GCN Can you tell me where my soldering went wrong?

[xXDungeon_CrawlerXx]

This looks veeeery bad...
Where's the "I do tiny soldering"-Guy when we need him?

 

[Zaide]

Geez guys, way to just be completely savage to this poor guy.

It looks like others have already pointed out the issues, but before you try to fix it you may want to look at this for some pointers: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems

 

[Uiaad]

Soldering has a technique to it throwing a blob of solder on the iron and ferrying it across to the pad and then trying to shape the blob where you want it ( which is the technique i believe you have used here ) will not work

If you want to learn i would suggest you watch this guy not only is he damn good guy he's also damn good at what he does

​

 

[Nerdtendo]

Geez guys, way to just be completely savage to this poor guy.

It looks like others have already pointed out the issues, but before you try to fix it you may want to look at this for some pointers: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems

Don't worry about it, I've got tough enough skin. Thanks for the article though.

Soldering has a technique to it throwing a blob of solder on the iron and ferrying it across to the pad and then trying to shape the blob where you want it ( which is the technique i believe you have used here ) will not work

If you want to learn i would suggest you watch this guy not only is he damn good guy he's also damn good at what he does

​

Thanks for the video

 

[Uiaad]

@Nerdtendo no matter what people tell you, we have all made mistakes when beginning to solder. If you need any further tips or ways to practice then my pm box is open to you

 

[FAST6191]

Geez guys, way to just be completely savage to this poor guy.

It looks like others have already pointed out the issues, but before you try to fix it you may want to look at this for some pointers: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems

There is a difference between a cold joint or two, maybe an accidental short or a neglected solder point and that though.

Equally I have never really gone in for the say something positive and then do criticisms thing; not sure what benefit it has other than to people that expect it.

 

[Nerdtendo]

@Nerdtendo no matter what people tell you, we have all made mistakes when beginning to solder. If you need any further tips or ways to practice then my pm box is open to you

Thanks, I'll remember that if (when) I have more issues. Eventually I'll get it right. Until then, I guess I'll hack my Wii u to play GameCube backups

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Thanks, I'll remember that if (when) I have more issues. Eventually I'll get it right. Until then, I guess I'll hack my Wii u to play GameCube backups

Ya installing a modchip (even a more basic one like Xenogc ) is less than ideal for a first soldering project.

To the people giving the OP crap, just chill out, we all make mistakes soldering (especially in the beginning). You can' learn anything without making some levels of mistakes either.

@Nerdtendo as others have suggested, I recommend before trying something like this again, practice soldering on some junk equipment first, that way if you mess up, it doesn' matter.

Also 400 Celsius is way to high for something like this. 500-600 Fahrenheit is plenty (not sure exactly how that works out in Celsius when converted, but I'm sure it' less than 400).

 

[munchluxe63]

You could use a heat gun, but a soldering iron is probably better for this.

Soldering iron:

Spoiler

• Heat the soldering iron to around 300 degrees C
• Apply flux to the pads
• Plate the pads with a minimum amount of solder (lead-based is your friend; at least 40% lead)
• Put the smaller PCB in place
• Fix the smaller PCB onto the larger one with a little bit of hot glue (or kapton tape if you have it) at the correct position/angle
• Heat a pad on the larger PCB with the soldering iron tip
• Apply a little bit of solder to the pad, not the soldering iron (Just enough to make a connection)
• Repeat the last two steps for each pad
• You can test continuity with a multimeter if you mark down some test points beforehand

Heat gun:

Spoiler

• You will want a hot air rework station, not a heat gun
• Flux, maybe?
• Fix the smaller PCB in place with something that won't melt (like kapton tape)
• Apply solder paste where it's needed (again, lead is your friend)
• Crank up the air and heat the element to 200~250 degrees C
• Heat the general area of the PCB for a minute or so at a distance of 5 cm or so in a circular motion
• Turn the element up to 300 degrees C
• Same strategy but a bit closer, stop once the solder has melted and formed nice joints
• You can focus on a single spot for a second or two, but probably not much longer
• Once you're done, keep the air at maximum and turn the heating element down to zero
• Once the fan shuts off, you can power it down.
• Test continuity if you want to

 

[Mikemk]

You could use a heat gun, but a soldering iron is probably better for this.

Soldering iron:

Spoiler

• Heat the soldering iron to around 300 degrees C
• Apply flux to the pads
• Plate the pads with a minimum amount of solder (lead-based is your friend; at least 40% lead)
• Put the smaller PCB in place
• Fix the smaller PCB onto the larger one with a little bit of hot glue (or kapton tape if you have it) at the correct position/angle
• Heat a pad on the larger PCB with the soldering iron tip
• Apply a little bit of solder to the pad, not the soldering iron (Just enough to make a connection)
• Repeat the last two steps for each pad
• You can test continuity with a multimeter if you mark down some test points beforehand

Heat gun:

Spoiler

• You will want a hot air rework station, not a heat gun
• Flux, maybe?
• Fix the smaller PCB in place with something that won't melt (like kapton tape)
• Apply solder paste where it's needed (again, lead is your friend)
• Crank up the air and heat the element to 200~250 degrees C
• Heat the general area of the PCB for a minute or so at a distance of 5 cm or so in a circular motion
• Turn the element up to 300 degrees C
• Same strategy but a bit closer, stop once the solder has melted and formed nice joints
• You can focus on a single spot for a second or two, but probably not much longer
• Once you're done, keep the air at maximum and turn the heating element down to zero
• Once the fan shuts off, you can power it down.
• Test continuity if you want to

The heat gun suggestion was for removing the botched solder job, not for installing.

 

[ov3rkill]

So far, this is what I found. It looks like you used too much heat on your iron. Hence, the charcoal burnt look on the PCB, lifted pads, and burnt traces.

When properly installed, it should look something like the pic below,

 

[brickmii82]

There’s another broken trace under the B in STBY. I don’t think that’s dirt.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

You're best bet @Nerdtendo would be to try and remove the chip (using a heat gun), then cleaning up underneath (gcn motherboard) and hoping the gamecube still works. That chip is definitely toast though unfortunately....

 

[AmandaRose]

@Nerdtendo Also 400 Celsius is way to high for something like this. 500-600 Fahrenheit is plenty (not sure exactly how that works out in Celsius when converted, but I'm sure it' less than 400).

500 Fahrenheit works out at exactly 260 Celsius. 600 Fahrenheit is 315.556 Celsius. The OP soldiered at 400 Celsius which is 752 Fahrenheit which is way to hot for the task at hand.