sup /diy/
Do you guys have any tips/tricks on starting with soldering? I wanted to finally mod my x360 but I don't rlly want to mess this shit up so I gotta start somewhere smaller.

>>2925661 (OP)
>gotta start somewhere smaller
you answered your own question
buy a cheap soldering station on amazon along with thin rosen core non-silver solder, liquid flux and find broken electronics. desolder everything and then try to resolder it all back on

>>2925661 (OP)
Don't start with hot air for one, and don't make your project your first ever experience with soldering, because you will fuck it up. There are tons of videos on youtube that will show what a good solder joint and a bad solder joint look like.

>>2925664
>soldering station
are you talking about the small one part ones looking like a pen or this thing connected to a big box
>rosen core non-silver solder
will a normal soldering tin roll work?
>whats that for

>>2925666
last part was abt liquid flux

>>2925661 (OP)
buy a broken x360 for practically nothing and practice desoldering and resoldering things. soldering and hot air arent hard you, but definitely want to practice and understand why youre fucking up at first.

>>2925668
also the advice of
>YOU AREN'T USING ENOUGH FLUX
is largely retarded. you absolutely need to use flux but drowning everything in flux is mentally retarded reddit advice and won't compensate for an oxidized tip, improperly tinned tip, wrong tip geometry, lack of preheating for boards with a lot of copper, etc.

>>2925666
>>2925667
I can tell from these posts you are starting from literally zero. Go watch some youtube videos and then come back. You shouldn't be making a thread with zero prior knowledge of your project or this board will just troll you to death

>>2925674
yeah kinda, apart from goofing around with my dads soldering machine i mentioned above ive got no clue abt anything here

buy a broken motherboard and remove all the components without fucking any of them up and then put them all back on.
bonus learning if you look up what all the components do.

>>2925666
i would recommend a ts101 knockoff style iron. a lot of people here are going to recommend an expensive soldering station to you which doesn't make any sense if you are not soldering every day.
these style irons are nice because they're highly compact so store away easily and use common power supplies. they get up to temperature just as fast as fancy stations and hold temperature well. this one also has a nice aluminum body and the collet style tip retention is a lot nicer than others that use a tiny set screw.
linked below is a kit that has enough to get you started for 50 bux.
https://a.co/d/aUrgUBO

>>2925661 (OP)
the xbox 360 board is not a great starting project. i would stick to a few older systems for starting out like the NES or SNES. if you are trying to RGH the xbox 360 it is much more difficult than it looks. you'll need a jewelers loupe or a microscope for the step where you scrape off the solder mask on the PCB to expose vias.

>>2925666
a soldering station just refers to your setup for soldering. it isn't restricted to one type of iron or another. generally when people are talking about a soldering station a variety of tools and materials are assumed by default.

>>2925667
do not use lead free solder. it is terrible and most first world countries refuse to use it for a reason. also, do not fall for the reddit chipquick meme. for flux get something from MG chemicals. most other flux is simply not as good.

>>2925670
yeah basically. you want to use a good bit but not have the board swimming.

>>2925950
a good iron in this category is the pinecil. works great for me and i have soldered thousands of components with it.

>>2925661 (OP)
Start with kits, thhrough hole first than surface mount.
As far as gear, i used to be a soldering wagie with big fancy stations and whatnot.
But these days i just use a pinecil or my old ts-100 whichever one is closer.
China leaded solder wire is good, but I switched to kester so I don't have to police my very young kids about lead when they play with my shit.
Other than that, youll need a brass tip cleaner and youre good to go.

>>2925661 (OP)
Is it possible to use a Soldering Pen to reconnect the plastic packaging on pic related after cutting along the crease? I was thinking placing baking sheet between the soldering pen and the plastic, would that work?

I've never soldered anything but it seems like a hot tip thing would be the tool I need. I'm looking at a 30W Solder iron. What do you guys think?

>>2925661 (OP)
>Do you guys have any tips/tricks on starting with soldering?
Go watch Atarabyte

>>2925661 (OP)
tacky, stiff solder = too cold
bubbling and spitting solder = too hot
plastic components melting = too hot
plastic components melting, but solder still being tacky and hard = chinkshit with no thermal feedback (and/or not enough thermal mass at the tip)

Also, shiny = good, crunchy and dull = bad, not enough flux.
Solder is a liquid, you should not have to "push" it anywhere, it will just wick its way between joints.

>>2925661 (OP)
https://www.youtube.com/@jkgamm041/videos

>>2925661 (OP)
Clean the area you're working on with isopropyl alcohol first. Then tin your wires and cut them back so there's just enough wire exposed to solder the joint. Heat from your iron will shrink the insulation back more so don't dwell for too long. After soldering, fix the wires to the board with Kapton tape or hot glue.