Well I started to do an eval on the RCM that I have on my car.

THe fact that we can not copy links and photos is a real BAD thing.

Feels like my forum is dying and that aint good.

I did a lot of research and had some good sites to link in.

The stress on the terminals _ see the photos- oh sorry - is due to it is soldered on the bottom of the board ONLY. The solder does not flow up well.

As you can see in the photos -----oh sorry--- the top terminals are not soldered by the copper ribbons and only connected on the bottom. In my attached NON PHOTOS you can see or not that I have soldered the pins that are near the vertical board.

With the pins soldered on the bottom there is less support of the pins and thermal expansion stresses give rise to cracking of the joint. I used a thermally controlled iron set to about 400 degrees C. You can use a 100 watt gun or iron if you dont hit the relays and cause any damage.

The pins on the edge of the board are just a bit to see and solder but I did it with tired eyes and 3 cats so you can also. Solder joints on both sides of the board sort of brace themselves and move less. Tin is soft stuff.

I was going to show the solder joints and how they are shiney without buffing or cleaning, showing that the temperature was enough to melt and not so much as to make too much dark-dim TIN dross.

Even my gallery has no photos on it so you can see that they are not there.................this is getting old like me..........

No photo woody

 

Woody, you can post the photos in the gallery at CICCI and link to them here.

Edit: Just copy and paste the link in the BB Code.

 

YES WOODY WHAT HE SAID

 

Just a note on solder. Typically solder is a 63/37 mix of lead/tin. Lead is soft. Tin, not quite so much. Too much tin causes brittle joints.

You are correct in the solder process issue. They probably are not getting the proper heat profile in their wave solder and thus not getting good wicking up the leads. (or they have crappy feed throughs, or both).

I used a good flux core solder and iron and held the iron to the leads to get good flow on mine. I re-soldered every pin on the board to make sure they were all solid.

Did you really use a 400*Celsius soldering iron?? 400*F is adequate unless your using lead free solder. Then it is about 485*F.

(I know, PITA)

 

I just tried to use ATTACHMENTS and nothing. Sorry.

 

I was using a small tip, that is what she said. I had to crank up the heat to get it to flow to the top.

The lack of photos would show that the joints now have a FILLET of solder on both side.

Let me get this straight I go on the cicci site load a photo, then COPY BY HAND the address and place it on here.

UGGGH NO.

What we need to do is to get this site moved to the CICCI site and have everyone that contributes become a member. One site and one location for everything.

Now we have this active site and the other one. I was just there and saw nothing much short of STORES which I dont need.

WW

 

I hope this link works,
And maybe even helps.


Soldering Guide