Cold solder joints (arrggh!)

[Frank_NH]

I did a quick overdrive build yesterday using the Subdecay Liquid Sunshine vero layout.  The build looked beautiful, and I was so sure I did everything right.  I wired it up to test it out and...NOTHING.  No signal at all!   Usually I will hear something even if it's white noise.  So I looked it over again and again.  I tested all of the junctions for voltage and continuity.  Eventually, after several hours, I found the problem - a cold solder joint at one of the track connection wires!!  The joint visually looked good - but when I tested it for continuity, it definitely was bad.  Remelted the solder and all was good after that.  I'm amazed at how these seemingly little things can mess up a build (I had some issues with tiny solder bridges in an earlier build, they can be so hard to find too).

So, in the future, I'll be checking and testing more thoroughly as I go along - especially for cold solder joints!

Sorry - just had to vent a little.  

The Liquid Sunshine is a great overdrive design, by the way (sounds wonderful)...

[IvIark]

Yep something so innocuous can give you hours of searching, it just shows how easy it is for a simple little thing to totally affect a build.

[tjdracz]

Are you using lead free solder by any chance? If yes, don't! I found it so annoying when I had to use lead free to complete one of my builds... higher melt temperature = higher risk of frying stuff, doesn't give you any clues with appearance and just plain sucks. This stuff is so vile! It's amazing how much you can improve your soldering with tin-lead one, my fave is 67-33. Consistently good joints!

[Silver Blues]

Oh god don't get me started on lead-free solder. Hate it with a passion. I use 3% silver-bearing solder and it is the best shit ever.

[inefficiency]

Speaking of lead free and whatnot, what do you guys have in the way of ventilation and stuff? Extractor? Nearby window? People keep telling me that these lead fumes are doing me no good

And yes. When I first started I got some lead free solder free with my soldering iron and just couldn't get things to work. I thought I'd never get soldering down - til I got some 60/40 and suddenly everything fell into place.

[Frank_NH]

I use standard issue 60/40 solder, and it is not lead-free.  It usually flows quite nicely, and there are no problems getting a good solder joint.  Again, I'm going to be more careful to test at each stage as the vero is populated.  I should have known that when you hear nothing it means that some main artery in the signal path is dead...(arrrgghhh!!)

[tjdracz]

inefficiency wrote

Speaking of lead free and whatnot, what do you guys have in the way of ventilation and stuff? Extractor? Nearby window? People keep telling me that these lead fumes are doing me no good

And yes. When I first started I got some lead free solder free with my soldering iron and just couldn't get things to work. I thought I'd never get soldering down - til I got some 60/40 and suddenly everything fell into place.

I'm soldering in my kitchen, using the hob as work surface and extractor fan ;p but  really fumes are not THAT bad, most of it is flux anyway

[inefficiency]

Yeah, my mate said he can grab me a cheap hob extractor for £25 rather than paying a ridiculous amount for the ones they sell on electronics/tools websites. I figure they probably aren't that different.

[rocket88]

Currently I do my soldering on my office desk, so I don't have any ventilation. Hopefully in the house I'm looking at buying I can put a vent fan in the basement to get rid of the fumes and have more work space.

[induction]

Ventilation is good, because vaporized flux is not good for you. But lead does not vaporize at the temperatures we use for soldering, so at least we don't have to worry about that.

[Silver Blues]

induction wrote

Ventilation is good, because vaporized flux is not good for you. But lead does not vaporize at the temperatures we use for soldering, so at least we don't have to worry about that.

Exactly. People don't realize that lead vaporizes at about 1750C, which is nowhere near soldering temperature. I've had people tell me the same thing about the fumes - it's mostly flux, no lead.

That being said I do have fairly free air movement where I solder so not that much of a deal for me.

[rocket88]

me too. i just leave my fan on. but all the flux fumes could be the reason i get so into all my builds.

[IvIark]

I gave up smoking nearly a year ago so I breathe it all right in.  It gives me my fix

[dbat69]

Mmmmm ... I see a new headline

smokey flux, the 'new' marijuana for pedal enthusiasts ... its addictive

[rocket88]

haha, so true. i quit smoking 2-3yrs ago. i don't even remember, i'm sure the flux smoke helped me quit.

[Frank_NH]

I actually hold my breath while I apply the heat and solder to the connection.  No joke.  A fan would be better though...

[inefficiency]

Yeah, I do that haha. It's not even voluntary, it just kinda happens.

[negativefx]

Still a smoker.  I have an extractor but the damn thing is so loud that I never use it.  I solder by an open sliding door with reasonable cross-draft and I *exhale* while soldering.  It blows the fumes away from my face.  Just holding your breath doesn't prevent the fumes from getting on your face, in your eyes, etc.  I started doing this after one long night of soldering (I'm pretty sure it was the Snow White Auto Wah...) and I had an acute eye twitch for a few hours.  Not interested in getting that again.

[inefficiency]

Yeah, I kinda hold my breath until the fumes start rising and then I exhale. I reckon that eye twitch was probably more the fact that you'd been staring at a bit of vero without blinking for too long and needed to go get some rest - rather than fume-related.

On the whole "dry joints" thing. I think I'm one of the lucky guys who hasn't had any problems with that. All my projects have basically worked first time with the exception of one - and that was just because I'd put the IC in upside down . Once I flipped it round it worked perfectly.

I have created a couple of bad looking joints that could have given me trouble, but I fixed them straight afterwards. I'm very methodical in checking everything as I go along. I could probably finish a project faster than I do, but at least I generally don't need to waste time troubleshooting over something so little.

[negativefx]

Good for you!  Almost all of my builds have a stupid mistake in them that takes 2 seconds to fix.  Generally if I find an issue that I can't quickly diagnose, I reflow most if not all of my solder joints as a first test.  The one that killed me most recently was an IC socket looked to have great solder joints but one of the pins didn't stick far enough out to hit the solder.