Bill, I have not had any problems myself, but some boards "suck away" the heat from the soldering iron tip more so than others - and that is true whether the boards are RoHS or not. I routinely use about 750 deg F for soldering and bump it up to 800 deg if the board traces are large or there is a large ground plane. Leaded solder usually works fine with the RoHS boards too. Just be certain to heat the pads adequately - watch for the point when the solder flows out onto the pad. If the solder pads are not adequately heated there will be a poor solder connection just waiting until some crucial moment to fail. Murphy strikes at the worst possible moments.
Many, boards that I "repair" are solved by reflowing the solder with a hot soldering iron. There seems to be a tendency among some builders to not heat the solder pads. Whether that stems from old experiences of lifting solder pads on poor boards or fear of damaging components, I just don't know, but when using a temperature controlled soldering iron and applying heat until the solder flows, those fears should be put to rest. Elecraft uses thru-plated holes on the boards and components will stand soldering temperatures for short times (usually 6 to 10 seconds), so there should not be a fear of damaging components with soldering heat applied for 2 to 3 seconds. On a normal size solder pad, if the solder does not flow in 3 seconds, the iron is not hot enough and if it flows in less than 2 seconds the iron is too hot. My other 'rule' is to use a solder thin enough so you can control the amount of solder applied easily (.015 to .020 inch diameter) and a mildly activated flux so the flux does not create a mess (Kester 285 is my opinion of good solder and flux). 73, Don W3FPR Bill Miner wrote: > Hello Elecrafters, > > I just completed assembly of a W1 Power Meter kit. It seems to work well > with good accuracy. > > For some reason I had a bit of trouble making good solder connections. This > is the first RoHS board that has given me trouble. It seemed like it took > extra amounts of time and heat to make good solder joints. Is there some > special solder flux that should be used when using normal lead solder on an > RoHS board? > > The W8FGU case is very nice. Fit and finish were perfect and the > installation instructions on his web site are very clear. I have some > experience working with plastics and probably could have made my own case. > However, considering time and the cost of materials a DIY case would probably > cost more and might not turn out as nice. Many thanks to Dave for providing > this service. > > 73, > Bill - K6WLM > K2 > KX1 > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
