Since watching your videos, I've embraced your soldering hand acrobatics that you do. It's actually been quite helpful and I haven't burned myself since I started using your technique. Thanks Clive!
I envy Clive (and you) for being able to multi-task with the left hand (fnar fnar). Me, I need heavy duty lifting equipment to hold the components while I thrash around with the solder in my left hand and the iron in my right.
Yup. A week ago I had my first go at soldering as I wanted to replace a microswitch on my mouse instead of buying a new one. Using a soviet iron and a massive solder (like 1.5mm thick) somehow I succeeded, but I nearly burnt the board when I was trying to desolder the broken microswitch. It'd be nice to see a ultra budget desoldering guide like this one
If you aren't doing much desoldering, then some of the solder braid is a very effective way to go. It gets expensive if you do enough to buy a roll every week, but for normal use a roll should last months, and it works very very well, using the same iron you already have. Just avoid the cheap wick, it's worse than useless. About $4USD www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_mPrRngCbx=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=chemtronics%2080-2-5&_trksid=p2045573.m1684.l5985 Or a hand solder sucker, works better for larger parts. Cheap is fine here, they've been making this same style for ages and it works fine. $4-7USD www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Solder-Sucker-Desoldering-Pump-Solder-Irons-Remove-Remover-Tool-Gold-/301797865625?hash=item46448df899%3Ag%3ALVYAAOSwtGlZETzg No need for desoldering to be expensive, unless you want the tools to do it on a professional basis.
He made a couple videos, about 40 mins a piece, one about the basics of soldering and one about components (how they work, how to read resistor values, etc.). I watched both and have been looking to get my hands on a soldering iron since.
I’m so glad you stuffed up your first ever monostable circuit because I did exactly the same thing some 25 years ago with one of my first childhood voyages into electronics
Clive, I have been watching you for a long time. You are awesome!!! I have learned so much from you even though I worked for an electronics manufacturer for 13.5 years. But if I could try to return the favor in some small way I would say that 60/40 solder is not really ideal. 63/37 is what we use in electronics manufacturing. Its known as eutectic solder which means it goes directly from solid to liquid. this allows for lower solder temperatures to be used while soldering. If you want to get really picky. IPC 610 (Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies) states that leads should be cut before soldering not after. the reason is that some copper could be exposed after cutting. Alternatively, you could reflow the solder after the cut is made. I only mention these small points because you seem very concerned with reliability and longevity and these 2 small points may help. Sorry if I'm being to anal.
i'd bet you a million quid clive knows what eutectic means, unlike you. it means a mixture that has a melting point lower than its constituents. look eutectic /juːˈtɛktɪk/ Chemistry- relating to or denoting a mixture of substances (in fixed proportions) that melts and freezes at a single temperature that is lower than the melting points of the separate constituents or of any other mixture of them.
@KarldorisLambley first off, no need to be a jerk. Second, he did explain what eutectic meant correctly, just not the cause. For all intents and purposes the comment was correct, but you had to be grumpy. (Comment edited to be nicer)
Thank you for making this video, now I have a link to post in the RC aircraft groups when people ask about soldering. It never fails to amaze me when I see people attempt to solder 100+$ components for their planes when they have never held a soldering iron. I ALWAYS suggest buying a bunch of random eBay kits to learn, that way it doesn't matter when they lift pads or melt components. But all of the cheap irons on the American market (and most of the "good" mains voltage) are un-grounded, so I always tell newbies to buy one of the "portable" TS-80 style irons to learn. The temp control, and safety, make it a worthy purchase.
Soldering instruction, electronics instruction, advice on starting out with economy equipment and even video production advice, this RUclips has it all. I'm going to get going this way, thank you.
I had that exact red Soldering iron for the last 7-8 years. I got it as a gift from my dad, because I always loved to watch him solder, but he used a Soldering pistol, which 7 year old couldn't hold for longer than 5 minutes. He bought it in our local electronics store, in a kit with a holder and some tin for 15 euro. It's tip unfortunately broke a week ago and I couldn't buy a tip for it that was small enough for my needs, as I do a lot of smd these days. Now I bought one of the 936 Soldering stations. It will arrive in about a week.
Weller is a good, simple American iron. I still have my original Weller irons that I got from my father who bought them in the 80s, and they still work great. They are nice for a tool kit since you don't have to lug a big power supply around, and they have fantastic thermal mass, so they will actually melt joints my 936 clone won't even at a much higher temperature.
Well, holding components with your finger is an excellent way to learn not to overheat the component. A first-hand (or finger) experience, if you will :)
Really good instruction on how to start soldering. Thanks for going back to basics. 40 years spent showing folks how to solder and place components, very refreshing to see the correct technique.
I'm taking your advice and I've ordered several cheap eBay kits with increasing component count and I'm going to learn how to solder before I tackle installing the header on my Pi zero.
After watching this video about a month ago, I ordered the same one from a chinesium supplier. Came in the mail today, following along with the video I was able to make sense of it since you broke it down so good. First kit was a success, thanks a lot Clive!
Four years later and I am watching this video for the first time ;) I like the way you hold the circuit board in your fingers when you are soldering, and with quite a steady hand I might add. No doubt that is practiced from many many years in the field soldering joints on-site without any clamping devices being available. Nice soldering technique, very impressive and a really good presentation for beginners, thanks for the video ;)
There was a clearance a few weeks ago at La Source (What used to be Radio Shack in Canada). They were practically giving away all electronic tools they had left. I got a soldering iron (looking a lot like yours but with temperature adjustment) 3 spools of lead based solder and a reel of desoldering wick for less than 10$
Love your tutorials , very easy and relaxed and easy to understand . You cut through most of the tech B.S and give straight information. Great tutorial on the basics of soldering
That helped me a lot, thank you so much. Today I did my first soldering ever. 16 pin header strip on an LCD screen. I bought exactly the soldering iron you are using. Seems to do the job well.
Clive is 100% right. Practice does help ALOT. In the last 2 years or so, my soldering skills have improved 10 fold. I do all sorts of game console mods for my friends now. Stuff that would make me cry a few years ago. I can do it now without a problem.
Good evening Clive As a kid, I tried electronics. Got an 'Electronic lab 300' with 300 electronic projects. It uses components on a colorful cardboard base, with springs to connect wires as well as a breadboard to add or experiment with other valued components. Never got my head around how it works though. Put it away for several years until I saw your electronics-for-beginners videos. (BigThanks from me) I got the lab out of the darkest corner of the basement, dusted it off and ordered some of those kit's to learn to solder. And just this weekend I made this blinking led kit. I used the supplied wires to power it from the lab. The 'power rail' of the lab's breadboard delivers 1.5 to 9 volts in 6 1.5v increments. I tried the kit at 1.5v at first. Both LEDs came on with no blinking. Suspecting a fault I examined the soldering joints and found no problems, neither on the positioning of the components. At the second power-up, I used 3v. The LEDs blinked but I noticed just as in your kit they flashed on, but dimmed off. Also tried 4.5v and 6v. Blinking seemed not to speed up or slow down. (Testing if the 1.5v made the blinking as fast so it seems not to blink) As I do not remember this happening when I made this kind of blinking when I was a kid I first thought it to be a bug in my kit. But when I saw the same thing in your kit It made me think maybe it's the LEDs to blame. Decades ago I made the vibrating thing with incandescent bulbs. Question: Is it because LEDs needs less voltage or current they seem to dim out slowly in compare sense with the tungsten bulbs?
Fiskur Tjorn LEDs dim faster than tungsten light bulbs because the tungsten element requires lower voltage to emit a noticeable glow. Remember the LEDs have a small voltage drop
Despite my advancing years I have never tackled soldering, let alone made a successful project - until now! Having purchased a soldering kit and been practicing just with blank pcbs it was great to find this and get hold of a couple of these kits - first one worked first time! Well, after I sorted the polarity of the yellow and orange leads into the power supply... :) Thanks Clive... 👍🏻 😎
I'm an electronic engineer, used to be a technician so am very competent at soldering. I have no idea why I sat here through all 22mins of this but I did.
Hey Clive! Took your advice and bought some kits, they just came in the mail today and I sat right down and soldered it. I've done some minor repairs in the past but this was my first start to finish electronics project and it gave me great satisfaction when it worked and the lights started flashing! Thanks for your excellent channel, the great eBay find, and this Bob Ross esque video! Hope you are well!
Oh, my. Better for beginners to solder the components from shortest to tallest, holding them in place by putting the board upside down on the bench. Unless they are practiced cooks, they won't have developed asbestos fingers yet. And even most of us experienced cooking solderers with asbestos fingers don't have Clive-sized hands and his manual dexterity, which is, I'll admit, always a pleasure to watch.
I like how your camera setup let's you zoom in and doesn't loose details (no grainy effects) I have got a soldering iron as a Christmas present recently. At the the age of 14 turning 15, it was quite surprising :D
Clive, Once again, Awsome, Clear instruction. At some point you will start meeting people (if haven't already) who have started careers because of your instruction.
I've already launched many careers from the early www.bigclive.com website era onwards. This is good, because having a trade gives you security for life.
As an added idea for those trying to get into electronics and stuff: If you buy a few of those kits, add a simple breadboard and a few connector cables with male connectors. This allows you to quickly prototype/experiment without having to resolder components. You can just use the components and try new things (e.g. make the lights blink in a different pattern or even try to stack them to get a running light etc.). It's also possible to pick different circuits from Clive's videos and copy them (just be careful and stick to low voltage stuff for now).
I just finished one of those and unbelievably it actually worked. Admittedly not first time - there were a couple of bad solder joints I had to redo, but given I've done hardly any soldering for about 20 years (and not much even back then), not bad at all. I was expecting to have to do several before I got one that worked.
OMG! That was the first thing i made, when i first started my interrest in electronics some 38-something years ago. But i build mine on a small piece off wooden board with copper nails at the joints. I actually stil have the booklet i used as a guide. 🤗
I tend to slightly bend the leads away from the holes before soldering to stop the component falling out. It might move a bit but if you just tap solder one leg to hold it in place before adjusting the component if necessary. Just remember it's a good idea to do the components closest to the board first
@@paulsengupta971 Absolutely need four. One for the board, one for the component, one for the solder and one for the iron. Maybe secretly it's a team sport ?
I got a 30W soldering iron from walmart. was like 9$ or something. I bought some new tips for it. and the new tips worked reeeeeeeeeally good. Taking solder like a champ and no tip erosion pretty good for a cheap iron from the store i got two pointed tips and one chisel tip. they work really great. I tend to use the chisel tip more though.
Great video, and this explains soldering better than other videos I've watched on RUclips, which quite frankly, have made me even more hesitant about soldering.
Here in the USA the "Weller" brand soldering iron is a good choice for a (relatively) inexpensive iron and usually can be found for around $20 US. The only thing I'd add is that "practice makes perfect" isn't accurate.... "perfect practice makes perfect" but I'm splitting hairs ;-) Enjoy the videos and now my 12 year old son solders better than I do! I've ordered dozens of kits (suites) and in a few weeks time (usually after I've forgotten I've ordered them) they show up and makes for a fun few hours with no TV or video games involved - another win.
Little tip for people who are just getting into soldering (from experience), when you cut legs off components do NOT throw them away! Keep them because they make awesome little jumper wires!
I've just randomly ordered a bunch of these kits, along with two kit clocks. It's been over 15 years I last touched a soldering iron, so this should be fun.
One amazing tip that nobody ever told me is to not give up on soldering. Once you have the fundamentals down and learn how to do what you want, if you plan to do plenty of soldering, get a good soldering station like a Hakko FX-888. You come to find that you don't actually still suck at soldering, it was just bad equipment. Good gear and good solder go a long way to making you a truly proficient solderer.
The only time better gear is required is when the job is difficult. Soldering a through hole kit like this can be done with the most rudimentary of tools. Which is precisely what Clive did in this video.
I was astounded a couple of years back when I was baking a simple twin BFY22 to latch a simple 12v light via a relay (To repair a 30 year old X10 experiment). Had a shit load of 22's so just wanted a relay so popped to the store. Young bloke looked at me like a I was moron - transistors can easily do 5-18v at 2A+ nowadays. What a time to be alive.
Love your comment re, electron flow : vis : conventional current flow. I am an old electronics technician (trained in the late 1960's) and yes we were taught "electron flow" who cares if it goes against the arrow on the transistor or diode symbol. It makes a hell of a lot more sense since it is after all the "Free" electrons which flow from one atom to the next
Actually, it is a complicated translation. There isn't a direct translation for "kit" so they use a word that kinda means "assembly" but also can be used to refer to all-encompassing, and is used to refer to hotel rooms or apartments that have a restroom and kitchen, so the most often used word for "assembly" or "kit" comes across as "suite" because the ideas don't directly translate.
It was also one of the first circuits I made, though I'd been playing around with components and electronic kits and things before, in a craft afternoon in primary school. It was from the Ladybird Book of Simple Electronics (Learnabout series). It was constructed on a plank with screws and screw cups to hold the components. I bought the components from the electronics shop in Cardiff Market. The shop was still there last time I checked!
It was the first circuit anyone had ever made in a craft afternoon, with the more usual things being Airfix kits and needlework. Everyone crowded round when I first tested it!
Funny thing, when I started university, in our first lab afternoon, they had a circuit to make up for people who had never soldered before, just to give a feel for it and a feel for electronic components. It was one of these, but with LEDs. Those of us who were old hands at soldering could go and play with things like the spectrum analyser (first time I'd ever seen one!) and other test equipment. A couple of the guys on the course were struggling with the soldering, so I actually knocked up one of the flip flop circuits in a couple of minutes to show them what to do. I think I still have it somewhere. I definitely still have the one I made in primary school!
Cheers for this Clive, ordered a couple of the kits and battery holders after watching your vid. Just made a working kit this morning. Need to get better helping hands though, I don't have your multi-finger dexterity. Thanks.
My daughter wants to be an electrician when she finishes school. I'm gonna buy a few of these kits to let her practice. Cheers Big Man (yeah, fellow Glaswegian here)
CPC is a superb supplier. I have used them for over 20 years for all sorts of items. Our Apple computer supplier in the 90’s charged £10 plus VAT (then 15%) for a single mouse ball. They added delivery and VAT on delivery on top of that. It was expensive because the pupils would remove the mouse ball from the mice and the computers would not work. CPC sold 10 mouse balls for £5 and if you spent more than £50 in the catalogue, delivery was free of charge. And it was easy to spend on their catalogue. I bought LEDs, resistors, switches, battery snaps, all sorts and more for classroom projects. CPC are part of the Farnell group and some viewers may know them better as Element 14, esp from The Ben Heck Show.
I too have this kit, not only can you vary the component values to alter flash rates and duty cycle, you can make a two stage audio amplifier for very low level signals without cutting tracks, or use a centre-tapped primary transformer for a step-up converter (at higher frequency) Or even a low power 'royer' inverter. Fun PCBs
"Just start soldering" i wish i i had that advice when i first wanted to learn how to solder. But stupidly enough, i asked my father. He came up with completely weird and stupid soldering exercises. Like placing a huge blob of solder (size of a chewed bubble gum) onto a wooden board. And have me reflow it with a 10 Watt soldering Iron... I gave up at some point and called it quits. A decade later, i learned how to do it. Because i needed to to fix a guitars wiring and had no money to have it done. I borrowed a soldering iron and solder from a friend. He told me "heat up the wire, and then touch it with the solder, don't heat it on the soldering iron. And don't try to carry it over" That was all the advice i needed to fix that guitar. Later i found that if i slighty touch the soldering iron with the solder, so a small amount starts to melt, it will transfer heat to the parts much faster. And that was basically the only things i learned. Everything else is just routine. Getting used to it, and figure out which tip works best for you. I personally use only chisel tips unless its something really fine.
Solder has the funny characteristic of flowing towards heat. So if you put solder right on an iron tip it won't want to go anywhere else. But heating the wire then feeding solder on the wire the solder will flow on the wire.
If there's anything I learned about soldering that really got me moving, it was Louis Rossmann's method of repairing PCBs. Basically, don't be embarrassed to use separate flux as a sort of training wheels.
I could also recommend one of those cheap component testers from China. You can use it to test the parts before installing them so you know their value and that they at least worked before being installed. They're also great for confirming LED polarity, I get bulk packs of LED's also from China and quite a few are guaranteed to not follow any visual pattern for determining polarity. Those little component testers are one of the best things you could ever get, I think some are in kit form so there's that too.
This was one of the first projects I purchased to build for practice. It turned out quite well considering at the time I was using a butane soldering iron that got extremely hot, in fact on subsequent projects I managed to burn off several soldering pads, giving me practice at scraping off the solder protect and making a spot to connect leads. My next iron was a USB, then another Butane, and at long last I found a cheap aqua blue soldering iron with easily replaceable tips, and a tiny wheel that had numbers on it to tell me the approximate temp. It has been a Godsend, and after purchasing that iron, and a large spool of American Solder Rosin Core Solder Wire in 0,08mm size made by TMI I have been soldering like a professional. Of course I have built dozens of different kits, I have all sorts of clocks and flashing lights, FM radio transmitters. I have been having a blast soldering up projects, I do my soldering while reclined in my electric recliner, and occasionally a drop of solder makes it's way to my shirts, so now I have a drawer my wife calls my soldering shirts, which I try to wear on days when my soldering iron is going to be put into play, which can be almost any day.
Since you mentioned this, I always use solder which has no flux in it. Not so sure if I'm already in any hell, but I like soldering so far. And your videos I like too.
This reminds me , my very 1st electronic project in 1982.Clive has used every 5 fingers in his left hand in the most efficient way according to the present job.
Re direction of electrons, my first landrover, was positive earth, something not seen these days, it was from the mid 60's & obviously then the debate was raging, didn't cause any issues apart from i couldn't fit a stereo as they were all negative earth. I could've changed it & added an alternator instead of the dynamo,but I liked the novelty, & I sold it after a couple of years...for a 24volt ex military radio version landrover...a glutton for punishment...
Great video as usual. From my own mistakes I've started ordering extra kits - normally wrecking the pads on some of the cheaper kits so it's handy to have spares.
Until you have developed lots of skill, using a small vice / 'helping-hands' / or something improvised with spring clamps and or vise grips to hold the workpiece steady makes the task easier. Wearing watchmaker magnifying specs or using a combined lamp and magnifying glass, helps too. As others have said before, Clive is a great teacher. Imagine how much more fun school would be if he could be replicated.
I like your channel because unlike other people you explain everything for us simpletons (btw I am 15 and live is Australia so I know nothing about electronics)
> I am 15 and live is Australia so I know nothing about electronics) I'd think Deve Jones (eevblog) might have opinions on the implied causality... :-)
The first circuit I made was from a magazine called Everyday Electronics and it had schematic and design to build on Veroboard it used a 555 timer IC and it didn't work as you can imagine I was disappointed, several years later I moved house and found this project and having learned a lot over the intervening years I reinvestigated this circuit and found that I had put an electrolytic capacitor in the wrong way round I corrected this problem and resoldered the connections ( I wasn't very good at the time) and lo and behold it worked.
Clive, always love your videos Brother. For the newbies though you should show how to do this using a heatsink clip or hemostats to protect thermally sensitive components. Also ground straps for static sensitive ICs would be nice. One other comment. I totally agree with your idea that lead based solder flows better.... I did a lot of super tiny PLCC work right after ROHS came in to play.... and I must admit I kept a roll of PB hidden in my desk for tough jobs. one thing... you mention often that lead based solder isn't toxic... that's both correct and incorrect... in a typical soldering situation you don't get anywhere near high enough temps to vaporise the lead... so no lead fumes. the biggest issue with going to lead free is to eliminate lead in the waste stream. tonnes of PC boards getting buried in landfills and water leaching through and then into the ground water is a bad thing. keep that in mind.
Clive, you should save all your lead clippings and send them to Julian. That would be an exciting "Post Bag"! Although, the cost would be exorbitant, from the Isle. He would love it, though. :-)
im getting back into electronics after learning a ton as a kiddo and building BEAM robots and stuff. Funny enough, this exact multivibrator circuit was the first one i tried to get my feet wet again. Except i didnt order a kit, i designed and etched a tiny PCB like that and populated it with leftover parts from my previous childhood experiments. lol
It's an astable multivibrator. For our six week course in basic electronics when I went through Air Force Technical Training, this was the crowning achievement to our hard study. We applied our RC time-constants and circuit flow to a simple circuit that we soldered together. If the circuit didn't work, we got to troubleshoot it. Fun times!
I was just listening while cooking and several times heard kids instead of kits. At first I was thinking it‘s about learning kids how to solder. 😅 But finally I got it. BTW, I had a Kosmos Elektronik Box 50y ago, a kind of early breadboard, and was creating a simulation of the sound of my Guinea pig with 2 such multivibrators cascaded. Obviously no LED (already invented, but unaffordable), but a speaker output and much smaller caps in the second stage. Not that I did know too much about why it did what. 😎
LED's + and -. Go on, confuse everybody by talking about cathode and anode etc xD Very good video Clive, maybe you could do more of this kind of thing. learning electronics by doing is probably the best method, and watching how it should be done must follow a close second.
Here in the US, we used to have an electronics place called Heathkit. They went out of business in the early 90s. They used to have the most awesome electronic kits! I built a dual trace oscilloscope, as well as many other smaller kits. I really miss them...
I miss them as well - some of my earliest electronics memories were with my Dad and a photocell lamp controller which I promptly turned into a disco strobe ;-) I remember the kits hanging on the wall and frequently asked for an advance on my allowance to procure them. The shop was just down the road from a HiFi (stereo) shop where they sold Sinclair 1000's in kit form for $150 - those days were awesome but we're probably in the golden age of electronics as a hobby - RUclips makes a lot possible that would have been gleaned through books like "Getting Started in Electronics" or through getting your Technician Amateur Radio License and letting the smoke out repeatedly....
So many fond memories! What killed Heathkit was when Zenith bought them out and promptly changed all the stores into home computer outlets. The last few times I went in they'd done away with all the smaller kits, and only had computer kits, as well as Zenith TV kits. I know this is going to sound dumb, but I miss Radio Shack, LOL! I always thought of Radio Shack as the whore to electronics tech. They sold everything at a bloated price, and the products were marginal at best, but they did in a pinch... LOL! Don't get me wrong, they had some awesome stuff, like the Optimus bookshelf speakers, and they had some nice short wave radios bac in the day, but they were made by other manufacturers, and had the Radio Shack tag put on them, at a huge markup. Pretty much all their radio stuff was made by Uniden, LOL! There's one electronics store left where I live. It's family owned and has been in business for 60 years. It'll be a very sad day when it closes...
Techs: Electron flow. Engineers: Conventional current flow. I've done/been both. Frankly, I find conventional easier. It's easier to trace current paths from B+ to ground then trying to follow all the ground points looking for B+. It also means that the diode and transistor symbols point the way the way that they work rather then "opposite".
As a beginner, I have problems with the circuit hole metal coming away from the board, possibly because of overheating., rather than a cheap board in these small kits. like everything else. I suppose Practice makes perfect. Thank you for another great video.
The frosty situation comes from moving the parts before the solder solidifies. If it's moved when in the "slushy" state, it will make a "cold" solder joint that might work for a bit but is likely to fail eventually. I've fixed many an electrical joint by redoing cold solder joints. My dad taught me to solder and always stressed having a good physical connection as the basis of a good electrical connection. Fingers are notorious for moving around, you'd be better off with tape, blu-tac, alligator clips, even bending the leads of the components outward to old the component firmly.
I’m pretty new to soldering and videos like this are very helpful. Luckily i own a soldering station which i can adjust the temperature and have different sizes of tips which makes it easier to solder
it is possible to carry solder to the pad on the tip of the iron if you pre-flux the pad and component. Pre-fluxing is not a bad idea in any event, as it helps remove whatever oxidization there might be on the components themselves, especially if the components have been sitting on a shelf for an extended period of time. From a plumbing point of view, when soldering (AKA sweating) copper pipes, you can never over-use flux on the pipes. Under-use, however, will always guarantee a bad connection and result in leaks.
Terrific video Clive. Watching your channel has really sparked my interest in electronics (sorry for the pun) and I've been putting together a number of kits starting with a simple flasher kit and working up. I've been putting together kits by a company called Velleman (other kits suppliers are available) and I'd love to see you do something with one of them. My soldering technique has improved quite a bit and the last kit I put together had 60 LEDs, and my kids now have flashing stars and hearts. I'd love to see more on your channel deals with how stuff works.
I worked in commercial TV repair back in the '90s. RCA sold thousand upon thousands of commercial TV sets to hospitals that, I believe, were some of the first that had boards that were Robot Soldered. The robot sucked at it's job and was soldering roughly half the pad and lead. After a few heat cycles the solder would separate and the set would malfunction. I MUST have soldered a thousand boards, roughly 40 points on each board. I got pretty good at it after that. The main thing to remember is to get in and out quickly. It's VERY easy to overheat a joint and separate the pad from the board. And THAT creates a big problem.
Guy Fawkes It really is not that easy to separate the pad from the circuit board when using modern circuit boards unless your soldering iron temperature is much too high or you are applying considerable lateral pressure to the board. It was much more of a concern in the past, and when repairing vintage gear, due to less optimized adhesives of the time and the use of what were often unregulated high wattage soldering irons and guns which can run very hot. However, those risks were far greater during rework in which the original joint must first be desoldered, repairs made, then resoldered as that was typically where greater temperatures, durations, and stress were involved and the board and pads were no longer virgin, increasing the risk considerably. Nowadays one generally has to really abuse the circuit board to lift off a typical pad, especially one of the dimensions typical in 0.1" through-hole components. You do have to be careful where especially fine traces and pads are in use, but for the typical beginner through-hole project with generous sized traces and pads such is generally not an issue, at least not until the beginner tries to rework things to fix something and pulls up a pad because they yanked hard on a component that was still partially soldered to the pad because they did not have proper rework gear (nobody does in the beginning) and got into a rush without taking the time to either fully clear the joint of solder or, alternately, pull the component lead while keeping the remaining solder melted (and possibly sacrifice the component, if need be) so as to avoid unnecessary stress. So those who want to start out do not need to be overly concerned about lifting pads when assembling typical through-hole kits of modern vintage. But it is something to be aware of when reworking/repairing older gear or not being sufficiently careful when trying to desolder components to make repairs.
For more practice, I recommend the “Christmas tree LED DIY”-kit. That's two PCBs with each a 18 LED three-phase-multivibrator. I got it for roughly the price of ten multivibrators. The battery holder and a USB cable are included.
In the US, we have a bunch of different regulatory agencies for circuits and consumer products. The closest equivalent to the CE is the UL (formerly called the Underwriters Lab but now their name is just UL) which certifies that electronics are safe to plug in and use. Some things also require FCC certification, that ensures that it neither causes nor is affected by RFI.
In this video you remind me of the painter Bob Ross in the way he would happily encourage beginners and talk to them about "happy little mistakes"
Jim Healis YES that's exactly what I was thinking.
ME TO! :D But there weren't fluffy little capacitor smoke clouds and no happy resistors anywhere to be found.
Smaxx, there are going to be fluffy little capacitor smoke clouds if you don't pay attention.
Jim Healis glory to Kekistan, praise kek !
I used to love watching |Bob Ross, such an artist. joe
Since watching your videos, I've embraced your soldering hand acrobatics that you do. It's actually been quite helpful and I haven't burned myself since I started using your technique. Thanks Clive!
Me too, though I've definitely burned myself. Soldering iron burns aren't that bad - even my 10 year old daughter handles them without tears.
I envy Clive (and you) for being able to multi-task with the left hand (fnar fnar). Me, I need heavy duty lifting equipment to hold the components while I thrash around with the solder in my left hand and the iron in my right.
Our host's hands are insured for an undisclosed 6-digit figure... by Lloyds of London. Or is it Stewarts of Glasgow?
@Mark yeah at first it's very much difficult. But if you keep at it eventually it becomes easier.
Third Party Fire & Theft
I do love 3-band 33k resistors - they look really orangey :)
+Julian Ilett they come from my country :D
And yet they don't taste orangey. :-/
Julian Ilett ooh so do I really like orangey things !
I keep a bowl of them in the living room for guests to nibble on.
My tabby kitten and goldfish approve of this message.
You are a good teacher Clive. I've been soldering for over 30 years and it's one of those skills isn't it. It's all in the feel.
Not really. It is all in the technique.
You should make a series of video tutorials on Electrical and Electronics right from the basics. Nice work!
Yup. A week ago I had my first go at soldering as I wanted to replace a microswitch on my mouse instead of buying a new one. Using a soviet iron and a massive solder (like 1.5mm thick) somehow I succeeded, but I nearly burnt the board when I was trying to desolder the broken microswitch. It'd be nice to see a ultra budget desoldering guide like this one
If you aren't doing much desoldering, then some of the solder braid is a very effective way to go. It gets expensive if you do enough to buy a roll every week, but for normal use a roll should last months, and it works very very well, using the same iron you already have. Just avoid the cheap wick, it's worse than useless. About $4USD
www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_mPrRngCbx=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=chemtronics%2080-2-5&_trksid=p2045573.m1684.l5985
Or a hand solder sucker, works better for larger parts. Cheap is fine here, they've been making this same style for ages and it works fine. $4-7USD
www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Solder-Sucker-Desoldering-Pump-Solder-Irons-Remove-Remover-Tool-Gold-/301797865625?hash=item46448df899%3Ag%3ALVYAAOSwtGlZETzg
No need for desoldering to be expensive, unless you want the tools to do it on a professional basis.
He made a couple videos, about 40 mins a piece, one about the basics of soldering and one about components (how they work, how to read resistor values, etc.). I watched both and have been looking to get my hands on a soldering iron since.
I’m so glad you stuffed up your first ever monostable circuit because I did exactly the same thing some 25 years ago with one of my first childhood voyages into electronics
Hey Big Clive, just noticed that you've passed a quarter of a million subscribers.
Congratulations!
Thanks. It's not something I guessed could even happen.
That's a bigger audience than ITV these days...
yet it did! congrats!
+bigclivedotcom Congratulations ! Now where's the cake :)))))
SarkyBugger
And now (Feb 2019) Big Clive has surpassed half a million!
Clive, I have been watching you for a long time. You are awesome!!! I have learned so much from you even though I worked for an electronics manufacturer for 13.5 years. But if I could try to return the favor in some small way I would say that 60/40 solder is not really ideal. 63/37 is what we use in electronics manufacturing. Its known as eutectic solder which means it goes directly from solid to liquid. this allows for lower solder temperatures to be used while soldering.
If you want to get really picky. IPC 610 (Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies) states that leads should be cut before soldering not after. the reason is that some copper could be exposed after cutting. Alternatively, you could reflow the solder after the cut is made.
I only mention these small points because you seem very concerned with reliability and longevity and these 2 small points may help.
Sorry if I'm being to anal.
i'd bet you a million quid clive knows what eutectic means, unlike you. it means a mixture that has a melting point lower than its constituents. look
eutectic
/juːˈtɛktɪk/
Chemistry- relating to or denoting a mixture of substances (in fixed proportions) that melts and freezes at a single temperature that is lower than the melting points of the separate constituents or of any other mixture of them.
@KarldorisLambley first off, no need to be a jerk. Second, he did explain what eutectic meant correctly, just not the cause. For all intents and purposes the comment was correct, but you had to be grumpy. (Comment edited to be nicer)
@@teejin669 yes. you are 100% correct. im often a miserable bastard when i have had a drink. i am sorry. thanks for not calling me a wanker.
@@KarldorisLambley happens to the best of us. I get the same way on the internet after some nice bourbon
Thank you for making this video, now I have a link to post in the RC aircraft groups when people ask about soldering. It never fails to amaze me when I see people attempt to solder 100+$ components for their planes when they have never held a soldering iron. I ALWAYS suggest buying a bunch of random eBay kits to learn, that way it doesn't matter when they lift pads or melt components. But all of the cheap irons on the American market (and most of the "good" mains voltage) are un-grounded, so I always tell newbies to buy one of the "portable" TS-80 style irons to learn. The temp control, and safety, make it a worthy purchase.
Soldering instruction, electronics instruction, advice on starting out with economy equipment and even video production advice, this RUclips has it all. I'm going to get going this way, thank you.
I had that exact red Soldering iron for the last 7-8 years. I got it as a gift from my dad, because I always loved to watch him solder, but he used a Soldering pistol, which 7 year old couldn't hold for longer than 5 minutes. He bought it in our local electronics store, in a kit with a holder and some tin for 15 euro. It's tip unfortunately broke a week ago and I couldn't buy a tip for it that was small enough for my needs, as I do a lot of smd these days. Now I bought one of the 936 Soldering stations. It will arrive in about a week.
Just file tips down to make them smaller.
Thanks, allways a delight to listen to your "zen" voice, talking about electronics. This one was very good. It made me feel quite relaxed.
Weller is a good, simple American iron. I still have my original Weller irons that I got from my father who bought them in the 80s, and they still work great. They are nice for a tool kit since you don't have to lug a big power supply around, and they have fantastic thermal mass, so they will actually melt joints my 936 clone won't even at a much higher temperature.
I would have felt better if you had said he bought them in the 60's......60's are kinda old. But the 80s? .........well that hurt.
Well, holding components with your finger is an excellent way to learn not to overheat the component.
A first-hand (or finger) experience, if you will :)
Really good instruction on how to start soldering. Thanks for going back to basics. 40 years spent showing folks how to solder and place components, very refreshing to see the correct technique.
There's something inherently calming and therapeutic watching a softly-spoken Scottish bloke carefully soldering small electrical circuits
I'm taking your advice and I've ordered several cheap eBay kits with increasing component count and I'm going to learn how to solder before I tackle installing the header on my Pi zero.
How did it go?
Please do more of these "practice" videos! This was really encouraging and informative!
After watching this video about a month ago, I ordered the same one from a chinesium supplier. Came in the mail today, following along with the video I was able to make sense of it since you broke it down so good. First kit was a success, thanks a lot Clive!
"The best way to learn is to just start doing it"......Very useful advice ,Sir.......
Four years later and I am watching this video for the first time ;) I like the way you hold the circuit board in your fingers when you are soldering, and with quite a steady hand I might add. No doubt that is practiced from many many years in the field soldering joints on-site without any clamping devices being available. Nice soldering technique, very impressive and a really good presentation for beginners, thanks for the video ;)
There was a clearance a few weeks ago at La Source (What used to be Radio Shack in Canada). They were practically giving away all electronic tools they had left. I got a soldering iron (looking a lot like yours but with temperature adjustment) 3 spools of lead based solder and a reel of desoldering wick for less than 10$
Love your tutorials , very easy and relaxed and easy to understand . You cut through most of the tech B.S and give straight information. Great tutorial on the basics of soldering
Quote of the day:
"It's so easy to drift out, It's tiny. It's just about 2 inches"
That's what she said.........
Size isn't everything. 😀
@@BedsitBob haha small pp
Okay but he makes up for it with stamina... How do I know?
That helped me a lot, thank you so much. Today I did my first soldering ever. 16 pin header strip on an LCD screen. I bought exactly the soldering iron you are using. Seems to do the job well.
Clive is 100% right. Practice does help ALOT. In the last 2 years or so, my soldering skills have improved 10 fold. I do all sorts of game console mods for my friends now. Stuff that would make me cry a few years ago. I can do it now without a problem.
Good evening Clive
As a kid, I tried electronics. Got an 'Electronic lab 300' with 300 electronic projects. It uses components on a colorful cardboard base, with springs to connect wires as well as a breadboard to add or experiment with other valued components. Never got my head around how it works though. Put it away for several years until I saw your electronics-for-beginners videos. (BigThanks from me)
I got the lab out of the darkest corner of the basement, dusted it off and ordered some of those kit's to learn to solder. And just this weekend I made this blinking led kit.
I used the supplied wires to power it from the lab. The 'power rail' of the lab's breadboard delivers 1.5 to 9 volts in 6 1.5v increments. I tried the kit at 1.5v at first. Both LEDs came on with no blinking.
Suspecting a fault I examined the soldering joints and found no problems, neither on the positioning of the components. At the second power-up, I used 3v. The LEDs blinked but I noticed just as in your kit they flashed on, but dimmed off. Also tried 4.5v and 6v. Blinking seemed not to speed up or slow down. (Testing if the 1.5v made the blinking as fast so it seems not to blink)
As I do not remember this happening when I made this kind of blinking when I was a kid I first thought it to be a bug in my kit. But when I saw the same thing in your kit It made me think maybe it's the LEDs to blame. Decades ago I made the vibrating thing with incandescent bulbs.
Question: Is it because LEDs needs less voltage or current they seem to dim out slowly in compare sense with the tungsten bulbs?
Fiskur Tjorn LEDs dim faster than tungsten light bulbs because the tungsten element requires lower voltage to emit a noticeable glow. Remember the LEDs have a small voltage drop
Thanks, I thought I'd noticed the opposite. The LEDs in this kit seems to dim relative slowly.
Despite my advancing years I have never tackled soldering, let alone made a successful project - until now! Having purchased a soldering kit and been practicing just with blank pcbs it was great to find this and get hold of a couple of these kits - first one worked first time! Well, after I sorted the polarity of the yellow and orange leads into the power supply... :) Thanks Clive... 👍🏻 😎
I'm an electronic engineer, used to be a technician so am very competent at soldering.
I have no idea why I sat here through all 22mins of this but I did.
Hey Clive! Took your advice and bought some kits, they just came in the mail today and I sat right down and soldered it. I've done some minor repairs in the past but this was my first start to finish electronics project and it gave me great satisfaction when it worked and the lights started flashing! Thanks for your excellent channel, the great eBay find, and this Bob Ross esque video! Hope you are well!
if clive were to do a series like "the joy of painting" but for electronics i would die happy. such a calming and relaxing voice.
Watching and listening to Big Clive solder is very cathartic. Thanks buddy!
Oh, my. Better for beginners to solder the components from shortest to tallest, holding them in place by putting the board upside down on the bench. Unless they are practiced cooks, they won't have developed asbestos fingers yet. And even most of us experienced cooking solderers with asbestos fingers don't have Clive-sized hands and his manual dexterity, which is, I'll admit, always a pleasure to watch.
I like how your camera setup let's you zoom in and doesn't loose details (no grainy effects)
I have got a soldering iron as a Christmas present recently.
At the the age of 14 turning 15, it was quite surprising :D
Clive, Once again, Awsome, Clear instruction. At some point you will start meeting people (if haven't already) who have started careers because of your instruction.
I've already launched many careers from the early www.bigclive.com website era onwards. This is good, because having a trade gives you security for life.
As an added idea for those trying to get into electronics and stuff:
If you buy a few of those kits, add a simple breadboard and a few connector cables with male connectors. This allows you to quickly prototype/experiment without having to resolder components.
You can just use the components and try new things (e.g. make the lights blink in a different pattern or even try to stack them to get a running light etc.). It's also possible to pick different circuits from Clive's videos and copy them (just be careful and stick to low voltage stuff for now).
I just finished one of those and unbelievably it actually worked. Admittedly not first time - there were a couple of bad solder joints I had to redo, but given I've done hardly any soldering for about 20 years (and not much even back then), not bad at all. I was expecting to have to do several before I got one that worked.
And on my second one, my soldering was much better and quicker but I put one of the transistors in backwards. Lesson - don't get cocky.
OMG! That was the first thing i made, when i first started my interrest in electronics some 38-something years ago. But i build mine on a small piece off wooden board with copper nails at the joints. I actually stil have the booklet i used as a guide. 🤗
So I was supposed to wet the sponge. I have so much to learn! Thanks Clive, another great video.
after watching the video I'm pretty sure that soldering would be MILES easier with 3 hands
Or four.
You can get "3rd hand" soldering tools, although the cheapest ones are rubbish.
I tend to slightly bend the leads away from the holes before soldering to stop the component falling out. It might move a bit but if you just tap solder one leg to hold it in place before adjusting the component if necessary. Just remember it's a good idea to do the components closest to the board first
Rick Massey which is why the Chinese people solder so much faster than us westerners... chopstick usage...
@@paulsengupta971 Absolutely need four. One for the board, one for the component, one for the solder and one for the iron.
Maybe secretly it's a team sport ?
I started doing kits like this in my early teens, clive is spot on, they are a fantastic learning tool, still love em
I got a 30W soldering iron from walmart.
was like 9$ or something.
I bought some new tips for it. and the new tips worked reeeeeeeeeally good. Taking solder like a champ and no tip erosion pretty good for a cheap iron from the store
i got two pointed tips and one chisel tip. they work really great. I tend to use the chisel tip more though.
Great video, and this explains soldering better than other videos I've watched on RUclips, which quite frankly, have made me even more hesitant about soldering.
Don't be hesitant. You'll pick it up very quickly.
Here in the USA the "Weller" brand soldering iron is a good choice for a (relatively) inexpensive iron and usually can be found for around $20 US. The only thing I'd add is that "practice makes perfect" isn't accurate.... "perfect practice makes perfect" but I'm splitting hairs ;-) Enjoy the videos and now my 12 year old son solders better than I do! I've ordered dozens of kits (suites) and in a few weeks time (usually after I've forgotten I've ordered them) they show up and makes for a fun few hours with no TV or video games involved - another win.
Little tip for people who are just getting into soldering (from experience), when you cut legs off components do NOT throw them away! Keep them because they make awesome little jumper wires!
I've just randomly ordered a bunch of these kits, along with two kit clocks. It's been over 15 years I last touched a soldering iron, so this should be fun.
The Bob Ross of electronics, love it. Happy little solder joints.
One amazing tip that nobody ever told me is to not give up on soldering. Once you have the fundamentals down and learn how to do what you want, if you plan to do plenty of soldering, get a good soldering station like a Hakko FX-888. You come to find that you don't actually still suck at soldering, it was just bad equipment. Good gear and good solder go a long way to making you a truly proficient solderer.
The only time better gear is required is when the job is difficult. Soldering a through hole kit like this can be done with the most rudimentary of tools. Which is precisely what Clive did in this video.
I was astounded a couple of years back when I was baking a simple twin BFY22 to latch a simple 12v light via a relay (To repair a 30 year old X10 experiment). Had a shit load of 22's so just wanted a relay so popped to the store. Young bloke looked at me like a I was moron - transistors can easily do 5-18v at 2A+ nowadays. What a time to be alive.
Love your comment re, electron flow : vis : conventional current flow. I am an old electronics technician (trained in the late 1960's) and yes we were taught "electron flow" who cares if it goes against the arrow on the transistor or diode symbol. It makes a hell of a lot more sense since it is after all the "Free" electrons which flow from one atom to the next
Bruce Woods To be fair, the arrow always points to a brick wall, so not like it really defies the arrow! :-)
Thanks for the video! This was my first time soldering anything today and the best part was it worked! Could not have done it without your help!
0:28 "suite" is Chinese for "LOT"
Don't you mean "chinese"?
yes
lol
Actually, it is a complicated translation. There isn't a direct translation for "kit" so they use a word that kinda means "assembly" but also can be used to refer to all-encompassing, and is used to refer to hotel rooms or apartments that have a restroom and kitchen, so the most often used word for "assembly" or "kit" comes across as "suite" because the ideas don't directly translate.
@@jacktheaviator4938 The translation to LOT makes sense as meaning an "Sssembly of parts" or a "LOT of parts" or a "Kit of parts".
It was also one of the first circuits I made, though I'd been playing around with components and electronic kits and things before, in a craft afternoon in primary school. It was from the Ladybird Book of Simple Electronics (Learnabout series). It was constructed on a plank with screws and screw cups to hold the components. I bought the components from the electronics shop in Cardiff Market. The shop was still there last time I checked!
beingmrsc.com/being_mrs_c/2013/10/ladybird-tuesday-learnabout-simple-electronics.html
It was the first circuit anyone had ever made in a craft afternoon, with the more usual things being Airfix kits and needlework. Everyone crowded round when I first tested it!
Funny thing, when I started university, in our first lab afternoon, they had a circuit to make up for people who had never soldered before, just to give a feel for it and a feel for electronic components. It was one of these, but with LEDs. Those of us who were old hands at soldering could go and play with things like the spectrum analyser (first time I'd ever seen one!) and other test equipment. A couple of the guys on the course were struggling with the soldering, so I actually knocked up one of the flip flop circuits in a couple of minutes to show them what to do. I think I still have it somewhere. I definitely still have the one I made in primary school!
Cheers for this Clive, ordered a couple of the kits and battery holders after watching your vid. Just made a working kit this morning. Need to get better helping hands though, I don't have your multi-finger dexterity. Thanks.
My daughter wants to be an electrician when she finishes school.
I'm gonna buy a few of these kits to let her practice.
Cheers Big Man (yeah, fellow Glaswegian here)
I really enjoy soldering. It's like knitting for guys !! You can drift off on some tangential thought whilst making something.
I was really glad to see this video. I had picked up a couple of kits exactly like these a while back but hadn't goteen around to trying them.
I have to say that I love
videos like this.
CPC is a superb supplier. I have used them for over 20 years for all sorts of items. Our Apple computer supplier in the 90’s charged £10 plus VAT (then 15%) for a single mouse ball. They added delivery and VAT on delivery on top of that.
It was expensive because the pupils would remove the mouse ball from the mice and the computers would not work.
CPC sold 10 mouse balls for £5 and if you spent more than £50 in the catalogue, delivery was free of charge. And it was easy to spend on their catalogue. I bought LEDs, resistors, switches, battery snaps, all sorts and more for classroom projects.
CPC are part of the Farnell group and some viewers may know them better as Element 14, esp from The Ben Heck Show.
I too have this kit,
not only can you vary the component values to alter flash rates and duty cycle,
you can make a two stage audio amplifier for very low level signals without cutting tracks,
or use a centre-tapped primary transformer for a step-up converter (at higher frequency)
Or even a low power 'royer' inverter.
Fun PCBs
"Just start soldering" i wish i i had that advice when i first wanted to learn how to solder.
But stupidly enough, i asked my father.
He came up with completely weird and stupid soldering exercises.
Like placing a huge blob of solder (size of a chewed bubble gum) onto a wooden board. And have me reflow it with a 10 Watt soldering Iron...
I gave up at some point and called it quits.
A decade later, i learned how to do it. Because i needed to to fix a guitars wiring and had no money to have it done.
I borrowed a soldering iron and solder from a friend. He told me "heat up the wire, and then touch it with the solder, don't heat it on the soldering iron. And don't try to carry it over"
That was all the advice i needed to fix that guitar.
Later i found that if i slighty touch the soldering iron with the solder, so a small amount starts to melt, it will transfer heat to the parts much faster.
And that was basically the only things i learned.
Everything else is just routine. Getting used to it, and figure out which tip works best for you.
I personally use only chisel tips unless its something really fine.
Solder has the funny characteristic of flowing towards heat. So if you put solder right on an iron tip it won't want to go anywhere else. But heating the wire then feeding solder on the wire the solder will flow on the wire.
If there's anything I learned about soldering that really got me moving, it was Louis Rossmann's method of repairing PCBs. Basically, don't be embarrassed to use separate flux as a sort of training wheels.
I was soldering by the time I was 8 years old at at 10 rewording my bedroom outlets
@@richlaue highly doubt that
@@user-yw8sr3uj1w and why do you say that?
I could also recommend one of those cheap component testers from China. You can use it to test the parts before installing them so you know their value and that they at least worked before being installed. They're also great for confirming LED polarity, I get bulk packs of LED's also from China and quite a few are guaranteed to not follow any visual pattern for determining polarity. Those little component testers are one of the best things you could ever get, I think some are in kit form so there's that too.
the best kit i got off of ebay has to be the component checker which tests everything except ic's well worth £10.
This was one of the first projects I purchased to build for practice. It turned out quite well considering at the time I was using a butane soldering iron that got extremely hot, in fact on subsequent projects I managed to burn off several soldering pads, giving me practice at scraping off the solder protect and making a spot to connect leads. My next iron was a USB, then another Butane, and at long last I found a cheap aqua blue soldering iron with easily replaceable tips, and a tiny wheel that had numbers on it to tell me the approximate temp. It has been a Godsend, and after purchasing that iron, and a large spool of American Solder Rosin Core Solder Wire in 0,08mm size made by TMI I have been soldering like a professional. Of course I have built dozens of different kits, I have all sorts of clocks and flashing lights, FM radio transmitters. I have been having a blast soldering up projects, I do my soldering while reclined in my electric recliner, and occasionally a drop of solder makes it's way to my shirts, so now I have a drawer my wife calls my soldering shirts, which I try to wear on days when my soldering iron is going to be put into play, which can be almost any day.
Since you mentioned this, I always use solder which has no flux in it. Not so sure if I'm already in any hell, but I like soldering so far. And your videos I like too.
This reminds me , my very 1st electronic project in 1982.Clive has used every 5 fingers in his left hand in the most efficient way according to the present job.
Watching up close I found myself blowing the smoke away. 30 years of soldering, old habits. All that lead, delicious!
Re direction of electrons, my first landrover, was positive earth, something not seen these days, it was from the mid 60's & obviously then the debate was raging, didn't cause any issues apart from i couldn't fit a stereo as they were all negative earth.
I could've changed it & added an alternator instead of the dynamo,but I liked the novelty, & I sold it after a couple of years...for a 24volt ex military radio version landrover...a glutton for punishment...
I bought a 1$ soldering iron from ebay and I opened it up to see what's inside and basically it's a miracle I'm still alive
+Patrik Banek Yup. I think I may have featured that iron in a video. Twisted wires with no strain relief.
oh yeah, found the video, that's the one.
Keep uploading good stuff (and more sex toys lol)!
Since watching Clive for the last few years, my soldering has definitely come a long way, and part of that reason was finding these cheap little kits.
I love to hear Flux and Capacitor in one sentence.
sadly the opportunity to say ARRRSE-table multivibrator seems to have been missed
I'll tell Marty...Thanks!
Great video as usual. From my own mistakes I've started ordering extra kits - normally wrecking the pads on some of the cheaper kits so it's handy to have spares.
good starter video! will get my grandson to watch! he loves building kits.
Just thought i'd say thank you for the consistently entertaining/interesting/informative videos. Love your work Clive.
Until you have developed lots of skill, using a small vice / 'helping-hands' / or something improvised with spring clamps and or vise grips to hold the workpiece steady makes the task easier.
Wearing watchmaker magnifying specs or using a combined lamp and magnifying glass, helps too.
As others have said before, Clive is a great teacher. Imagine how much more fun school would be if he could be replicated.
I like your channel because unlike other people you explain everything for us simpletons (btw I am 15 and live is Australia so I know nothing about electronics)
> I am 15 and live is Australia so I know nothing about electronics)
I'd think Deve Jones (eevblog) might have opinions on the implied causality... :-)
Soldering is so therapeutic :)
Watching Big Clive videos is even more therapeutic:)
Agreed!
Even better, soldering whilst watching Big Clive videos in the background! :D
Master Mind you really should check out Louis's rossmann channel if you found this therapeutic (which I do).
Thanks bule bule! I'll check it out :)
As long as you don't sniff too much of the flux fumes.
But then again......
More kits please! Relaxing watching some soldering
The first circuit I made was from a magazine called Everyday Electronics and it had schematic and design to build on Veroboard it used a 555 timer IC and it didn't work as you can imagine I was disappointed, several years later I moved house and found this project and having learned a lot over the intervening years I reinvestigated this circuit and found that I had put an electrolytic capacitor in the wrong way round I corrected this problem and resoldered the connections ( I wasn't very good at the time) and lo and behold it worked.
Clive, always love your videos Brother. For the newbies though you should show how to do this using a heatsink clip or hemostats to protect thermally sensitive components. Also ground straps for static sensitive ICs would be nice. One other comment. I totally agree with your idea that lead based solder flows better.... I did a lot of super tiny PLCC work right after ROHS came in to play.... and I must admit I kept a roll of PB hidden in my desk for tough jobs. one thing... you mention often that lead based solder isn't toxic... that's both correct and incorrect... in a typical soldering situation you don't get anywhere near high enough temps to vaporise the lead... so no lead fumes. the biggest issue with going to lead free is to eliminate lead in the waste stream. tonnes of PC boards getting buried in landfills and water leaching through and then into the ground water is a bad thing. keep that in mind.
Clive, you should save all your lead clippings and send them to Julian. That would be an exciting "Post Bag"! Although, the cost would be exorbitant, from the Isle. He would love it, though. :-)
im getting back into electronics after learning a ton as a kiddo and building BEAM robots and stuff. Funny enough, this exact multivibrator circuit was the first one i tried to get my feet wet again. Except i didnt order a kit, i designed and etched a tiny PCB like that and populated it with leftover parts from my previous childhood experiments. lol
Multi Vibrator?
*Clive you planning on making a "personal massager?*
There is a model which uses multivibrator circuit as a way to generate pulses to motors.
It's an astable multivibrator. For our six week course in basic electronics when I went through Air Force Technical Training, this was the crowning achievement to our hard study. We applied our RC time-constants and circuit flow to a simple circuit that we soldered together. If the circuit didn't work, we got to troubleshoot it. Fun times!
Redefining the way we think about the Relaxation Oscillator.
My first kit was DSO128 Oscilloscope, and it works :D
I was just listening while cooking and several times heard kids instead of kits.
At first I was thinking it‘s about learning kids how to solder. 😅
But finally I got it.
BTW, I had a Kosmos Elektronik Box 50y ago, a kind of early breadboard, and was creating a simulation of the sound of my Guinea pig with 2 such multivibrators cascaded. Obviously no LED (already invented, but unaffordable), but a speaker output and much smaller caps in the second stage.
Not that I did know too much about why it did what. 😎
As usual, another segment filled with enjoyment! Many thanks!
LED's + and -. Go on, confuse everybody by talking about cathode and anode etc xD Very good video Clive, maybe you could do more of this kind of thing. learning electronics by doing is probably the best method, and watching how it should be done must follow a close second.
Here in the US, we used to have an electronics place called Heathkit. They went out of business in the early 90s.
They used to have the most awesome electronic kits!
I built a dual trace oscilloscope, as well as many other smaller kits. I really miss them...
I learned to program microcontrollers in HEX on an old Heathkit computer.
I miss them as well - some of my earliest electronics memories were with my Dad and a photocell lamp controller which I promptly turned into a disco strobe ;-) I remember the kits hanging on the wall and frequently asked for an advance on my allowance to procure them. The shop was just down the road from a HiFi (stereo) shop where they sold Sinclair 1000's in kit form for $150 - those days were awesome but we're probably in the golden age of electronics as a hobby - RUclips makes a lot possible that would have been gleaned through books like "Getting Started in Electronics" or through getting your Technician Amateur Radio License and letting the smoke out repeatedly....
So many fond memories!
What killed Heathkit was when Zenith bought them out and promptly changed all the stores into home computer outlets.
The last few times I went in they'd done away with all the smaller kits, and only had computer kits, as well as Zenith TV kits.
I know this is going to sound dumb, but I miss Radio Shack, LOL! I always thought of Radio Shack as the whore to electronics tech. They sold everything at a bloated price, and the products were marginal at best, but they did in a pinch... LOL!
Don't get me wrong, they had some awesome stuff, like the Optimus bookshelf speakers, and they had some nice short wave radios bac in the day, but they were made by other manufacturers, and had the Radio Shack tag put on them, at a huge markup.
Pretty much all their radio stuff was made by Uniden, LOL!
There's one electronics store left where I live. It's family owned and has been in business for 60 years.
It'll be a very sad day when it closes...
Meh we have the Internet today. I don't miss the local electronics shops. Selection was low, and prices were high. Today I get much more for less.
Techs: Electron flow.
Engineers: Conventional current flow.
I've done/been both. Frankly, I find conventional easier. It's easier to trace current paths from B+ to ground then trying to follow all the ground points looking for B+. It also means that the diode and transistor symbols point the way the way that they work rather then "opposite".
As a beginner, I have problems with the circuit hole metal coming away from the board, possibly because of overheating., rather than a cheap board in these small kits. like everything else. I suppose Practice makes perfect. Thank you for another great video.
The frosty situation comes from moving the parts before the solder solidifies. If it's moved when in the "slushy" state, it will make a "cold" solder joint that might work for a bit but is likely to fail eventually. I've fixed many an electrical joint by redoing cold solder joints. My dad taught me to solder and always stressed having a good physical connection as the basis of a good electrical connection. Fingers are notorious for moving around, you'd be better off with tape, blu-tac, alligator clips, even bending the leads of the components outward to old the component firmly.
I’m pretty new to soldering and videos like this are very helpful. Luckily i own a soldering station which i can adjust the temperature and have different sizes of tips which makes it easier to solder
it is possible to carry solder to the pad on the tip of the iron if you pre-flux the pad and component. Pre-fluxing is not a bad idea in any event, as it helps remove whatever oxidization there might be on the components themselves, especially if the components have been sitting on a shelf for an extended period of time.
From a plumbing point of view, when soldering (AKA sweating) copper pipes, you can never over-use flux on the pipes. Under-use, however, will always guarantee a bad connection and result in leaks.
Terrific video Clive. Watching your channel has really sparked my interest in electronics (sorry for the pun) and I've been putting together a number of kits starting with a simple flasher kit and working up. I've been putting together kits by a company called Velleman (other kits suppliers are available) and I'd love to see you do something with one of them. My soldering technique has improved quite a bit and the last kit I put together had 60 LEDs, and my kids now have flashing stars and hearts. I'd love to see more on your channel deals with how stuff works.
I like that soldering iron stand, it has a bit of weight to it so it doesn't move around when you're trying to clean your tip.
This was the first transistor circuit I built back in 1974 or so, when red LEDs just became cheap. I was about 12 years old.
I worked in commercial TV repair back in the '90s. RCA sold thousand upon thousands of commercial TV sets to hospitals that, I believe, were some of the first that had boards that were Robot Soldered. The robot sucked at it's job and was soldering roughly half the pad and lead. After a few heat cycles the solder would separate and the set would malfunction. I MUST have soldered a thousand boards, roughly 40 points on each board. I got pretty good at it after that. The main thing to remember is to get in and out quickly. It's VERY easy to overheat a joint and separate the pad from the board. And THAT creates a big problem.
Guy Fawkes It really is not that easy to separate the pad from the circuit board when using modern circuit boards unless your soldering iron temperature is much too high or you are applying considerable lateral pressure to the board. It was much more of a concern in the past, and when repairing vintage gear, due to less optimized adhesives of the time and the use of what were often unregulated high wattage soldering irons and guns which can run very hot. However, those risks were far greater during rework in which the original joint must first be desoldered, repairs made, then resoldered as that was typically where greater temperatures, durations, and stress were involved and the board and pads were no longer virgin, increasing the risk considerably.
Nowadays one generally has to really abuse the circuit board to lift off a typical pad, especially one of the dimensions typical in 0.1" through-hole components. You do have to be careful where especially fine traces and pads are in use, but for the typical beginner through-hole project with generous sized traces and pads such is generally not an issue, at least not until the beginner tries to rework things to fix something and pulls up a pad because they yanked hard on a component that was still partially soldered to the pad because they did not have proper rework gear (nobody does in the beginning) and got into a rush without taking the time to either fully clear the joint of solder or, alternately, pull the component lead while keeping the remaining solder melted (and possibly sacrifice the component, if need be) so as to avoid unnecessary stress.
So those who want to start out do not need to be overly concerned about lifting pads when assembling typical through-hole kits of modern vintage. But it is something to be aware of when reworking/repairing older gear or not being sufficiently careful when trying to desolder components to make repairs.
For more practice, I recommend the “Christmas tree LED DIY”-kit. That's two PCBs with each a 18 LED three-phase-multivibrator. I got it for roughly the price of ten multivibrators. The battery holder and a USB cable are included.
I like how you hold a circuit board and solder all with one hand. That takes skill.
In the US, we have a bunch of different regulatory agencies for circuits and consumer products. The closest equivalent to the CE is the UL (formerly called the Underwriters Lab but now their name is just UL) which certifies that electronics are safe to plug in and use. Some things also require FCC certification, that ensures that it neither causes nor is affected by RFI.