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In Reply to: Thanks and two more questions posted by rneedle on January 23, 2007 at 09:05:47:
With respect to cleaning the board, I was responding to the advice posted below about rubbing the board with an eraser or soaking it in tomato juice. The Pluto board is a nice part and it would be a shame to ruin it before you even get started.What's important in a soldering iron is its ability to maintain a constant tip temperature. This is analogous to a car maintaining a constant speed on the highway. For steady cruising, you don't need much power to go 65 MPH. But if you are pulling a trailer up a steep hill, an under-powered car will slow down. That's when you need a more powerful engine.
A temperature-controlled iron is like a car with a powerful engine and a cruise control. The amount of power is varied automatically to maintain a constant temperature. If you are soldering fine component leads and circuit board traces, the power consumption is low. But if you are soldering heavy parts to the PC groundplane, the power is increased to keep the tip temperature constant.
Without temperature control, the tip tends to overheat while the iron is resting, but then it cools down as you start to solder. Variable power gives you some control over this process, but it isn't automatic or instantaneous.
The tip serves as a reservoir of heat. You will find it easier to melt larger connections with a more massive tip because it takes longer for the tip to cool down when placed in contact with the solder joint. Smaller tips may partially melt the joint and then "stick" as the temperature drops below the melting point. You'll have to experiment to find out what iron setting works best for you. You don't want the setting so high that it burns the board, nor so low that it takes too long to solder and you end up lifting the traces.
I would not buy a second Pluto board to practice on -- they're expensive.
I have the impression the WLC100 is variable power but not temperature controlled. As much as I like and recommend true temperature controlled irons, you should have no problems with this iron. You probably ought to buy a few tips of different sizes. You will find yourself changing them depending on what kind of work you're doing.
-Henry
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Follow Ups
- Re: Thanks and two more questions - Henry Pasternack 09:28:41 01/23/07 (0)
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