Solder Practice Board and 5V Power Supply

1/10/2011

Solder Practice Board
Our first soldering exercise begins with a solder practice board where we will install resistors, ceramic, electrolytic and monolithic capacitors, diodes, LED lights by solder joints.

First, we set the components flat on the board with the leads bent outwards to ease our soldering job.

Next, we apply flux liberally onto the leads and board; add solder between the tip of the soldering iron and lead, covering the pad completely with a shiny solder cone on top. We then cut off the excess leads, protruding from the board.

I made the mistake of adding too much solder to one of the joints, making one of the slots unusable.


5V Power Supply
Before we begin making the power supply for our bread board, we will make a hoop by practicing wire splices.

Cut part of the plastic off the wire; add flux, and a little bit of solder; then repeat for a second wire. Bring both wire into parallel contact, where both wires have optimal surface area contact between each other; solder the joint; add shrink wrap; and heat the shrink wrap. Now, we are ready for the power supply.

Cut the plug; split the positive wire from the negative wire and cut a small chunk of insulation off the wire so we can begin soldering; add flux and solder to each wire; prepare the two-lead connector with flux and solder as well; prepare shrink wrap before making connection; solder each joint briefly to avoid the leads from burning the plastic; heat the shrink wrap, completing the joint.

We finish by testing the strength of the connection and polarity of the wires to insure we have a reliable power supply for our bread board.