My First Soldering Job

I think I did this alright, Let me know if I fucked it up lol.

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Look’s good to me!

DONT DO IT DONT DO IT. IT GONNA EXPLODE jk all good!

Very clean nice job

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Looks great for a first soldering job! I probably would have tried to insert the heat shrink into the connector a little more on the very top connector in the photo (to aid against any possible shorting-out) but apart from that very good dude!

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Very true, ill have to do that next time

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Can’t really comment on the soldering since you already have heatshrink on there which looks ok! As long as you had enough solder in your joints so that you couldn’t tell individual strands on your wire, you should be solid

Agree with PXSS, You can’t judge a solder joint by its cover…

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Very true, kinda too late lol

The basic trick to soldering is making sure that both pieces of metal you are joining are hot enough to melt the solder in to it. Don’t just melt a bunch of solder on your iron and drip it onto the joint.Failures usually occur because one end of your joint was too cold to melt the solder on to it. One way to check a solder joint is by giving it a tug. It should be solid. If it pops apart, the solder was just laying on top of the metal due to lack of heat in that piece of metal when soldering. Make sure to heat up both pieces of metal and the solder will melt when touched to the joint. As a beginner I was told not to touch the solder to the iron.(Even though it does initially help the joint heat up faster, if you melt a drop of solder on to the end of the iron and hold it to the joint. Beginners ignore this bit.) It is also advisable to load up the end of the wire or connector with solder before trying to attach them. Like pre-loading the end with solder. Also, dont forget that heat shrink! Sometimes I will get to the end of a solder joint and realize I left the heat shrink off the wire. Doh! Anyways. Just a some soldering tips I learned.

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Am I the only one who feels like this should be constructively criticized?

(1) possibly too big (2) knowing no way of how decent the actual soldering went. you could’ve glued it but we’d never know because its covered in heat shrink. (3) is that a kitchen counter? why are you putting solder-jobs around food areas? (4) whats your maturity level? how much positive reinforcement feedback do you need? And how will it actually benefit mankind?

This post isn’t meant to be offensive; just overly critical.

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@WrinklyWink I believe your post really wasn’t necessary

  1. I did the measurements it is fine
  2. Obviously you can’t see the actual soldering due to the heatsink, this was really just about the loop key and maybe some tips going forward.
  3. Yes it is, I soldered in the workshop but was near the kitchen when I thought to take the pic, it was a nice black background so I chose it.
  4. I don’t even know where you are going with this. I love constructive criticism, that helps everyone, but there is no need to be rude about it.
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I also heat shrink a second tube over the whole connector just to be extra anal.

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I would be rude to you, there are some carcinogens in solder and wire silicone, so I will keep my health and post shitty pictures, which I will seeing as my parts are all here.

what is “extra anal?” is that a south park pun?

Being anal simply means things have to be done in a specific way - personal preference to the max basically! I’m the same, OCD you might say :slight_smile:

One thought on the Loopkey itself :

I would suggest just to bridge the connectors directly instead of the “long” wire…

Cheers Jenso

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Why is this necessary?

Although the tone is wrong, they do have point. Make sure you use leadfree solder, wash your hands and face after soldering, solder in a well ventilated room, get a helping hands with a fan attachment or use a small usb fan to blow fumes away from yourself and never place stuff where you or others eat, specially if you have children or are planning to.

I always keep hand sanitizer at my station just in case I need to walk away for a minute or two. You never know who’s hand you’re going to shake or whose mouse and keyboard you’re going to use

I use only solder with lead but I have a spool that dispenses it so I dont have to touch the lead, even though lead is harmless if its not on skin with a mucous membrane