help soldering tiny stuff

[corona2222]

I bought all the bits to make an openxenium and I've watched SMT soldering videos to learn techniques using soldering iron and airflow with solder paste, and I watch this video it makes it look so easy and they're zipping through it

 

 

I've persevered trying to solder it all together a few times but im doing something wrong.

I assume the guy in the vid above uses a magnifier like in my setup but its still too small for me, I can barely see the parts, so apart from good eyesight whats his setup off camera? is it likely a microscope/camera and looking at a screen?

the next problem is soldering, dragging an iron across the legs makes the solder arches up the IC legs and really difficult to get off again no matter how much flux I use, it took me hours to solder on the IC's "nicely" and ripped a couple of pads trying to get solder off then running traces, absolute pain but all good practice. I ended up using a combination of the tips, the small one for fix ups.

I used reflow and solder paste on the caps, resistors and transistors, that worked easy enough and they still showed near enough correct values after, I consider this luck with the way I blasted them to get the solder to melt into place. I had trouble trying that technique with IC's though.

The end result doesn't look pretty but I've tested connectivity with the multimeter, found a huge blob of solder under one IC leg shorting to the neighbour,

anyway next step programming the firmware see if it actually works

I can't understand why soldering SMDs turns out painful for me compared to the video, he zips through it.

does everyone go through this with SMT soldering?

what do I need to improve?

different gear or just more practice?

Edited October 11, 2022 by corona2222

[coldasijs]

30 minutes ago, corona2222 said:

I can't understand why soldering SMDs turns out painful for me compared to the video, he zips through it.

does everyone go through this with SMT soldering?

Yes

had same problems, and I can’t say that I my soldering are anywhere near to mediocre let alone expert level. But I found a few things that make soldering small things easier. First use the right amount of heat. Depends a bit if you use leaded solder or not, but with unleaded 375c seems to be the sweetspot. Make sure the tip is large enough. This one sounds counter intuitive, but you need to transfer enough heat. Lastly make sure to pre-tin your pads and make sure the ground connections are preheated. The ground is usually connected to the copper layer, so heat will escape easily.

My project that is basically on hold. It has 0402 components, I wouldn’t mind replacing them with these huge 0603 components 

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Practice, practice and some more practice.

I would guess Ryzee is doing it without scope or magnifier.  It's basicly just skill and the right tools for the job.

So do you need better tools? From what I see your soldering station is fine. The hot air station you have will also do it's job.  So if you struggle with small parts, get a scope. For me it was and still is a game changer (Google " vevor microscope " it is the same as the Amscope but comes with all stuff you have to pay amscope extra and it's afordable).

Some soldering tips with the right size (depends on what you are do) and use leaded solder cause it's way easyer to work with and you don't need that much heat.

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by sweetdarkdestiny

[Prehistoricman]

The type of flux is also important. Ryzee is using some ChipQuik which I can also vouch for. It looks like you have a lot of flux all over the board, but it doesn't look like the right kind of flux for drag soldering.

[corona2222]

On 10/12/2022 at 5:11 AM, coldasijs said:

Yes

had same problems, and I can’t say that I my soldering are anywhere near to mediocre let alone expert level. But I found a few things that make soldering small things easier. First use the right amount of heat. Depends a bit if you use leaded solder or not, but with unleaded 375c seems to be the sweetspot. Make sure the tip is large enough. This one sounds counter intuitive, but you need to transfer enough heat. Lastly make sure to pre-tin your pads and make sure the ground connections are preheated. The ground is usually connected to the copper layer, so heat will escape easily.

My project that is basically on hold. It has 0402 components, I wouldn’t mind replacing them with these huge 0603 components 

0402  good luck! thanks for the advice. Cranking up the heat for quick touches seems to work best.
 

On 10/12/2022 at 5:18 AM, Prehistoricman said:

The type of flux is also important. Ryzee is using some ChipQuik which I can also vouch for. It looks like you have a lot of flux all over the board, but it doesn't look like the right kind of flux for drag soldering.

I see Jaycar sell ChipQuik I'll try some.
Yep flux all over   I never use it usually and I read it isn't good to leave it on - eventually corrodes. I'm not sure the easiest way to clean it off. Maybe spray pure alcohol, heat up the board and dab at it with cotton buds?

On 10/12/2022 at 5:16 AM, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Practice, practice and some more practice.

I would guess Ryzee is doing it without scope or magnifier.  It's basicly just skill and the right tools for the job.

So do you need better tools? From what I see your soldering station is fine. The hot air station you have will also do it's job.  So if you struggle with small parts, get a scope. For me it was and still is a game changer (Google " vevor microscope " it is the same as the Amscope but comes with all stuff you have to pay amscope extra and it's afordable).

Some soldering tips with the right size (depends on what you are do) and use leaded solder cause it's way easyer to work with and you don't need that much heat.

 

It blows my mind anyone solders SMT without magnification. I had a look at vevor microscope, it looks like the one Stange Parts talks about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBFyGzrClsI - I take it that the main features to look for are: 1. stereoscopic, 2. camera which doesn't cut off one eye view, 3. extra underneath magnification to raise the assembly for higher work space.

Good tip with leaded solder thanks. I thought I bought leaded paste but was ebay so who knows  

[corona2222]

A small update: Today I programmed the xilinx chip! I read I needed a JTAG programmer and found this https://sites.google.com/view/xc9500xl-with-openocd-ft232r/home thanks to the author for finding this low cost solution.

My FT232RL board cost $7 from ebay. 

Connected openxenium to FT232RL to the PC via USB cable.

observation white light on openxenium - indicates it has not been programmed yet.

Programming, the major issue I hit was finding a driver that installed and did not make OpenOCD error.

Notes:

Environment: windows 7 x64 pro sp1 6.1.7601
confirmed FT232RL jumper set to 5v

Installed drivers tried:
Default windows driver, failed to install.
FTDI drivers - OpenOCD failed at opening libusb (notes say it should be supported)
I then used Zadig v2.7 and tried the following drivers:
WinUSB v6.1.7600.16385 - failed to install
libusb-win32 v1.2.6.0 - openocd.exe complained "unable to claim interface"
libusbK v3.1.0.0 - installed and worked (observe "libusbK USB Devices\FT232R USB UART" in Device Manager)

Ran "Start OpenOCD and Play SVF.cmd": 
Took 19.5 minutes to install openxenium.svf to xc9572xl (it looks like it hangs for 3 minutes at a time, leave it alone )

Result:
observed red light on openxenium, and "Congratulations!" reported in command window.

So far so good! Next job is to get an xbox BIOS on it

 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by corona2222
put images in right place

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Here is a link to the one I have. https://www.vevor.de/stereo-mikroskop-c_11070/vevor-3-5x-90x-stereomikroskop-einstellbar-vergroesserung-doppelarmstativ-labor-p_010928864370

Vevor has a UK store too but not to sure if they also have one in the US.  

The guy in the video has the smaller baby version of it.  

 

EDIT : A short video (Note: It comes with a barlow lens 0.5x and 2x and the camera thing you see in the video). You just need a cheap light ~25,- Dollar/Euros

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by sweetdarkdestiny

[corona2222]

I didn't get far ....need help please!

I'm following the steps to Program XeniumOS to OpenXenium here: https://github.com/Ryzee119/OpenXenium/blob/master/INSTALLATION.md 

1. installed Aladdin Advance modchip - D0 connected to mobo top side (below ram chip), BT to ground (white wire)
2. booted fine, blue X screen, red eject LED, all good so far
3. loaded xenium tools menu ( from DVD - ISO from https://github.com/Ryzee119/Xenium-Tools/releases )
4. took the Aladdin Advance off LPC header
5. Put my openxenium on LPC header, red light (CPLD already successfully programmed - see my previous post above)
6. selected Rescan for xenium in the xenium tools menu
7. problem....xenium tools popup says something like 'no xenium detected' 

I tried a few more boots and hot swaps, but same result - Xenium not detected on each Rescan.

I retested connectivity all my soldering OpenXenium - no shorts or drys 

any ideas what might be wrong or I should try?

Note ground wire and D0 is still connected to Aladdin, I assume it makes no difference - but will test  

This is the hot swap bit i followed : https://youtu.be/P6YYViKby74?t=605 then use the xenium-tools DVD to try get XeniumOS bios programmed 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by corona2222

[corona2222]

ok...I think XeniumOS bios needs to be on the flash already for Xenium tools to find it during a 'Rescan for Xenium'

 I have now rewired D0 direct to ground,
1. booted with Alddin installed the to Xenium tools menu
2. hotswap the Alddin out, and Openxenium modchip on the LPC header
2. selected Write XeniumOS 2.3.1 Update file, then selected default.xbe
3. I get popup xenium tools saying: "File size does not match supported recovery size. ERROR"

any ideas?

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by corona2222

[corona2222]

just thought default.xbe is not a bios, no wonder it error  but no bios's in the options hmm..

[dtomcat]

If xenium is not detected.  Then you need to check your soldering job.  The cpld isn’t talking to the flash.   The flash can be blank and it should detect it.    You’ll need to touch up the pins and ensure the solder is good and not bridged

[corona2222]

I found time to make a second openxenium and XeniumTools detected it and wrote XeniumOS file, I then rebooted and got xeniumOS menu. Success! Thanks everyone for helping!

Changes:
1. I was putting too much solder paste on IC's before. using a lot less is better.
2. I used 138c melting point solder this time, it takes much less time to melt / easier to work with
3. I bought a headband magnifier it helped a little with the non-IC components, it magnifies x3.5 at 8cm, but slight problem focussing both eyes at the same thing, maybe its made for people with eyes closer together 

Anyway, next step is put IND or cerbios on and whatever files to make it into a debug box.

Edited November 19, 2022 by corona2222

[nbaj805]

Kimbo Flux is excellent for me