Soldering the Board

[Kyle98750]

As someone who is very bad at soldering, how do you go about soldering onto the tabs of the DNA 200? Are there any methods or techniques to doing it correctly? Because no matter how I do it, I cannot get the wire to remain attached to the board.

[blueridgedog]

Here is what I do for the thicker wire:

Flux wire and board.  Tin wire and board. Flux and Tin iron and apply solder to iron.  Re-flux tinned wire and pad.  Heat the end of the wire while not touching the board...heat until it is fully past the plastic stage.  Use the iron to push the end of the wire with liquid state solder onto the tined pad.  Allow the heat built up in the thick wire to flow the tinning on the pad.  Remove iron.  The end result should be shinny and solid.  In practice this is a very short operation.

[bilboda]

My only issue with that came when I lifted the iron. The pressure holding the wire was gone and the wire wanted to lift off. Eventually, I managed to position my elbow on the table and my arm and hand into a stable position holding the wire so it did not move after removing the iron.  I will agree that it is a short operation. Too long and the pad will lift off. Mine partially lifted and I will secure it with hot glue

[blueridgedog]

Ah...if at an angle where it will lift, you can press it down with a fid of some sort...I have used a phenolic soldering tool.

[John]

Here, what I do is tin the wire, add additional solder to the pad, press the wire onto the pad gently and reflow the whole assembly. Goes quickly and doesn't produce a cold joint. 

But then again, I use an 80 watt temperature controlled solder station. If you have an 8 watt radio shack iron... well...

http://www.all-spec.com/products/FX-888D.html

The hakkos are the best bang for the buck among real solder stations. They're not what we use here, but the replacement heater elements for our irons cost more than the whole hakko station.

[Tazz]

I have a quick question about this. I'm just about ready to start putting together my mod and I have never soldered such thick wire (14ga) to that small pad for the 510 connections. I use the hakko fx88d, which I've only used for my dna 30 and 40, what would be a good temp to use on this?

[Mad Scientist]

It's not so much the temperature but the heat. I use a 150 watt iron for the big stuff and on 12 AWG stranded that's barely enough. If you have enough heat and can get the solder to flow quickly, the risk of overheating anything is actually reduced.

[turbocad6]

tin the wire end well, then bend the tinned end a bit so you can lay the tinned end flat to a pad, then melt the tinned end of the wire while pressing it to the pad, a little flux would help, takes a few seconds to then see the pad itself start to flow and the tinned wire end to flow together, then remove the iron and don't let the joint move at all for several seconds after you remove the iron.

I use a pin or a pick or even the tip of a razor blade to hold the tinned end to the pad while pressing it in, so when it melts it can compress flatter for a nice connection and it's then easy to hold it with no movement at all while it cools which is very important, if your using the iron to flatten the wire to the pad then yeah, it's going to lift when you remove the iron, but if your pressing the wire into the joint before you even bring the iron to it, and then hold it after the iron is removed it's just about foolproof

[Tazz]

Thanks for the tips, this station is still fairly new to me and the only stuff I have been doing with it is mostly 18ga or smaller. I've been between 550-580F but I think for the 14ga wire I'll be turning up the temp a bit and using my bigger tip, don't remember the exact one. I have a foot each of the 14ga so I could do a little practicing.

[Vape_Like_A_Boss]

I have shaky hands, while I'm fairly good at soldering other than that, its a pretty good handicap to bring my level of "can do" right back down. The Xacto third hand type clamp is a life saver for me with the exact situation you described, because I can keep constant pressure against the tinned wire and tab while i solder it, without worrying about a shake causing a cold solder bubble or something.

[Mangiman]

Hello DNA's users, i built my own DNA 200 about 4 days ago, i used my own mitec switchs up/down and Fire, last night my dna box started firing itself, i had to remove the battery so it will stop showing check atomizer after i removed the atomizer, so far i check all three swichts with a multimeter and works fine, the problem comes back when i connect the battery starts on itself and fires itself.... Any help will be appreciate!!!!!

[retird]

How about a picture of the internals?

[Mangiman]

Hello DNA's users, i built my own DNA 200 about 4 days ago, i used my own mitec switchs up/down and Fire, last night my dna box started firing itself, i had to remove the battery so it will stop showing check atomizer after i removed the atomizer, so far i check all three swichts with a multimeter and works fine, the problem comes back when i connect the battery starts on itself and fires itself.... Any help will be appreciate!!!!!

[black lace]

Possibly when you take the back off it and stick your nose in its guts it works fine, is the back touching somthing when fully asembled.  Like shorting accross the buttons or a tiny bit of swarf tumbling about inside will cause real big problems, post up some pics our mate