It should be easy to reflow the solder to reattach the wire. Use some rubbing alcohol to clean the residue from the solder. Ideally you would remove the solder and attach with fresh solder, but reflowing should work because the detached wire is tinned. If it wasn't tinned, a little flux would help.something I should actually try or is it going to be too much trouble for me? This is a wire that came off of its joint and the old solder looks dirty to me.
This is a shower AM/FM radio. The black wire is meant to be attached to that last little brown smudge which is last in line of those four points.Welcome to AAC!
Take another photo so we can see a bigger picture.
What is the device?
Where is the red wire supposed to be connected?
It doesn't look like there's any damage to the wire or pad. It was likely just a bad solder joint and the wire pulled away from the solder.I'm going to try cleaning with alcohol then I'll post another picture to see if there's a better clue of whatever damage might be done.
No. It's more likely your technique. None of the joints looks very good. If the solder has lead, the joints should be shiny with a concave profile.I bought a cheap soldering kit on Amazon and I want to blame crappy solder it might have came with. Is that a thing?
Yea like I said, the solder didn't draw itself to the area where the joints are supposed to be, it drew itself to the iron. I had to wipe it off onto the joint the way you would wipe off a booger from your finger onto a napkin. What you think is splatter is just the product of that wiping process. I didn't have the space for an optimal wiping angle, so some of the solder went places it shouldn't have.No. It's more likely your technique. None of the joints looks very good. If the solder has lead, the joints should be shiny with a concave profile.
What's up with all of the solder splatter? That shouldn't happen unless you had water or something involved.
If you want a better iron, buy a used one on eBay. I picked up a good Weller for about 2X what you paid for that cheap thing on Amazon. New, the Weller would sell for $100-200.
So you're saying the problem could be that the iron wasn't not enough for the solder to behave ideally? Or is the purpose of increasing the heat only to remove the old solder?It's a 60W temperature control iron, if the solder is sticking then increase the temperature with the dial, use the solder sucker to remove the old solder , then put fresh solder one it..
The temperature needed depends on the solder being used:So you're saying the problem could be that the iron wasn't not enough for the solder to behave ideally?
The heat melts the solder. It doesn't matter whether you want to reflow, remove, or apply new.Or is the purpose of increasing the heat only to remove the old solder?
So would it be effective to move the iron away the same moment that you apply the solder? Or is the iron supposed to be resting nearby while the solder is melting to the joint? It's hard to picture touching both ends of the joint with the iron and applying the solder while it still sitting there without the solder just going to the iron. There really isn't enough distance at least in the case of this repair.Before you start worrying about rosin, solder type or iron temperature, make sure your technique is proper.
When you say that the solder sticks to the iron instead of the joint, my first thought is that you haven’t heated both sides of the joint sufficiently. For example, when soldering a through hole component to a PCB, both the component lead and the PCB trace must be hot enough.
Place the iron tip at an angle so that it touches both the lead and trace. Hold it there for a few seconds to heat up both sides. My iron needs a count of three to accomplish this.
Then, apply the solder to the joint of the lead and trace. DON’T apply the solder to the iron tip. There should be no solder on the iron.