Soldering - Have we lost our personal connection with electronics?

Has anyone else noticed how the once popular hobby and skill of soldering is now pretty much gone. Its near impossible to find normal people who solder anymore. Radioshack and almost all shops have pulled soldering DIY kits and replaced them with wimpy non soldering DIY kits.

Soldering isn't taught in schools anymore by any capacity and besides A+ certification there are no classes which teach soldering.

This shows a growing trend of people losing their connection with the products they use. You can't even open your electronics without voiding the warranty.

We have lost our personal connection our with electronics. No one does DIY projects anymore. It is considered nefarious to even solder anymore. Soldering is considered a skill for the sole purpose of IP theft. The only thing soldering is used for today is modchips.

I just think its crazy how we have lost touch of doing stuff with our hands. Americans rarely do any manual labor with electronics and we have simply have forgotten how to do electronics work.

Soldering, once a common hobby for young and old alike is now reserved for professionals and "criminals".

It also obscene that modding one's own electronics is considered criminal now. It is considered nefarious to mess with your 300 dollar console.

Considered nefarious by whom? Not I, nor my uncle who regularly solders different pieces of computers, essentially "frankenstein-ing" them.

I personally don't know any soldering criminals, but I dont get out much.

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It used to be a huge hobby of mine to take raw wire and clip and bend it together, forming chains. though it was ridiculously inefficient and time consuming, it was fun. I aspired to begin working on a chain mail project. I sometimes I still wish i had that kind of hand strength. :)

So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to get more people interested in it? How?

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Originally Posted by no-name

Considered nefarious by whom? Not I, nor my uncle who regularly solders different pieces of computers, essentially "frankenstein-ing" them.

I personally don't know any soldering criminals, but I dont get out much.

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It used to be a huge hobby of mine to take raw wire and clip and bend it together, forming chains. though it was ridiculously inefficient and time consuming, it was fun. I aspired to begin working on a chain mail project. I sometimes I still wish i had that kind of hand strength. :)

So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to get more people interested in it? How?

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It's just like lately soldering is so brushed aside. People don't really see soldering as a hobby anymore. Heck you go to radioshack asking for 30awg and they make it sound like your looking for lock picks or something. I mean everytime I go to radioshack they have less and less stuff. Heck the radioshack nearest my house doesn't carry any soldering materials anymore.

It's just nuts. I mean come on where did the fun in building stuff yourself go.

Today is the age of care-free, no work, it's all automated. Having to work for something is obsolete. This is the future.

I sound like an info-mercial in a sci-fi flick, but you know it's true. People are always going to want less work.

If we dont have to work for it, why should we?

but where is the fun in that?

where is the fun in not doing anything yourself xD?

No fun in repairing my computer, only playing the games my repaired computer can play. Why should I work for something myself when I can pay somone else to do it?

This is just how I see everyone elses thought process.

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Originally Posted by no-name

No fun in repairing my computer, only playing the games my repaired computer can play. Why should I work for something myself when I can pay somone else to do it?

This is just how I see everyone elses thought process.

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yep I know but there is something gratifying about knowing you were able to fix something yourself and mod something yourself.

Yes we can!

No one wants you to be self sufficient. The myth is that the more we pay other people to do things for us, the better the economy is. If everyone can just do things themselves, then no one will be paying anyone else to do anything and the economy will collapse! What they don't tell you is, since you don't have to pay for people to do stuff for you anymore you will be able to save your money for more important things. The individual gets rich if they save their money. The government and large corporations get rich when money exchanges hands. Their answer is to keep money in exchange for stupid little transactions in which nothing is really gained as much as possible.

I learnt how to solder in school just two years ago

you lie!

I've never had a case where I had a problem that needed soldering.

But I mean...most people would rather spend a little money paying someone else to do a job than try to do the job themselves and screw something up making them have to spend much more money than they would for the cost of paying someone else to do it.

But the real problem, I would imagine, is the lack of knowing what soldering is for. Is it just connecting stuff to other stuff?

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Originally Posted by Sandform

Is it just connecting stuff to other stuff?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

We actually don't have a single one on all of the east coast. And yah I have heard a lot about fry's and dammit I wish we had them here.

My local radioshacks have almost completely fazed out soldering and electronic components and replaced them with phones and stuff

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Originally Posted by aceofspades

We actually don't have a single one on all of the east coast. And yah I have heard a lot about fry's and dammit I wish we had them here.

My local radioshacks have almost completely fazed out soldering and electronic components and replaced them with phones and stuff

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I know, there are no Fry's anywherte near where I live. Radio Shack is awful nowadays, they used to have all sorts of useful stuff, now they have electronics, toys, and some cords and adaptors.

viva la revolution!!!

yea I went in there asking for 30 AWG wire, their website said they had it was in stock in that store, and they were like "Why do you need wire that thin, thats crazy, what are you trying to do."

I was like I just need it, your website says you have it.

The smallest wire they had was crummy 22 AWG....jeeze