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masukomi @masukomi@connectified.com
1y
I’m going to call this well done for my first time soldering on tiny circuit boards.

It’s kind of funny how the first one is crap and they very visibly get better in the order I soldered them.

(Second photo for scale)
A tiny circuit board with four wires soldered to it. It is being held up by an alligator clip with rubber tips.
A photograph of me holding the circuit board in a mylar bag. The board is barely larger than my thumbnail.
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masukomi @masukomi@connectified.com
1y
A Boxelder bug kept an eye on me to make sure i I wasn’t doing anything stupid while I soldered
Photograph of a Boxelder bug on a cutting mat. It is approximately half an inch long.
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masukomi @masukomi@connectified.com
1y
It is successfully recognized by my computer! So I didn’t mess anything up too badly. Now I just have to attach the other circuit board.
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masukomi @masukomi@connectified.com
1y
Good news, bad news. Good news is I think I did a good job with the soldering. Bad news is that it is no longer recognized by the computer.

Maybe good news is that this happened when I was doing it on the breadboard too. I thought it was just poor connections plus inexperience.

I’m not really looking forward to to debugging this, because I have absolutely no clue how.
A close-up of a tiny circuit board with a CO2 sensor. There are 4 wires soldered onto it, and I think the joints are pretty damn good for a beginner.
An ESP32-C6 circuit board with four wires soldered to it. Two of the solder joints are decent. Two of them are pretty ugly.
A photograph of the set up I am using in order to see what I am doing. There is a stand with flexible, arms that end in alligator clips that is holding one of the circuit ports. Above that is a magnifying glass, suspended by another arm. Above, that is a large ring light that I am looking through.
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pathetic piss kitten @kitten@elizabeth.cat
1y
@masukomi looks nice! do you want a couple tips?
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masukomi @masukomi@connectified.com
1y
@kitten hell yes. I have no clue what i’m doing.
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pathetic piss kitten @kitten@elizabeth.cat
1y
@masukomi
- D4 on the ESP32 looks perfect, it should be your target. GND similarly.
- the pins on the sensor feel like they could use a little bit more tin
- 3V3 in the board could use a touch-up (no more tin, just touching what it's already there with the iron for it to shape and bond better)
- I don't see any flux on your workspace, it makes things a lot easier

also, if you want to just practice, you can get some stripboards and some cheap components (capacitors, resistors, etc)
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pathetic piss kitten @kitten@elizabeth.cat
1y
@masukomi oh this is literally your first time soldering?

then yes, you'd probably thank practicing with a stripboard, if anything just to get used to how the tin flows, or how to fix the different fuck-ups that always happen (too much tin, too little tin, too cold iron, etc)
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masukomi @masukomi@connectified.com
1y
@kitten yes. Well first time soldering anything on a board. And the last time was something totally imprecise decades ago.

I really have no idea what i’m doing. Just stumbling through a “simple” project.
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