Soldering Tricks?

[Thorax]

I still haven't done any mods yet and I wanted to do the trigger mod, so a couple of months ago I cracked open my PSP, got the stripped screw out () and got the powerboard out. Then I noticed how small the points actually are. I'm not a good solderer, I'm too impatinet and my hands shake too much when I try to do small things like that. So I called my friend over and ask him if he could do it (He's a much better solderer than I am). He looked and said that he didn't really want to try because he was scared he would mess up my PSP. So now I'm stuck with all the parts and I really want to finish this mod so I can claim I did a hard mod. So I was wondering if there were any tips or another place to solder to with a bigger area with more room for error?

[socomhacker239]

well if you have a shaky hand you can drink a couple of beers or smoke it makes me more stable 
you can solder to the speakers its easy if you mess up all you need is new speakers there a dime a dozen
start practicing on old motherboards or chips if you dont use flux then start it makes it way easyer if you
dont use 30 gauge wire then you should also start using it.If your not that good then you should use a 15 watt iron i used a 25 watt when i first started though.well hope i helped

[RoBot1ks]

yea flux is a must. it helps so much..i just couldnt imagine not using it. just dip the wire in some flux, put some solder on the iron and rub it on the wire till it sticks 

where can you get speakers 10 cents for a dozen?

[Jumbo]

This rubbing technique, is for tinning the wire right?
Because if not that is awfully wrong.

Ya you shouldn't really have solder on the iron unless tining something.

Make sure to use a sponge to wipe your tip clean and clean it ALOT.

Also on the Powerboard you can scrap off the protective green for a bigger and easier area to solder to 

Oh, if you dont already, Get something like Helping Hands, They also are a great help 

[Thorax]

Ok, thanks everyone.

[m@DDm!k3]

oh yeah and if ur a little scared of getting burned i recommend you use the ColdHeat soldering iron not as good as regular soldering irons but safer

[GhoSt]

I found it best to only scape off a little of the green insulant to prevent any bridging. A trick I found to make the whole job easyer was to solder a surface mount 10ohm resistor straight to the powerboard, this just helps out with not having extra lead componets to heat shrink ect.

[Jumbo]

oh yeah and if ur a little scared of getting burned i recommend you use the ColdHeat soldering iron not as good as regular soldering irons but safer

ColdHeat irons are horrible

Not trying to Insult you dude, Just saying.

[rceckspurt13]

The soldering iron I use I got at a swap meet for a dollar I think. It works great. Its a 30 watt I think. I accidentally screwed it up though when I sat it across the cord... Lotsa sparks. Luckilly nobody got hurt.

[PSPpanda]

I found it best to only scape off a little of the green insulant to prevent any bridging. A trick I found to make the whole job easyer was to solder a surface mount 10ohm resistor straight to the powerboard, this just helps out with not having extra lead componets to heat shrink ect.

Ok well these tips are great but i keep getting different answers from different people. If i am doing the trigger mod do i need a resistor if i am using blue LEDs?

[rceckspurt13]

Sorry to give you another different answer, but for blue LEDs, you don't need a resistor. For all other colors though, you are going to need one. Most people use a 10 ohm. Surface mount ones will fit better inside the psp.

[Jumbo]

Well dont bother giving a different answer which is technically wrong,

Alien is right AGAIN. Im gonna see how many times he is right

Technically you do need a resistor. If you look it up with the forward voltage ect. most of the time it should have one on it.

But you REALLY don't need to cause it doesn't burn out that quick. But it does have a shortened life-time with out the correct resistance.

And probably don't just say throw on a 10 ohm. Use Resistor Calc and find out the right resistance for the leds.

I used to say the sameee thing. 

[PSPpanda]

ok thanks Alien this helped me alot but if i do the direct contact speaker LEDs what ohm resistor will i need?

[SN!P3R]

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