I am mainly going to work with smd components. This is a practice board so I am just testing out, and I didn’t do other side of the resistor because I didn’t bother to flip the board. I really want to start my own repair shop, I am 21 and currently doing a bachelors in economics(probably somewhat helpful) so I’m wondering if anyone has some advice on that front. I really like soldering and would love to do it for a living. Repairing pcs and consoles and such. I don’t live in the US btw, I live in Norway.

Like the title suggest, how did I do?

Started at bottom right and finished bottom left

I haven’t soldered since school a long time ago. I noticed the actual point of the tip didn’t get hot, it was about 5mm above the tip on the side, made it so much harder i think.

Definitely need to get the desolder pump out and try this again lol. Any tips for a better run?

Let me know what to focus on in the future, already see my inconsistent blobs are ugly and my wires arent evenly cut.

I've cleaned it just after making the post btw.

First time I solder anything and I went ahead with trying out smd soldering, how does it look? Any advice on getting better solder? I know some of the solder looks cold, but I think it's mainly because I used a cheap solder, while my shinier solders are from kester solder. I also lost the components for c9 and c10 so I never managed to fully complete my smd practice board :/

Looking for constructive criticism, how's it looking and am I using too much solder?

You were right, but I'm still keeping this equipment I bought. I'll probably just send this to a professional at this point. In the meantime I'll get some more practice in.

Are the bridged pins on one of the chips a concern? I have extremely shakey hands and splattered some on the board. Multiple times...

Idek if it's worth fixing at this point, I fucked it up pretty bad.

Soul-der or Saw-der?

3 days ago i got rinsed because i was so bad lmao. looking back i am not sure how i managed to get it so bad haha but now i think i have graduated to “normal noob” and its thanks to the advice i got here. Here’s some things that helped me get better i think -

Hotter Iron - Before my iron was on 300 and advice said 350 plus. I actually felt like it still wasn’t hot enough and for me 480 was the best (I think my solder is kind of shit quality perhaps lol)

Flux Flux Flux - I no longer relied on the flux of my solder to help me out. I used it liberally when i could and it made the world of difference!

My first photo shows my very latest attempt just now, where it was done quickly with the same technique of the iron every time. My second photo was my second to last attempt and some of the joints are maybe still abit meh, but way better than what it was lol

Thanks to the group for the banter and really good advice from some of you! You have really helped me enjoy my initial soldering journey and I can’t wait to get back with projects i’ve been doing! Just one final question -

On my first photo i think i did well but maybe i need more solder, is it enough for the joints to work well or am i overthinking??

Anyways you are all the best!!

Did it for a car remote, u can clearly see which switch i soldered on. For 13 is this good?

Last night I had problems cleaning up the holes. I was so sad and mad in the same time, hopeless, though I was finished and this is not my thing. Exhausted I went on Reddit and post a pic begging for help, though no one will reply, I was wrong, you did reply, more of you, in like 1h I had 12 different tips and ideas. Today was the big day, with all the new knowledge I managed to fix my controller. It only took me 1 and a half day, I smoked all that fume like it was oxygen, my table is a mess, I only burned 1 finger, and cried only twice.

Again thanks for your help!

I've done some basic things before. Soldering or desoldering batteries to boards. Soldering wires together. But this was my biggest project to date.

I replaced the analog sticks on a PS4 Dualshock 4 controller with Hall Effect sticks. This was mostly a test run. The controller was semi-broken to begin with. I'm hoping to fully restore it, but this was just was of the pieces on that path.

I'm practicing up to eventually do the same thing on my PS5 controllers. One of the sticks is starting to drift on it and I want to fix it.

Anyway, I've seen a lot of posts about using enough flux, not using too much solder, etc. I think I used a little too much solder on some of the pins. But overall I think I'm happy with how it turned out. I won't put it all together and test it until I get some feedback, just in case.

Removing the old sticks was a royal pain in the ass. I definitely need more practice desoldering.

I did not use a heat gun, although I should look into getting one. I also did not use a sucker. I've never tried that method. I used a wick for the whole thing.

Thanks for any input.

I just got myself a soldering iron and I decided to fix a remove that had a broken capacitor that came off it. I decided to put it back, is this a good job or no?

Basically the tittle. Any feedback and guidance appreciated.

I use to do a little bit of console mods, soldering etc when I was a teenager. All was good until I had lung issues and anxiety from the flux smoke. I've been wanting to get back into it so I created a clear tote with holes in which I solder in with negative pressure (fan exhausts directly out the window). I also wear a respirator w/ p100 carts.

I have avoided most of, if not all the negative effects minus a little PTSD. I really don't understand how it all of a sudden effects me in such a negative way.

Anyway. Here is my work. I think the negative pressure causes air flow and gives my weaker iron a hard time.

This is my SNES jr with a recap, new voltage regulator and a RGB restore. Not the most pretty work, couldn't find my wife strippers, maybe would have benefited from cranking the iron a little more. Most of this work was done at 400c and it still seemed to struggle. Maybe the old SNES solder is just hard to melt? Maybe using the shitty solder that came with my iron wasn't the best choice either?

Had to solder wires directly to a speaker tabs since the cables were too think to go through.

Think this will hold or should I invest in quick connects.

Thank you

I heva eno idea how you guys manage to solder something this small 😅. Every time i tried to heat the pad and the element it ended up moving. I also tried to just heat up the pad so the component stays in place and then heat up both the pad and the component on the other side. And then i would come back to the first joint and redo it. It still ended up skewed but at least thats some progress. I'd apreciate any advice.