Solder

Pronounced like 'soldier'. It may be tedious to solder, but you must solder on.

Tips/Techniques

Silver in Solder

Nothing special is required for soldering to silver, however 2% silver solder has the advantage of being much stronger making it less likely to fail in applications where mechanical stress is present, like inside of a loudspeaker.  See below about the Tektronix silver plated ceramic terminal strips.

Gold is a different matter.  Above a certain percent, gold forms a brittle intermetallic with tin so special measures must be taken when soldering to thick gold plating.  Typically the gold plating is removed before soldering.  Flash gold plating is thin enough that it will dissolve completely into tin containing solders so that this is not a problem.  Adding silver to the solder will not help with soldering to gold.

Quote from: johansen on February 18, 2024, 09:25:29 pm

    Iirc 2% silver is probably not enough silver for the silver plated ceramic terminal strips in some applications.


I think Tektronix used 4% silver, which was required to keep the silver from dissolving from the ceramic terminal strip leaving the soldered joint unattached.  2% silver is better than nothing when making repairs on these terminal strips.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/solder-6337-okay-for-silver-plated-copper-or-2-silver-needed/msg5431220/

Soldiering a USB C connector (without visible pads)

USB C is busywork for EE / hackers. USB != UPB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvIWlAxXpQs He has some tips about equipment to use. Desoldering gun, some kind of hotplate (you can use any hotplate), uses a thermocouple to check board temperature (good idea), what soldering wick, and general procedure for heating the board before attempting the actual desoldering.