Soldering to a PC board can be tricky: Too much heat can make the copper trace lift right off the board substrate. Use a soldering pencil rated at 15-25 watts, no more. (Watch the video; story ...

The basic metallurgy of solder. How to make a solder joint. How to repair a circuit board. The vintageTEK museum is a geek’s paradise to tour if visiting the Portland, Oregon area. The museum has ...

Improves wetting: Flux helps molten solder flow smoothly (or “wet”) across the surfaces, promoting even coverage and a strong ...

It’s been a while since we’ve had a fresh How-To on the Hack-A-Day, and frankly we’ve missed them. To get things rolling, [Eliot] and I wanted to build a good knowledge base to help you hack your own ...

The Ball Grid Array, or BGA package is no longer the exclusive preserve of large, complex chips on computer motherboards: today even simple microcontrollers are available with those little solder ...

At some stage you will have to work with surface-mount devices (SMDs) and solder them by hand. You can wait until you are forced to learn, or you can leap into the fray with gusto and abandon. At some ...