January 25, 2023 - Soldering

Foundation of a circut

• Copper face - conductive
• Soldermask - green layer
• Paper (FR1) or carbon fiber (FR4) substrate middle layer

• Silkscreened labels

• Traces / Tracks - specific conductive paths linking components
• Pads - Where traces end
• Through-hole (Th / Pth) - components are soldered to back of board
• Via - plated hole that transfers from face plate to back plate

Soldering basics

• Tining - Prepping the iron with a drop of solder
• Flux - eases process, removes oxide film from surface of metals
• Soldering paste works differently than spool of solder
• Clean > Tin > Heat wire/component > Apply solder to heated component > Clean
• Solder Sucker or De-soldering Braid are used to remove solder

Wire

• Smaller guage numbers denote larger wires
• Stranded wire tends to work better for things that move, solid wire can snap