04.08 Soldering Practice

Assignment Deliverables

• Photograph(s) of your soldering practice (.jpg)

Assignment Overview

The only way to improve on a new skill is to practice. This exercise provides soldering practice for wires, through hole components, and screw terminals. We will use inexpensive low quality perfboard for these exercises. Mistakes are likely and it is best to practice with low cost materials before working on projects that are more critical.

1. Solder Wire to Perfboard Solder Pads

• Use ~.75" - 1" long pieces of 22 AWG wire ore 28 AWG wire. (You can work from the spool of wire and then trim the pieces at 1" after you solder them on.)
• Use wire strippers to strip of ~3/8" of the insulation.
• Tin the wire end. If it doesn’t fit in the perfboard hole try to use less solder to tin the wire end. If it still does not fit, then put the wire through untinned.
• Set up the perfboard with the wire inserted in a steady position. Use any clamps or clips as needed.
• Apply heat to the solder pad on the perfboard and the wire, once it becomes hot, then apply solder to the wire and solder pad, not the solder iron.
• Tin your solder tip.
• Turn off the solder iron.
• Repeat this process for a minimum of 10 solder pads.
• Keep the wire pieces short so you don’t waste wire. Don’t worry if you accidentally cut a piece longer than it needs but do your best to not be wasteful.

2. Attach a Two Pin Screw Terminal

• Use one of the two pin screw terminal and solder it to two of the solder pads on the perfboard.

3. Extra Techniques to Try

Attach to to Solder Pads

• Strip both ends of a short (1"-2") piece of wire and insert the ends into two holes of the perfbord.
• Solder both ends of the wire to different solder pads.

Attach to Screw Terminal

• Use the above technique to put wire through one hole on the perfboard and solder it to the pad.
• Then attach the other end of the wire to one of the screw terminal pins that you attached earlier to make a connection.