Soldering help !

[GrahamH7060]

Hi all , I've managed to screw up my brand new vampire SR1+ speedo by soldering the wires wrong , then removing them and trying to re solder them on, I've got too much solder on now and it's bridged the gap between each of the solder tabs basically making one large connecting across all the tabs !
Appalling job really considering I'm usually very neat
To top it all off the case has split and cracked with all the unnecessary heat and needs replacing too !
Is it possible to remove excess solder ? If so how ?
Please help or I'll be writing £140 of brand new unused speedo off !
OUCH !!

[tdach]

You can use a de-solder pump. Or de-solder wicking stuff. The pumps are available from maplins, just type de-solder into maplins search box. Then reheat the solder and use the pump to suck it up.
The wicking stuff is just a copper braid. again reheat the solder and apply the braid with a little flux the excess solder should flow up the braid.

[GrahamH7060]

Cheers
There's a maplins locally so I'll get one tomorrow
Thanks for your help

[Andrew Twigger]

I don't want to worry you unnecessarily, but if the case has become hot enough to crack, then you may have done irrevocable damage to the circuitry inside too

[GrahamH7060]

Yes that's my fear too ! Well we will see I guess ??

[ClydeBuilt]

Sounds like your iron may not be up to the job either fella, your cooking a large area, rather than spot heating the bit you need to ?

A big help can be to wipe the joint and wire with some flux EVERY time you try to solder it, you can do that to your crap solder and just give it a fast wipe with a tissue, it will leave it it bare and shiny and ready to go again.

[U1timate PigDog]

Hopefully you havent damaged your speedo with the heat. but as suggested above the solder sucker/pump is a good choice, simply heat up the solder with your iron and click to suck the solder up (works very well but may take some time to get used to if you havent used one before).

Solder wicks are also very good these come in various size cost varying amounts but also available from maplins, but again is very good, you place this on top of the area you want to remove the solder and with a clean iron apply heat to the wick the solder will attach to the wick and remove.

Hopefully all goes well for you.

[GrahamH7060]

Cheers guys for all the comments , I think I've sorted it , my iron is quite a good quality one , it's a solder station type with adjustable heat settings , but I'd let the solder build up on the tip too much , so I ground it off with a sanding disc , I always use plenty of flux , as I said I'm usually pretty neat at soldering !
Used a pump on it & it worked great

Also to make sure I've used a very fine diamond cutting disc and cut in between the terminals to ensure there's no contact , I'm in the process of installing my speedo so I guess I'll have to wait and see if there's been any damage internally caused by the excessive heat !

What will be the early signs it's knackered ?? Apart from lots of smoke ?
Ha Ha

[GrahamH7060]

Well I think I've got away with it !!

Managed to get a new case for the speedo , big thank you to Darren Boyle for all his help , wired up the speedo tonight to my new vampire 8.5 motor , bound the receiver , set the limits on the speedo and it worked perfectly !

Well it did on the bench at least , I guess the real test will come next weekend when I try it out for the first time racing

[rondoolaa]

for any soldering you do in the future, buy some of this and put a tiny bit on both connections to be soldered, and when you solder together it will solder a lot easier and leave a great joint, i swear by the stuff and the pot in the link should last many years,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fluxite-Sold.../dp/B000X2ERU4