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Let's play Spot the Cold Solder.

⁨153⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/43d07529-8b5d-4ff4-8c2b-fe10ab7da562.jpeg

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Comments

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  • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Care to elaborate, for those not as experienced as soldering? This isn’t the most relatable post without some additional context.

    For instance, my only experience soldering is with audio equipment (think wires and potentiometers), never with PCBs and I have no clue what you mean.

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    • jjagaimo@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Solder is a low melting point metal used to join two metals to create a joint, where the solder fills the gap and bonds to both metals. This is commonly used in electronics to bond components to the board. For a good solder joint, the solder must be brought up to the peoper temperature, and the pads on the PCB (metal 1) and leads of the component (metal 2) need to be heated enough. Additionally, flux is added to the solder to remove oxides on the component leads and PCB pads to allow the solder to bond to the metal; oxides can prevent toe solder from sticking.

      A cold solder joint is one that does not reach the proper temperature and/or does not have enough flux, leading to the solder not bonding to the joint, having a scaly/bubbly/matte appearance, and a weaker more brittle joint. Flux also doesnt do as good a job at lower temperatures so it’s important for the joint to get hot enough.

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      • XEAL@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Then with my shitty ass soldering iron and skills I overheat the surrounding components while attempting to bring the soldering spot to temperature…

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    • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This is a circuit board from my slow cooker. It quit heating a week ago so I opened it up and found a broken wire. That was easily fixed.

      I figured while I had it apart I should look at the display board and see if I can fix the missing segments. I resoldered the one pin but nothing changed.

      Unfortunately my eyes arent what they used to be so the others someone pointed out will be a challenge.

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      • chaogomu@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        5th pin down on the far left side in the picture.

        There's no solder on the pin.

        Most of the joints are questionable, that one is flat out bad.

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      • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Get some cheap magnifying glasses with a light.

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      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Oh, that makes more sense. The heat from the malfunctioning cooker may have resoldered these points badly.

        I was curious how like half the points were bad, and that explains it.

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    • IcedCoffeeBitch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Cold solder is what happens when the solder didn’t quite reach the temperature needed to completely melt and do contact, so it looks brittle and would be potentially a faulty connection.

      With that said I couldn’t spot it in the pic

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      • chaogomu@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        There are a bunch of questionable solder joints.

        Like half the pins.

        But the absolute worst is the 5th pin down on the far left side. There's so little solder used that you can see into the hole.

        A few others are also a bit lacking as well. Almost all of the joints are ugly as sin...

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    • anonymouse@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      !remindme 24h

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  • robotopera@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I count 5 cold solders

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    • BunnyKnuckles@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Those are the ones I would attack too. I’d also like to send a shout out to the 5 corroded ones on the right.

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      • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I didn’t even see those. Thanks. I got the one on the left side strip, but the LED display is still missing elements.

        Unfortunately my eyes aren’t what they used to be, so i might have to take the board in to get the others.

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    • A7thStone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The two in the bottom left are a bit questionable as well.

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  • LillyPip@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Image

    I feel like I still missed a few. Why was this board disrespected so badly? Is it a student learning board?

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    • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Control panel from a slow cooker.

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  • lemmyman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Is there a “lostlemmings” community?

    I’m sure this was (mildly) infuriating but it’s not relatable to 99.8% of people

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    • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I feel like people on Lemmy skew substantially towards the tech-aware

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    • WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I know about soldering, a bit, soldered stuff quite many times, but I still have no idea what I should be looking for.

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  • geekworking@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Use a tool to push sideways on the joints and from the component side.

    Bad looking joints can still have a connection even if they look bad. If the connection has truly come loose, there will be some movement in the joint.

    When we were working on surface mount boards, we would use a sewing needle and run it down the pins, and listen to the sound. The needle crossing a solid pin will make a sharp sound. If solder joint is not good, the pin moves, and you will get a duller sound. Dink, dink, dink, dut.

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  • Albbi@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Thank you so much for this post. I learned a lot including how to spot some trouble areas on a board, and that they can potentially be fixed.

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  • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If you wait several minutes they should all have cooled off.

    !/s!<

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  • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What about the not soldered pins game?

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  • geekworking@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Not sure if just glare, but a lot of these look like one side has too little solder like you didn’t use enough and/or it wasn’t flowing correctly.

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    • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      In theory. It’s mounted vertically inside a slow cooker, so over ten years of heating and cooling the solder might have flowed, but I suspect its just typical mass production.

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