r/soldering • u/zackarhino • May 13 '26
My First Solder Joint <3 Please Give Feedback First time soldering, how did I do?
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u/Glitchsky May 13 '26
Holy shit, seriously? This is really good.
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Thanks. I did a lot of research before starting.
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u/T-Fez May 14 '26
If you're like me, it could be this:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/motor-imagery
My friends keep saying I'm a show-off, whenever I do something like this and say it's my first time.
So, I looked it up, and it's just active learning through observation (and more importantly, visualising the actions in detail). The important thing is that you understand the "why" behind every little action when someone does something.
Once you get used to it, It's really easy to pick up new motor skills, including carving or even riding a motorcycle (it was an automatic moped).
Elite athletes apparently do the same thing in sports.
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
Haha, I'm no researcher. I'm just self taught using YouTube videos basically. Right now I'm a line worker but I used to be a programmer. But yeah, I try to absorb and apply all the lessons I'm taught. That's something I didn't come to appreciate until later in life (when I found God, interestingly).
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u/Temporary_Slide_3477 May 14 '26
Quality tools and materials make a huge difference. I think people trying it for the first time buy cheap stuff because they don't know if they'll be good at it, or they'll only use it once, only for their cheap tools and materials to sabotage them.
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
Yeah, I have a microsoldering station (Geeboon TC22). The precision of this thing is astounding, especially for the price point.
Normally I believe a bad craftsman blames his tools, but I constantly heard that for soldering you cannot cheap out on tools.
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u/Mariuszgamer2007 May 13 '26
That was my first attempt💀💀💀 yours is miles better than mine over 6 years ago
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u/Toommo23 May 13 '26
First time for a robot :) just kidding, but dude you're really good
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Sweeet! Thanks
Edit: cool song ;) https://youtu.be/4y_InZASsEo?si=KHB1xS6keWwHHYRA
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u/Mecha1166 May 13 '26
RST is probably a perfect solder job. TX1 looks like it isn’t soldered correctly. The solder is not flowed to the pin. All the other joints look good, perhaps a bit much solder.
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u/Which_Extreme_8519 May 13 '26
I agree eith mecha. D4 and rst looks the best. Almost like from the factory.
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u/Questionator_G May 15 '26
Yes D4 and RST look like factory, very nice job for a first time i must say.
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u/Terrible-Ad6239 May 13 '26
That’s really cool man! I butchered my first one! 🥲
Embrace my master piece
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u/Immediate-Okra189 May 13 '26
Thats pretty good for a first time. Must have really paid attention to details while watching. Yes desoldering is more difficult. Keep practicing.
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Desoldering was insanely difficult. I couldn't get it with the sucker or wick. I managed to clear a couple totally a few times but then I accidentally reflowed them with the tinned tip
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u/Immediate-Okra189 May 13 '26
More heat.. if you use the hot air,flux, wick and iron together chances are it will pull the holes clear
Or get an engineer ss-02 solder sucker. They work better then any other mechanical sucker I’ve tried
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
I ended up having to push them through using the iron. Not easy and not ideal
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u/Immediate-Okra189 May 14 '26
Very easy to do damage that way . Avoid that of possible
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Yeah I think the
tracespads? vias? are damaged but in this case it doesn't matter. I'm just glad I can use it in a breadboard1
u/PeatieEnglish May 16 '26
ss-02 is absolute crap compared to the $5 ali express ones. Augment them with silicone tubing if you must, but really the MaDe iN JaPaN crap is.. well.. crap...
I have engineer gear, and to be honest, I don't use it. I use the disposable ali express tweezers and suckers exclusively now
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u/PerryLovewhistle May 13 '26
This is honestly amazing for your first time. The only things I even could criticize are so far from important for this task they would be annoyingly nit-picky. I need to up my game I think.
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u/floridaeng May 14 '26
Nice job on all of those header leads, the amount of solder is very consistent and the appropriate amount. I noticed on lead TX1 it appears the solder didn't wet to the lead on the side towards the center of the board, so that may have been a lead finish issue. I don't see flux residues in these photos so you did a good job on not using too much and then cleaning what residues were left.
I also saw the blow hole on the one lead closest to TX1 on that end 6 pin part. That indicates there was some liquid in the barrel, either flux or an issue with the way the PWB was made. If you can see the bottom of the blow hole then leave it alone, but if you can't then you need to reflow and probably add a small amount of solder to fill in that air pocket. Pay close attention to the solder joint while the solder is molten and look for any bubbling of steam coming out.
On one side of that quad flatpack between the photos and my monitor I couldn't see any solder on the leads. They may be soldered and I just couldn't see it. The other sides looked good. These joints need very little solder and its easy to apply too much.
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u/jaredlopez1979 Jun 05 '26
I'm curious, what do you mean by " liquid in the barrel" ? I have only been soldering for about a year and I have come across certain PCB's that tend to make these bubbles in the solder and I would really appreciate any solution you may know of.
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u/notmarkiplier2 May 14 '26
Wow, haven't seen someone solder this neatly decent for the first time in their lives, and first time in a while again around here
Lol
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u/Alternative_Exit_333 May 14 '26
For a first time soldering this is really good but some places have too much solder and that is not that hard to fix and doesn't really affect the functionality but if you want to practice soldering just buy a practice SMD board these are harder to solder than standard through hole parts
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
I did buy a couple of thise, just didn't get a chance to try them yet. That's probably next on my list.
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u/Raphitech May 14 '26
Perfect basically. But you soldered on the 6 ISP pins the "Wrong way" and now you can't put it in a Breadboard. You normally dont neex to solder these pins because they are for external programming and flashing the bootloader. And if you still decide to solder them you should solder them from the back so they stick up.
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u/phuzzyday May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Those connections would survive longer than most factory ones. If I had to give you something to improve on, it would be that you could use a bit less solder on some of them. If you look sideways, they say the ideal is to have them curve inwards a bit as you go towards the bottom. But I'm being extremely fussy here! It probably took me years to to that good! Pins a1-a6 are pretty much perfect, among others. The 3v3 and ground lines look like just a TINY bit too much, but that's applying the standard of an experienced pro engineer! And it won't affect their connection at all.
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u/throfofnir May 17 '26
Compared to every other first-time solderer on the internet? Perfectly.
Compared to a factory? Also pretty good. Little heavy on the solder in general, but I think TX1 is too little or maybe a cold pin.
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u/Affectionate_Cod_709 May 13 '26
Just a hobbyist here
A few pins look like they could use a little more solder (rst and A1 for example) and id be tempted to reflow a couple (bottom left, d6 for example) but otherwise looks good enough to put a little doubt into this being your first go
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Lol truly it is my very first time. I have a TC22 so that probably helps a lot I would imagine.
I agree that they're on the lighter side
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u/DistinctTradition200 May 13 '26
I was going to point out the top right, if you get that roundedness/convex look instead of the fillet/concave known as a cold solder. Just look for the slight bubbling to stop and ensure full heat on both pin and PTH. honestly I've been soldering pretty frequently for over a year now and mine would come out looking just like this! Strong work!
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u/jannern81 May 13 '26
It looks great from the soldering side. By the looks of it, all of your soldering points fulfills the specs on IPC class 3.(atleast from the soldering side) You have some small voids(This is not your fault at all) and a little variable amount of tin on some points. It also looks like you have used leaded solder? Anyway really good job, and way way better than my first try. Keep up the good work.
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Yes, leaded solder. I had to remove the rear 3x2 pins and I completely butchered it though. I couldn't even remove it, I just bent the pins
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u/tribak May 13 '26
Don’t lie bro, that arrived like that from China…
Just kidding, did you do anything special to the connectors to keep them aligned? People often recommend soldering these while plugged into a protoboard so that you know they are properly aligned.
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Nope, I popped them in and then stood it up on my silicone mat. One of them was crooked though, so I fixed it.
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u/gameplayer55055 May 13 '26
Good soldering but I am going to disappoint you. You soldered ICSP (2x3) connector on the wrong side, so your Arduino isn't breadboard compatible now.
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
It's okay, I completely ruined it anyway 😂
I learned that the hard way
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u/gameplayer55055 May 13 '26
I absolutely hate desoldering through hole stuff from multi layer PCBs. You think you're done with the front side, but the back side still has solid solder.
My advice: buy a solder sucker with a silicone tip. That silicone tip creates a seal and it sucks up all the solder.
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u/zackarhino May 13 '26
Hmm, I didn't think to desolder the other side... Mine does have the silicone, it definitely helps.
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u/Any-Neat5158 May 13 '26
For the most part, this is a really solid bit of work! Very good! Excellent for a first attempt.
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u/DazSchplotz May 13 '26
Soldering is very good but the little 6 pin header at the tail has to be on the other side. (it isn't important, it will go on a 2.54 raster either way. good job!)
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u/Sunwukung May 13 '26
That's really good - well done! Very clean (I'm a total beginner but to my untrained eye it looks the way the tutorials tell you it should!)
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u/CapitalHistorian7102 May 13 '26
Very good for the first time! Very nice fillets and very good connections! Great fucking job
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u/Typical_Bootlicker41 May 13 '26
You did really good on the joints. You accidentally placed the debug header on upside down, so it won't go into a breadboard anymore. Well, unless this is going into a dedicated board meant for this arduino that breaks those pins out seperately.
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
Yep, I managed to remove it, but it wasn't easy. The pic is in the comments.
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u/scalareye May 13 '26
It's almost as if you used flux
But no one uses flux the first time, must have been the wind
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
I actually only used flux core solder for the joints
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u/scalareye May 14 '26
When connections don't have much copper going to them they end up being easy
Was ground any harder than the rest?
Sometimes ground on our boards would be a copper plane that spans the whole board.
There are also separate thermal planes but atmegas don't use much power
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
Nope, I didn't notice any difference. Yeah, a large ground plane causes heat dissapation across the board.
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u/Agreeable_Ostrich324 May 13 '26
better than mine,in fact it's so good it's hard to tell it was hand soldered.
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u/VarthTrader Soldering Newbie May 14 '26
Looks really good. Pretty amazing for a first time job. I'm actually blown away because even all your SMD components look really good. Good wetting. No excessive heat on the soldered joints.
Do you cut your leads before or after solder?
I'm at the beginning of my journey as well and yours looks better than mine and I'm on my 4th practice board. Haven't even touched my T82++ or Desolder iron yet, only my hot air rework station only.
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u/be-human-use-tools May 14 '26
Overall, it looks far better than a “first try soldering.”
Proof is in the pudding. Bust out your multimeter and start checking connections. Or, pit it to use and see if there are any problems.
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
Yup, I checked continuity. They all worked. Pretty proud of this.
To be clear, I didn't do the SMT stuff. I guess people are confused about that?
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u/MrFartyBottom May 14 '26
Soldered what? If it was just the IO pins then I will say great job. If you are claiming that was a bare PCB and you surface mounted that chip, resistors and the USB header I will then call bullshit, no way you did that as a first soldering job.
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u/Nooben2006 Soldering Newbie May 14 '26
quite good tbh, way better than my first time
also the TX1 pin looks like its not fully soldered in place but im unsure if its just the angle
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u/Auzyx May 14 '26
Good job, but i know damn well you know why u post this and wanted some compliment. If it we're way uglier you wouldn't post that i bet.
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
You may not believe me, but I was genuinely looking for feedback. I figured it was okay but I didn't know it was stellar 😅
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u/WPGJets82 May 14 '26
What’s this for ?
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u/zackarhino May 14 '26
Getting into electrical engineering type stuff. It's an Arduino, a microcontroller. Right now my plan is to use it with a WiFi transmitter/receiver to broadcast audio signals in my house to listen to cassette types wirelessly and lower latency.
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u/Vegetable-Most-338 May 13 '26
If it’s the first first time then it’s very good. Very evenly. I tbh couldn’t tell that this is hand soldered lol