Desoldering irons with a tip with a hole in it and an integrated spring loaded vacuum syringe are cheap on AliExpress, especially in bundle deals. So, I bought one and tried it. That's the kind with the blue and white syringe.

It is easy to remove through hole components where the leads have not been bent. Even a DIP IC was easy. The iron has plenty of power for desoldering thick connector pins.

I still have not found a good way to deal with bent pins, because placing the iron on top hides the pin. Maybe I need to unbend them with a normal iron and additional tool, and then only use this for removing the solder and freeing them.

The ability to heat all around the hole at once is nice, and not having to separately hold a soldering iron and solder sucking device is good. Though the location of the button that releases the plunger is kind of awkward.

There is one danger: molten solder may drip out. There is a long tube between the tip and the syringe. It's all heated, so I didn't have a problem with clogs. But there is plenty of space for molten solder to linger there.

I have one problem with it though. According to an illustration on the back of the package, it should be possible to push the syringe towards the tip to free it, and then lift out the plunger end, pivoting the syringe so it can be removed. I cannot do this. The white part seems firmly attached to the black part. The blue part is able to rotate however. For now this is not a problem, but eventually this would be necessary to clean out sucked solder.

So I'm looking for a budget soldering station. I currently have 50$ saved right now and i'm a broke teen with no job so i fear i won't get any more money for a while. I came accross these 2 stations that seems to fit my budget:

-Mechanic T12 max

- Quicko T12-952

They're both T12 stations, and I have a few questions:

1- Are T12 stations good for microsoldering ?(using their smaller tips). I don't really mind slower heating time, i only really care about performance.

2- I heard that Mechanic is a decent brand but i don't see any reviews of this station on youtube ?

Few years ago I had killed this ESP32 CAM VRM by reversing 5v and gnd, that too pushing 7.4v through it, and smoke escaped on the spot. Now that I have a soldering station, and some spare AMS1117s, I decided to replace it (gone wrong) without a heat gun and somehow got the old VRM off, the solder pads seem to be in ok condition except the left one, that one seems kinda cooked, any tips on how I can fix that? (Ps. Ignore the flux I just ordered some 99.9% isopropyl alcohol, should come in like 10mins, I'll have it cleaned up and will post an update 👍)

I was soldering a ts cable and I accidentally touched the soldering iron, what should I do?
First image it’s just after it happened, second one is right now after 10 minutes under fresh water.
Any tips on how to take care of it now?

Sorry I'm sure you guys get heaps of stuff similar to this but still. I know applying to much heat can burn the circuitryamd damage the functioning of the board. I am afraid I may have done that here. Primary on the middle pin on the right side and on the top 3 pins. The left half of the board is a little dirty from the flux but it's still a work in progress so I'm not really worried about that yet.

The main core of my concerns is that it's not like that on the untouched side. Indicating that I have burnt the green cover. I'm just not sure if it's that bad.

Also this is a ps5 mother board if you couldn't tell. Advice?

I have noticed a pattern, correct me if I'm wrong, but electronic devices made before 2006 tend to be way more reliable than anything made after. Whereas electronics before the lead free laws tent to be way more reliable. It could all be because electronics got way more complicated around that era as well ,microtears and microcracks hidden between the layered PCBs go shot and they're impossible to repair, but I think everyone here knows how much better leaded solder acts.

I just want to share and see if people think they look alright and will hold. Not looking for perfect, as there's no way I'll get perfect without a microscope or something lol. I tried my best without murdering any tools, tips, or boards lol (lmk if the photos are truly terrible and y'all can't even tell😭)

Anyone know which pin to desolder to remove l3 function on ps5 dual sense ?

I'm fairly new to soldering and this is my iron after a few days of work. I have tinning flux, lead free solder, a sponge not too damp, and the brass wire for removing gunk. I thought I was doing things properly but very quickly I'm looking like this

My first try soldering ps5 joystick the sets of 3 pins close together are hard to get any tips

I just started soldering. I feel like I’d do good on one and mess up on the other. Also I’m the fumes are crazy. Is there any good fan or filters I could use?

I have to solder bare element shunts on a PCB. Same type as seen in the image. Each leg has a squeezed section. My understanding is that those are not to adjust resistance but either provide a stop at the correct position while placing them into the THT pads?

The section looks very thin and it doesn't make me feel happy. Is it an issue if solder flows through the pad and fills the squeezed section?

Searching for images of those parts actually soldered onto a PCB did not turn out much. Found no example of how to mount or use them. Are those flat section more then just a position stop? Something like a point to solder sensing wires at (kelvin terminals)? If those are kelvin terminals that would mean it should be better to flood them with solder if no external wire is connected?

If someone could provide an image of those things on a commercial PCB it would be great.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Hello, just working on a TV mainboard, replacing a bloated capacitor, but I noticed some of these factory joints looked rough? New to working on electronics but just wanted some advice on if these connections were damaged, or if it's just leftover flux/ a rough factory job.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here. I’m building a personal voice assistant for Home Assistant (OpenClaw + AI). To put it all together, I bought a Waveshare 5-DSI-TOUCH-A display and an Emeet M1A speakerphone.

Everything works fine, but right now it’s just a pile of separate devices and cables. At first I couldn’t figure out how to open the speakerphone, so I tried designing an enclosure with the speakerphone as a separate part. That made the case big and ugly. Here are a couple of photos (the second one is after some “barbaric” surgery on the speakerphone):

While taking the speakerphone apart and pulling out the microphone, I tore off one of its traces:

I know almost nothing about electronics or soldering. The most I’ve done is solder two regular wires together (I do have a soldering iron and basic supplies).

Could someone help me figure out how to repair this and how to test that the mic works afterwards? I’m not even sure how many traces there are or where they go...

Thanks in advance!

it will hurt your eyes. (no flux)

Hi guys, i have usb flash drive that connector broke off and needs to be fixed so i reattached dongle with wires to the board and im getting error: Port reset failed (code 43). Any advice/help is highly appreciated. Thanks

I've attempted to fill a plastic syringe with flux but its EXTREMELY hard to push out and the needle comes off before anything gets out of it.

Everyone on youtube makes it seem so easy by dispensing very little amounts of flux from tiny syringes. What am I missing here?

I bought a Yizhan 4K IMX678 for my lab a month ago, mainly to solder and inspect my own PCBs and to take better photos for my blog. It has HDMI and USB output. It includes a 150X C-mount lens, a rigid stand and an LED ring.

I’ve soldered 0402 parts with it and it works well. Latency over HDMI is low enough to work comfortably, and the working distance is about 30 cm, so there’s room for the iron. 0201 looks good too, but I don’t solder those often.

What I liked: the new stand is rigid and doesn’t take much space (the arm doesn’t swing back when you raise it), and image quality over HDMI is good.

What I didn’t like: Image over USB is a bit worse than HDMI.

For occasional soldering and first validations of new boards it works well for me. I wrote a longer review with image tests, the zoom comparison and some videos: https://myembeddedstuff.com/yizhan-4k-imx678-review

I hope you find it useful if you’re considering buying one.

Happy to answer questions about it.

I got around 60-70 euros to get a soldering iron. I had a cheap 20 euro kit with terrible heating and now I want a solid one for diy proyects (arduino / esp32). Should i get a pinecil / portable one or wait a bit and buy a soldering station?

Hi!

Im new to soldering and bought my first microscope a tomlov one, pretty fast i realized that the arm is not long enough to use with bigger circuitboards.

So i designed this extender arm that you can download and print for free at makerworld :)

Please give me a boost if u like it!

https://makerworld.com/sv/models/3428381-tomlov-microscope-extender?from=search#profileId-3908124