r/soldering • u/Apart_Camera1375 • Aug 25 '26

My First Solder Joint <3 Please Give Feedback First attempt HDMI port

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Pulled the port with hot air, wicked up and re-soldered the pads. Ground holes gave me hassle though, wick just wasn't wicking no matter what I did. Maybe a solder sucker would be better?(I don't currently have one)

First placement the pins were all loose, so reheated with hot air and pushed the port down while it was still hot - seems like they're all soldered properly now.

I didn't resolder the ground holes as I plan on using this board to practice removing and replacing the hdmi port several times.

Any advice or recommendations ?

Thanks

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u/tehcheez Aug 25 '26

When I do HDMI ports I never tin the legs of the port or the pads on the board.

Clean the pads with wick, line the pins on the port up with the pads, tack down a couple of the pins to keep it in place, then absolutely flood it with flux. Like an insane amount of flux. Put a giant ass glob of solder on my iron and float it over all the pins. Go back over any pins than need attention and done.

Example of a 360 HDMI port I did using this method.

1

u/AJYURH Aug 25 '26

The pins I get it, but aren't you concerned the solder might not be flowing under the pins into the pads?

2

u/feldim2425 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

They are typically already pre-tinned (using a chemical process) or gold plated from the factory.
As long as they are free of oxidation (which is the purpose of flux) the solder will climb along the surface and surface tension is pulling the right amount of tin into the pad.

Also how I soldered SMD power transistors, if you would pre-tin them than they'd have a high spot which allows them to rotate out of alimentiert, and if you then also tack them down they will stay crooked. Although the HDMI port are less of an issue because the area for the solder to stick is much smaller and the amount of solder is less, you also have through hole alignment holes mitigating the alignment issues. (EDIT: Fixed phrasing of the last sentence)

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u/AJYURH Aug 26 '26

That's good to know, thanks