called cleaning the flux. So you'll want a flux cleaner or a lot of
520720	526920	people just use rubbing alcohol, isopropanol, and a little very stiff brush, an acid brush,
527460	530480	to just clean the back of the board. In the beginning, you don't really need to worry
530480	535120	about that too much. You can just clean it with a tissue or just, you know, don't worry
535120	538280	about it too much for a board like the one we're going to do today. But when you start
538280	540860	making circuit boards you want to be able to keep for a while, you want to be able to
540860	546420	take that residue off. And we'll discuss why you want to do that. So you'll want whatever
546420	550600	solvent you're going to use for that. Like I said, isopropanol is usually fine. And maybe
550740	557680	a little brush or something. And at some point you're going to want to have a flux
557680	565400	that you can deliver to the board. So flux is the thing that cleans the work. It cleans
565400	569100	the surface that you're going to be soldering on. It also breaks the surface tension of
569100	572880	the solder when it's liquid so that it can flow a little easier. So it's a cleaner and
573020	577940	a flowing agent. And flux is just kind of important. I've heard some people refer to
577940	581320	flux as grease. So if you've heard people say that, that's what they mean. But it's
581320	587380	not grease. It comes in a liquid or gel or it comes in little pen dispensers that look
587380	592140	like a fat magic marker. A lot of people these days really like the gel. It's become readily
592140	595600	available. I usually use the liquid just because that's what I've always used. And I get a
595600	600360	little dispenser bottle. Let's see if I have one of these. A little dispenser bottle. These
601220	604480	are extremely inexpensive so you can have a few of them loaded up. And you can see the
604480	610420	flux that I have in there is a liquid. So you're going to want some flux. Like I said,
610420	617180	there's a bunch of different kinds of flux. The most basic kind of flux is rosin. I don't
617180	621660	know if it says it on here. It says flux on there. I don't know if you can see it. It's
621660	626400	very tiny. But for the most part, all the solders you're going to use, we'll discuss
626400	631640	solder again in a second, they're rosin core, meaning they have rosin flux inside the solder.
631640	635100	So when you're using the solder, it's kind of auto-fluxing. It's self-fluxing. So you
635100	642000	don't need to apply flux from a pen or a bottle. But as you get a little more advanced in soldering,
642000	645000	you're going to want to have flux. But for the very beginning, using the flux that's
645000	650080	inside the solder is totally acceptable. You'll be able to get away with doing a lot of work
650080	655460	just using the flux that's inside the solder. But I'll speak more to that in a minute. There
655460	658760	are some things you have to keep in mind when you're using the flux in the solder. So that
658760	665460	flux is what leaves a residue on the board sometimes when you're done soldering. And you
665900	671900	might want to clean that off because the way the flux cleans the surfaces, it's usually an acid.
672120	676220	It's not a super strong acid, but it's acidic. And if you leave it on there, it's great when
676220	682500	you're trying to solder because it'll clean the oxidation and dirt and oils off of the work so
682500	686100	that your solder will flow. But if you leave it sitting on there for a long time, it might
686100	689260	eat into the board a little bit or pit the surface. And you know, plus it just usually
689260	693520	looks a little yucky. So it's kind of nice to clean it off. But for your first few projects,
693520	699260	and certainly for soldering this first batch, buddy, don't worry about that. But just know
699260	704360	what flux is. At the point where you want to start cleaning flux or using a separately applied flux
704360	708480	other than just the flux core in the solder, it'll come to your mind that, oh, I want this other
708480	713260	thing. And just worry about it then. You don't need to worry about that for right now. But yeah,
713260	718280	as far as the solder goes, there's a lot of different options when it comes to solder.
718280	727620	The basic options are tin-lead alloy. A lot of people call it 60-40, although there's slight
727620	733300	variations. They're not always exactly 60-40, 60%. I think it's 60% lead, 40% tin, or it might be the
733300	740920	other way around. I'm not sure. But let's see, it might tell us on here. 60% tin, 40% lead. That's
740920	747500	the basic solder. Like I said, it has a flux core in it. And this one right here, you can see it's
747500	754100	fairly thin. This is a 0.6 millimeter solder. I usually get 0.6 or 0.8 millimeter. I've used
754100	758880	one millimeter before too. That's fine as well. But you generally want something that's fairly
758880	762520	thin. If it's too thin, when you're soldering something larger like a connector or something
762520	765840	or something that has like a big heat pad or something, you'll find that you need to use a
765840	770260	long length of it. That's not a big deal. Just use a little more. Some people like to have a
770260	775680	thicker one for doing stuff like that and then the thinner one for doing smaller work. That's
775680	781100	not nothing you really need to worry about right now. One thing I do want to comment on is a lot
781100	787680	of people get caught up in the lead-free solder. And of course, we'll talk about safety in a little
787680	795400	bit. Lead is a potentially toxic substance. So if you're concerned about it, you can use lead-free
795400	801920	solder. I don't. Most people that are really into soldering really hate lead-free solder. It has a
801920	808500	much higher melting point. It's very annoying to work with. It's really hard to rework. It's just
808500	811700	not the best thing in the world. And if you're pretty careful, you know, you shouldn't be
812180	816360	sticking soldered wires or circuit boards in your mouth anyway or letting children play with them.
816360	821180	So, you know, you don't get lead inside of you by simply by touching it. You have to touch it and
821180	825700	lick your hands. Or you have to, you know, chew on the thing that has the lead on it. Lead doesn't
825700	831200	just float up in the air. So, you know, of course, you know, if you're working somewhere and they have
831740	834960	safety policies on this, you know, read your safety data sheets and all that. That's not
834960	840400	my expertise. But, you know, I can just tell you that most people that are soldering experts,
840400	846610	you know, they prefer to use the standard 60-40 leaded solder. It's just much, much easier to
846610	851330	work with. And lead has a very low melting point. So anyway, those are the kind of solder things you
851330	859630	need. Speaking of melting point, if your soldering iron has an adjustable temperature on it,
860430	865750	a common question is, well, what do I set that at? So I usually set mine right at about 350 degrees.
866550	871990	That's Celsius. Maybe a little higher than that sometimes. And that works out to about 660
871990	879110	Fahrenheit if you have an older rig that has a Fahrenheit rating on it. So yeah, just kind of
879110	883270	keep in mind like 350, 360, something like that. And you can go a little lower if you're working
883270	886850	on something really fine and you're worried about heating it up too much. Or a little higher if
886850	892150	you're soldering like some big screw lugs or something that needs a lot more heat delivered.
892450	897070	You know, if you kind of sense that your tip is getting cool too quickly, you might want to
897070	904470	turn the temperature up a few degrees. So yeah, remember that 350C or 660F will kind of keep you
904470	911630	in the right range for melting the lead tin alloy solder. If you decide to use lead-free solder,
911630	915170	you're going to need to go up a little bit. And you can find the specifications for whatever
915170	920250	solder you're using. It'll have a melting point, but the tip temperature needs to be much higher
920250	923590	than that melting point. So it'll usually have a melting point than a specified tip temperature.
924070	930230	All right, so temperature... soldering irons are really hot. So we joked before about the
930230	933170	chicken thing. I'm going to mention it a few times because you just want to be careful not
933170	939090	to burn yourself. There's a few safety points to keep in mind here. That's probably the one
939090	942210	that we almost don't need to mention. I mean, we're melting metal. Of course, it's hot. Don't
942210	946330	stick your fingers in it. Don't clean it on your tongue. All those things, right? So just remember
946330	950810	it's hot, okay? The next safety point... we're going to have four safety points. The first one is heat.
950810	955010	Don't burn yourself, all right? Don't burn yourself. Don't burn your desk. Don't start a fire.
955010	960430	Just remember it's hot. Heat. The first one is heat, okay? Number one, heat. Number two are fumes,
960430	964210	okay? And a lot of people think this has something to do with the lead. It doesn't. It's when you're
964210	969610	soldering, there's that rosin core in there. And the flux, that rosin core, it will gas off. It'll
969610	974970	make kind of a smoky smoke. And you don't want to breathe that, all right? So you want to have a
974970	978510	little... what I have on my workstation is I actually just have a small fan and it just kind
978510	985330	of blows into the corner. Because that smoke, that residue, it'll settle very quickly. So if you
985330	991550	just blow it away from your work, that's probably fine. I don't recommend this, but I've actually
991550	995490	noticed even with my fan on, just because I've been soldering for so long, when I solder, every
995490	1000150	once in a while I'll just go... and I'll just blow the smoke away. If the smoke is rising up into my
1000150	1005210	face, I don't want to inhale it. So I just... and then I inhale. Probably not smart. Probably not
1005210	1009850	safe. Just keep the fan on. You can buy a really nice little fume extractor hood that has a little
1010470	1015850	like a filter. I think it's a charcoal filter in it that keeps the... gets the soot trapped. And
1015850	1018650	it's very nice. So if you're going to solder a lot, you might want to get one of those. You don't want
1018650	1022610	to be breathing those fumes, okay? So number one was heat. Number two was fumes. Number three is
1022610	1030050	lead. We already talked about the lead. So when you're soldering with lead solder, lead can get
1030050	1033850	on your hands. Just like, you know, if you were touching a lead pipe or something like that.
1033850	1038810	Also, little bits of lead break off. I think it's called dross. And, you know, maybe even...
1039830	1044750	they're almost microscopic. Sometimes they are macroscopic. But... and you'll even notice little
1044750	1050030	bits of... little tiny balls of solder around your work area after you've soldered a lot. That stuff
1050030	1054150	is called dross. And if that's sticking on your hands and then you lick your finger or you eat
1054150	1058030	your lunch and haven't washed your hands, that lead can get in you. That is particularly a problem
1058030	1062050	for children. So if you're soldering in an area where there's children, you want to clean that
1062050	1067870	lead up. So after you work with leaded solder, you need to wash your hands. Okay? And this isn't
1067990	1071850	a hand sanitizer situation because this is not... you're not trying to kill bacteria or something.
1071850	1075950	You're literally trying to wash a metal away and get it off of your hands so that it doesn't get
1075950	1080570	inside your stomach, in your mouth. Okay? And also, if you have these little dross bits and
1080570	1086530	there's a child that comes through your work area and they're very little and they might, you know,
1086530	1090810	drop a toy somewhere where you have these little dross droppings or whatever and put it in their
1090810	1094630	mouth. Or if you saw... if you've recently soldered something and they might say, oh look, that's a
1094630	1098110	cool badge buddy and stick it in their mouth. That's not cool. You don't want to get lead inside
1098110	1101870	you. You do not want a child getting lead inside them. Okay? It's not that big of a deal. There's
1101870	1106410	other things in your house that's lead, but you do not want little chunks of lead, you know, that
1106410	1110570	break off of things sitting around. Just wipe it up with a wet wipe. Wash your hands. Clean it up.
1110570	1115090	Just keep it clean. Don't get this lead around the place. Wash your hands after you work with
1115090	1120290	leaded solder. All right. So heat, fumes, lead. Right? Those are three things. And then this last
1120290	1125910	one is huge because people just don't think about it that much. But please wear safety goggles.
1126170	1130010	You don't want to get... you don't want to fling a little drop of hot solder in your eye. You know,
1130130	1134490	a really big thing is, you know, you're cutting your leads off, especially ones that might be a
1134490	1139910	little thick. And they go... and the lead flies off and it hits the wall. And you're always like, oh
1140510	1146050	that sounded nice. Well, that doesn't sound nice if it hits you in the eye. All right? You only get...
1146050	1149630	no, you actually get two eyes. Anyway, you probably want to keep both of them. So protect
1149630	1154950	them. Wear some eye protection. All right? You only get those two eyes. All right. So great. So
1154950	1159150	let's actually get the soldering now that we've covered sort of the theoretical background stuff.
1159150	1162350	And I guess this might be a good time for me to say there's a lot of great soldering videos out
1162350	1166610	there. If you just get on YouTube and look for things about soldering, you'll hear mostly all
1166610	1170090	these things I already said. But, you know, maybe you'll pick up some other pointers. And sometimes
1170090	1173530	it's good to hear things explained from different people. So, you know, if you like soldering and
1173530	1177770	want to get better at it, definitely watch some other videos. You know, we're only going to barely
1177770	1181510	touch on, for example, surface mount soldering. So there's some great surface mount soldering
1181510	1186910	videos out there that you can find. So that's a nice segue to our next thing. You know, I like
1186910	1191670	to think of there being three structures for soldering. Two of them we're going to do here
1191670	1195530	today. And that's through-hole soldering, when you have a hole in a circuit board, like, you know,
1195530	1199390	it's called a through-hole, a plated through-hole. And you put a wire or a post through it and then
1199390	1202830	you solder it into that hole. Right? There's through-hole soldering. And then there's surface
1202830	1207750	mount soldering, where you have a pad on a circuit board and you solder something onto that pad. So
1207750	1211190	it doesn't go through the board, it just solders onto the surface. And, you know, when you see
1211190	1216750	these, like, really large chips that have, you know, many tens or even hundreds of little leads
1216750	1220590	sticking out of the sides, those are all surface mounted, or these little tiny resistors that look
1220590	1225270	like little rectangles that don't have any wires, like, those are surface mounted. Today we're just,
1225270	1229110	we're going to do one really big surface mount thing, and that's our battery clip. But it gives
1229110	1232970	you the idea of what surface mounting is, so it's a nice exposure for that. So we have through-hole
1232970	1237030	surface mount. Through-hole is something called TH, sometimes called TH. Surface mount is often
1237030	1242630	called SMT, surface mount technology. And then the third thing is just, I guess I might call it
1242630	1248670	point-to-point soldering, and it's when you just solder two wires together. You usually strip the
1248670	1252610	two wires, twist them together, and then solder them, and making sure you get solder flowed
1252610	1256290	completely into the joint. Another example of that kind of point-to-point soldering is when
1256290	1260050	you're soldering a wire into a connector or something like that. So that isn't exactly
1260050	1265110	through-hole, and it's not exactly surface mount, it's just a different kind of soldering. But,
1265110	1268430	you know, if you always think of those three things, they all kind of work the same, but they
1268430	1272890	all have little, you know, differences that, and it's nice to make sure you get some practice in
1272890	1280090	doing all three of those. All right, so let's get right into this example. Actually, first let me
1280090	1285070	just say, you know, so the basics of soldering are, and we've already touched on this a little bit,
1285070	1290030	so I'm going to say these things a few times just to make sure they really sink in. So you have two,
1290030	1293530	let's say, let's say you just have two surfaces. You either have the hole with the wire in it,
1293530	1297050	which is, you know, the hole is a surface and the wire is a surface for through-hole,
1297050	1303970	or you have a pad with a terminal of a component sitting on the pad if it's surface mount.
1304090	1310270	So, but there's usually two things, right? The pad and the lead, or the hole, the through-hole
1310270	1315330	and the lead, the plate of through-hole and the lead. And what you want to do is heat up
1315950	1320450	the junction, so both of those things. You want to heat both of the things you're trying to connect
1321290	1327070	hot enough so that solder will flow onto them, all right? So there's a few things that you're
1327070	1331890	trying to do all at once here. So when you go to heat them, you need to have some solder between
1331890	1336750	the soldering iron and the connection. And this is not the solder that you need to flow into the
1336750	1342630	connection later. This is just the thermal connecting solder. So you have the two components
1342630	1346070	sitting together. So often what you'll do is you'll have the two components, you know, near each other
1346070	1350350	in some way. They're next to each other, either inside of each other or sitting on top of each
1350350	1355770	other. So you put the iron near them, get a little solder on it, on the iron, just so that that
1355770	1361290	solder can touch to the work and conduct heat into the work, right? So that's not the solder that
1361290	1368210	makes the connection. It's the solder that is used to enable the connection to be made
1369390	1373830	by allowing the soldering iron to then heat the items up, right? So that first little bit of
1373830	1378010	solder you put on there, you're really putting it on the iron and it heats up the two items,
1378010	1382670	that heats up the work, let's call it the work. And then once the work is hot enough, it's up to
1382670	1387930	that melting point of solder, then you touch the solder to the work, not to the iron, and the work
1387930	1392770	will melt the solder onto itself. And that's how you get a beautiful, nicely flowed solder connection
1392770	1397770	where the solder flows onto the work and is not just kind of being brushed on there by a soldering
1397770	1403210	iron, right? So again, you do not use the soldering iron to apply the solder. You use the
1403210	1407950	soldering iron with a little preliminary bit of solder on it to heat up the work enough so then
1407950	1414950	the solder melts onto the work, right? So anyway, that's a thing that, you know, when you get it,
1414950	1421070	when you get that really nice flow of solder on something, when you have the metal really hot,
1421070	1424670	and then the metal melts the solder, not the soldering iron. The soldering iron immediately
1424670	1429570	heats the metal up. The trick is you need a little solder initially to be able to get the heat from
1429570	1434610	the soldering iron into the metal or the work. So that's one of the main things you're doing there.
1434610	1438330	The other thing is, remember, your solder has your, especially, you know, if you're using,
1438330	1444570	you don't have a bottle of flux, you're just using rosin core solder, your solder has your
1444570	1450590	flux in it. So you need to be adding solder. I don't want to say constantly, but the process of
1450590	1456230	making the solder connection, you need to be adding solder because the flux comes out when you melt the
1456900	1460830	So before you make the connection between the two pieces of metal,
1460830	1466850	those surfaces need to have flux on them. So you have to melt the solder in their vicinity
1466850	1471030	so that the flux gets on them, and then that allows the solder to flow onto them. So the two
1471030	1475570	things kind of happen at once, the heating and flowing of solder and the application of flux,
1475570	1480390	because they're coming in the same delivery package, right? The strand of flux you're using
1480390	1486810	has the rosin, the strand of solder you're using has the rosin flux inside of it, okay?
1487410	1491850	And another important thing about that is, sometimes when you get solder on a connection
1491850	1496670	and you're moving it around or you're still working the connection in some way,
1496670	1504250	the smoke that came up, that's your flux burning. It's your flux boiling off. That smoke that came
1504250	1509470	up that got sucked away or that, you know, if you followed my incorrect instructions, you blew away.
1509470	1514610	So now that flux is gone, okay? So that's one of these things where you need to add more solder,
1514610	1519130	because the solder has the more flux in it, right? So if you're continuing to work the item,
1519130	1524430	you only have so long before your flux is gone, okay? And then, you know, if you get to the point
1524430	1528150	where you've melted a bunch of solder on it and there's this big mess, you need to take the solder
1528150	1532150	away, which sometimes you can just lift it off with iron. It'll stick on the iron and you can,
1532150	1539370	you know, clean it on your sponge or your metal tip cleaner. And then you can apply
1539370	1544390	some more fresh solder, which will have new flux in it, releasing a little more smoke.
1545730	1549330	So this is part of that thing I said, where you need to be always ready to put a little more
1549330	1552690	solder on, because you need the solder because it conducts the heat. You also need the solder
1552690	1557090	because it has the flux inside of it. And the flux doesn't stick around. You only get a few seconds
1557090	1560990	to use, to flux the surface with the solder. That's why, you know, you need to keep adding
1560990	1564950	more solder. Even if then you get to the point where there's too much metal on there, too much
1564950	1568950	solder, you just pull it off, just clean it off. You're going to need the flux. And when you get
1569310	1572590	a little more advanced with this stuff and you're doing a lot of connections, you know,
1572590	1575970	really small packages that have a lot of pins, that's where you just want to get a bottle of
1575970	1581250	flux and just drench the thing with flux or put gel flux on it so it's all soaked with flux. Because
1581250	1585270	then you can work it, you can move the solder around, you can add and remove solder, and the
1585270	1591010	flux is still there doing its job of cleaning and breaking the surface tension of the molten solder.
1595040	1602840	So this is the badge buddy. Comes in a Ziploc bag like this and there's some stickers in there.
1602840	1607880	We got this during Defcon 28. We did some sticker swapping. So there's a bunch of different
1607880	1613740	stickers in here from lots of our friends and members in the community and other vendors.
1614840	1622840	You see such as Hack5 and Hacker Warehouse and just random stickers. So that's lots of fun.
1627500	1633340	And yeah, let's see. Yeah, there's some good ones in here. Yeah, there's a Hack5 sticker,
1634040	1649970	a couple Hacker Boxes stickers, hologram sticker. Yeah, Hacker Warehouse gave us these. They have
1649970	1656170	some little camera covers on them to keep your camera safe. So all right, yeah, the parts that
1656170	1663210	are in here are fairly basic and represent opportunity to do a little bit of surface
1663210	1670430	mount and also some through-hole soldering. There's a bead chain that you can use to
1670430	1674490	connect the badge buddy to your lanyard or your backpack or whatever when you're done.
1676130	1681310	There's a coin cell battery. It's a lithium battery,
1681310	1690020	CR2032. It's a pretty common lithium battery coin cell. That's the
1691840	1696400	clip that holds the coin cell onto the back of the PCB.
1710490	1713790	All right, let's get these things out of our way here.
1714550	1720110	We'll solder these four items to the PCB, to the circuit board with
1722150	1727030	the logo on there. It's the Hacker Boxes logo. His name's Bithead or Circuithead, depending on
1727850	1732610	which version he is. So we're going to get some solder out. We're going to start by
1732610	1737250	tinning the tip of the soldering iron. This one's already tinned because we use it a lot.
1737250	1743590	Then we're going to tin these three pads, these surface mount pads on the board. But you want to
1743590	1748970	always keep the tip of your soldering iron tinned. Keep some solder on it. The flux will help clean
1748970	1754870	it. And every time you see the soldering iron going off the screen here, that's just me cleaning
1754870	1760050	the tip in a tip cleaner. So we're going to tin these three pads by just getting some solder
1760050	1765410	flowed onto them. And again, we're not just melting it on there. It's actually bonding into the
1766370	1769630	pad, the solder that's already on the pad from the manufacturing process.
1770430	1774530	And when you're surface mount soldering, well, with any soldering, you really want to
1774530	1779190	pay attention to the orientation. So this little clip is oriented according to the
1779190	1783830	white paint on the board that's called the silkscreen. So the board has been silkscreened
1783830	1788610	with these positioning indicators. And most boards have this. When you lay out a circuit
1788610	1793450	board, you can design the silkscreen. So the silkscreen shows you which direction that the
1793450	1797470	battery holder goes. And in this case, you could put it the other way. It's just a little harder to
1797470	1805210	put it in. So we intentionally oriented it so the clip opens downward. So now what we're doing
1805210	1813510	is we're getting solder to flow onto the little wings on the side of this battery clip, battery
1813510	1820390	holder. And we're actually heating the clip up enough so that solder flows onto it. So remember,
1820390	1824710	we need a little solder on there just to conduct into the metal of the clip. And then you can see
1824710	1829470	the solder flows really nicely and makes a nice shiny surface. So you want to make sure when
1829470	1835050	you're soldering, you always end up with a shiny surface that flows neatly onto all of the metal
1835050	1839110	around it. And that lets you know you do not have what's called a cold solder joint. If you just
1839110	1844270	dump hot solder on a cold metal, it won't flow onto the metal and it won't bond. And that will
1844270	1849650	be a cold joint, which is mechanically unstable and can be broken off pretty easily. And you do
1849650	1853910	you never want that. That's like the most important thing to avoid while you're soldering is getting
1853910	1859430	cold solder joints. But you can see these are nice, well flowed, well... it's called wetted.
1859430	1866030	The solder is fully wetting the board. So yeah, so the indicator on the silk screen for the LEDs
1867050	1874090	shows the flat side. So the LED has a flat side on it and the flat side goes to the short pin.
1874090	1883890	So the short pin is going through the board so that it lines up with the flat side on the
1883890	1888550	leads through the holes. And we're going to get them on the other side. And you can usually just
1888550	1892770	bend the leads a little bit to hold it in place. But then also we're going to set the board down
1892770	1898430	on the component side down, which will hold the pieces into place. And that's why when you're
1898430	1904190	soldering, you often start with the lowest altitude or the lowest thickness parts first.
1904190	1909610	Because then as you flip it over, you can get basically the table to help you hold
1909610	1913870	them into place. And then just things don't get in your way when you do that. So again here we're
1913870	1918170	just flowing solder. We're using a little tiny bit of solder to heat up the joint and then getting
1918170	1923230	the solder in there so that the heat of the joint melts the solder into the joint.
1923590	1927490	And there's just four little through-hole posts here. It's actually quite easy. And you can see
1927490	1933130	I'm moving pretty quickly because, you know, like I said earlier, you want to be able to
1933130	1940370	use the flux. And the flux will disappear over time. See, it's not smoking anymore because
1940370	1945750	the flux is gone. So while the flux is still in there, you want to get the work done. So you do
1945750	1951510	want to move a little bit as quickly as possible without creating errors or
1951510	1956430	making a mess. All right, now we're going to cut the leads off. This is where you need to be wearing your
1956430	1966610	safety goggles. And then some people like to go back. I usually like to do this and hit the
1967190	1976110	cut-off part with the soldering tip again just to get the solder, basically the wound that was
1976110	1980610	left behind by the cutter, just to make it nice and smooth. But, you know, that's your option. And the
1980610	1984750	switch is also through-hole. You can put it on the front or the back. I think since, you know,
1984750	1988310	it doesn't really matter. Putting it on the back means you don't have to see it. It leaves the
1988310	1993810	board looking kind of nifty. So you can just push it through those three holes here. If I can
1994630	2000170	get that to stick in there right. The leads are really short on that on that switch. And so here's
2000250	2006490	a good example where you want to get one of the pins soldered. And then maybe, you know, just get
2006490	2010610	one soldered here. And then maybe check and see, make sure the other three or the component is
2010610	2015890	lined up. Because, you know, while only one pin is soldered, you can reflow it very easily and move
2015890	2019910	the component around a little bit. This is important when you're doing like a chip that
2019910	2025190	has a lot of pins. You just get a corner tacked down and then you can move the chip around just a
2025190	2029510	little bit by just reflowing that corner. And then once everything's lined up, you can go ahead and
2029510	2036890	solder down the rest of them. But it's even useful for just a little switch like this. There's a lot
2037610	2041550	of play in those holes. You can move that the switch around a bit. So it just helps you line
2041550	2052730	it up nice and straight. All right, all three pins of those. And that switch is just an on-off
2052730	2058370	switch. It just opens the circuit between the battery and the two LEDs. And now these are not
2058370	2063190	just regular old LEDs. They actually have a little circuit inside of each of the things.
2063190	2067230	They're in an LED, a five millimeter LED package. But there's a little circuit in there that actually
2067230	2072610	cycles three different LEDs inside the package. So each of those packages, while it looks like an
2072610	2079470	LED, it's actually three LEDs and then a little circuit that will make some cool flashing patterns.
2080390	2086270	We're going to get this coin cell open. It's a lithium coin cell. I'll show you how to install
2086270	2092390	that. These are packaged really well because the manufacturer of the batteries doesn't want them
2092390	2098830	shorting out and causing any trouble. So they completely encapsulate the battery to keep it safe.
2100270	2104690	Anyway, we take that and we flip the positive side up. I'm going to show you there's a little
2104690	2109690	on the top. Flip the positive side up and that obviously means the bottom is ground.
2109910	2114170	And then slip it in there. And the part of the reason why we tinned that pad underneath the
2115950	2119630	clip is because the center pad actually becomes the terminal.
2120070	2125390	And there you go. That's Bad Buddy. Nice, beautiful blinking lights.
2126490	2131050	It's very colorful and the lights blink quickly and then slowly in different speeds. And if you
2131050	2134670	leave it on for a few seconds, the colors will get out of sync, which makes it look a little more
2135770	2144810	discotheque. It's pretty cool. Okay, so that was pretty cool. So I said we would talk a little bit
2144810	2152810	about... just give you some of the keywords about removing solder. If you need what's called
2152810	2157470	rework, meaning something's already soldered and now you need to rework it or reflow it, you need
2157470	2162070	to heat the solder up so that you can take the parts apart. Sometimes you want to remove the
2162070	2167130	solder. So you can use this thing called solder braid, which is basically just this really finely
2167130	2172170	braided wire, and it has a lot of flux in it. And it'll suck... if you just put it between your
2172170	2177230	iron and a piece of work, once it gets warm, it'll kind of draw the solder out of the work.
2177230	2184010	You can also use a solder sucker. One of these guys right here. So you create a vacuum in there
2184010	2189970	and then when you trigger it, it sucks the solder out. So yeah, I wanted to point out when I did
2189970	2194290	that, a couple little chunks of solder flux flew out of there and you do not want to eat that or
2194290	2198050	leave it where a child might need it, okay? If you get that on your hands like I just did, you
2198050	2205370	want to wash it off before you eat or, you know, floss or whatever you might do that might get in
2205370	2211790	your mouth, all right? Yeah, so braid, suction... just remember you're going to need more solder
2211790	2216270	either of those things you're doing. You need more solder, you might need flux. Again, you know,
2216270	2220070	you'll figure these things out, you get to them. Just don't be afraid to use more solder. Don't be
2220070	2223630	afraid to get some flux going on things when you need it or add more solder to get the flux
2223630	2228630	melted in there. All right, so hopefully this is useful. There are a lot of resources online you
2228630	2231970	can find about soldering. If you have any questions, you know, hit us up here at Hackerboxes.
2233550	2237650	Yeah, and like I said, I hope that was interesting. I hope you're open to soldering some more
2237970	2241930	projects. You know, we sell a lot of kits at hackerboxes.com and there are a lot of fun things
2241930	2247290	out there to solder. Even if you don't get them from your actual like kits, just things that you
2247290	2254490	might want to rework or modify or try to repair. You know, like I said, it's a very handy skill.
2254650	2257610	I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for spending this time with us. Take care.