Thread: Soldering - Have we lost our personal connection with electronics?

Originally Posted by Sandform

Is it just connecting stuff to other stuff?

Yes. Yes it is.
As blunt as it is, soldering is a pretty basic skill, it's like welding, but with tiny wires.

reminds me of this
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=43557

Was never really any good at soldering
my hands are too big and shaky

I have no problem with paying someone to do any electronics work
I think it's more important to have a good knowledge of electronics rather than the skill of soldering

the thing that pisses me off is that now, nowhere make custom cables for you
in the days before digital video, I wanted a VGA -> SCART cable
it's easy to do, the pins pretty much map from one to the other, only needing a tiny circuit board with like 3 components to convert the syncing signals

I bought the cable, connectors, board & components
had it all drawn out, showing the connections, and locating the circuit board inside the Scart head
but nowhere I went would actually assemble the thing for me

I solder.

It can be better than those premade clip things, because if you know exactly what you are doing it is a lot easier to make thingsmore efficient if you happen to notice a way, but at least with the clippy things it's difficult to get something wrong (unless it snaps, and then you get to solder anyway).

I also use that heavy-duty (non electrical) solder in decorative wire things for replica sword hilts and the like. I haven;t done that in years, though.

What electronics now adays though are easy enough that just need a little soldering? Old TVs, radios, clocks, and such were simple inside. Now adays electronics are still extremely complicated, you still see people building computers and such, but i would rather buy the computer chip and know its warranted and top quality, then try to solder one myself and if something goes wrong not be able to fix it. Things are more complicated, meaning it takes professional care to fix them, not just a little know-how in soldering.

Originally Posted by JET73L

I solder.

It can be better than those premade clip things, because if you know exactly what you are doing it is a lot easier to make thingsmore efficient if you happen to notice a way, but at least with the clippy things it's difficult to get something wrong (unless it snaps, and then you get to solder anyway).

I also use that heavy-duty (non electrical) solder in decorative wire things for replica sword hilts and the like. I haven;t done that in years, though.

yea those clippy things aare not really as good but in any case they are useless on epoxy wiis.

Epoxy sure is quite a blessing for us modders. After all now no normal person can mod their own wii easily without a hot air rework station.

But I just really with they had more DIY kits just so I could practice soldering...but they just don't even carry them anymore.

Originally Posted by no-name

Yes. Yes it is.
As blunt as it is, soldering is a pretty basic skill, it's like welding, but with tiny wires.

My dad always fixes broken electronics with his soldering gun.

It is a lost art, but a lot of stuff isn't as easy to fix as a few wires being out of place.

Originally Posted by DeathCell

My dad always fixes broken electronics with his soldering gun.

It is a lost art, but a lot of stuff isn't as easy to fix as a few wires being out of place.

it is by no means easy but it really is an art form. Personally I enjoy modding people's consoles and do it mostly for the kicks.

Personally I just like fixing stuff because it is very fullfilling and relaxing.

But thats just me, im just crazy like that.

Originally Posted by aceofspades

it is by no means easy but it really is an art form. Personally I enjoy modding people's consoles and do it mostly for the kicks.

Personally I just like fixing stuff because it is very fullfilling and relaxing.

But thats just me, im just crazy like that.

What are you doing when you mod a console? Isn't it like super easy basically attach here put there?

Well it never has been...there is SOOOO much room for error. I once was soldering a 3 wire argon+wiiclip installation and a little bit of solder got on the data connector and killed it. Poof, I had to order a 50 dollar drive and give them my personal wii drive.

But beyond that now new wiis have epoxy

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/19/n...hips-wii-back/

which is a black glue that needs to be removed in order for a modchip to be installed.

And xbox drives also have epoxy but they use a much harder to remove formula.

Basically you need to use a 200+ hot air rework station in order to mod new wiis and xboxs

From my understanding with the way circuit boards are made these days they are designed to be replaced whole. About 5-6 years ago I got into building/wiring guitars and guitar accessories so I thought I would go check out this TV repair shop and see about some sort of apprenticeship (my parents knew the old guy anyway) and he basically told me it's a dying art. I helped him fix a few TVs and all we had to do was find the problem (troubleshoot) and see what circuit board we needed to order from what manufacturer.

Radioshack's supply has gone through a huge decline. They used to have plenty more in terms of basic electronics components (diodes, variable resistors, relays, etc). Do you have a Fry's Electronics out around where you live? I know of three here, and they're huge (Wallmart-size, which, for an electronics store, is huge).

And just for the record, none my soldering has gone towards any criminal activities.

Not yet.