What equipment is used for PC soldering?

[Joduko]

I would like to practice soldering and electronics repair skills. I've used a soldering iron before both in highschool basic electronics class and for fixing some loose wire connections to various peripherals, but people like Louis Rossman who Linus has featured before seem to use a completely different grade of equipment when it comes to computer electronics.

 

It would be the ultimate goal of my practice to be able to repair one or more old motherboards/GPUs that no longer work, not because I need them, but because I want to see if I can for fun.

[H713]

Generally, the soldering is the easy part in repairing that kind of hardware. Hot air stations and microscopes aren't that expensive these days. I generally don't do anything this small, but with the right magnification it isn't all that hard. Start with more reasonable SMD rework in the 0805 size range, then work your way down to the really little "fly shit" size parts.

 

The tricky part is actually troubleshooting, then sourcing a replacement part. Often times it's a power converter issue. 

 

The Quick 957DW is an OK hot air station for what it costs, though if you can step up to the 861DW, do so. As for irons, the Metcal is the industry standard for a reason. 

 

[Kadzo]

Depending of the skill you are willing to learn there are some basic stuff that is needed.

Hot air station, microscope, soldering iron, multimeter , tweezers, if you have to do some more serious chip replacements (this part even Louis is not doing due to hassle required) you will need re-balling equipment like specialised stencils etc.

 

Most of this equipment is affordable these days, only issue is that are you willing to spend X amount of money for a hobby. Maybe consider getting a lesson or signing up to some elec repair class to see do you like it before getting your own equipment.

 

Like @H713 mentioned, usually the troubleshooting is the hard part, Louis uses special software and knows the values of most resistors or positions of fuses chips etc because he is in that business for a substantial amount of years. 

[12345678]

it depends

 

cheap multimeter and cheap oscilloscope are usually trash

 

for soldering irons and hot air guns, really cheap ones (aliexpress's 7 dollars iron for example) aren't reliable over time, and have a bad temperature control

 

the electronics subreddit/eevblog have quite good list of resources/materials

 

louis is a vlog thing about a repairment shop/job, (I wouldn't trust whatever he does say anyway)

linus tech tips is aimed to consumer stuff,

 

[H713]

On 7/20/2021 at 8:27 AM, 12345678 said:

it depends

 

cheap multimeter and cheap oscilloscope are usually trash

 

for soldering irons and hot air guns, really cheap ones (aliexpress's 7 dollars iron for example) aren't reliable over time, and have a bad temperature control

 

the electronics subreddit/eevblog have quite good list of resources/materials

 

louis is a vlog thing about a repairment shop/job, (I wouldn't trust whatever he does say anyway)

linus tech tips is aimed to consumer stuff,

 

Rossmann's advice on soldering equipment is reasonably solid. I'd probably go with a Metcal instead of the Hakko FX-951, but that's not to say that the 951 isn't a good station. As for hot air stations, the Quick stations are pretty good. They're not a Pace / Metcal, but they also don't cost $1000. I've used most of the equipment that Rossmann does, and I generally agree with him on most points regarding soldering. My work is a little different (a lot of one-off prototypes), but the same stuff still applies. 

 

15 years ago I would have agreed on the issue of cheap scopes, but things have changed a lot and you can get a damn good scope for $300. I love my Tektronix stuff as much as the next guy, but the days of Tek / HP being worlds ahead of everyone else have (perhaps sadly) come to a close. The Rigol / Siglent stuff has gotten pretty usable, and the HP / Tek stuff isn't that much better. Analog scope are still reasonably viable for audio and RF work, but less viable for digital stuff. 

 

Multimeters are a bit of a sore spot though. The Uni-T UT-139C is probably the absolute cheapest I'd consider. It's not a Fluke, but it's also considerably safer than most things in the sub-$50 price range. Sometimes you can get second-hand Fluke meters for a good price on eBay. There are a lot of old Fluke 77s and 73s around, and they're not bad. Actually, I consider my old 77 (1st gen) to be a more useable meter than my 289, which is, from a usability perspective, a POS. 

 

The EEVBlog forum is a mixed bag. There's plenty of good info, but also plenty of idiotic fanboys who greatly exaggerate the truth.

[12345678]

5 hours ago, H713 said:

Rossmann's advice on soldering equipment is reasonably solid. I'd probably go with a Metcal instead of the Hakko FX-951, but that's not to say that the 951 isn't a good station. As for hot air stations, the Quick stations are pretty good. They're not a Pace / Metcal, but they also don't cost $1000. I've used most of the equipment that Rossmann does, and I generally agree with him on most points regarding soldering. My work is a little different (a lot of one-off prototypes), but the same stuff still applies. 

 

15 years ago I would have agreed on the issue of cheap scopes, but things have changed a lot and you can get a damn good scope for $300. I love my Tektronix stuff as much as the next guy, but the days of Tek / HP being worlds ahead of everyone else have (perhaps sadly) come to a close. The Rigol / Siglent stuff has gotten pretty usable, and the HP / Tek stuff isn't that much better. Analog scope are still reasonably viable for audio and RF work, but less viable for digital stuff. 

 

Multimeters are a bit of a sore spot though. The Uni-T UT-139C is probably the absolute cheapest I'd consider. It's not a Fluke, but it's also considerably safer than most things in the sub-$50 price range. Sometimes you can get second-hand Fluke meters for a good price on eBay. There are a lot of old Fluke 77s and 73s around, and they're not bad. Actually, I consider my old 77 (1st gen) to be a more useable meter than my 289, which is, from a usability perspective, a POS. 

well for a starters ~450 would not be exactly cheap; I was referring to the 10 dollar equipment alike

 

a solid oscilloscope would be a rigol ds1054z, but it cost 350/400 ; there might be new ones that are better, but I don't follow that stuff

5 hours ago, H713 said:

The EEVBlog forum is a mixed bag. There's plenty of good info, but also plenty of idiotic fanboys who greatly exaggerate the truth.

like any other group/forum

just posts about resources might be a good kickstart

personally I don't even like eevblog, like usessly wasting hours of videos for something that can be explained in 2 minutes

[H713]

The Siglent SDS1202X-E is about $380, and it's a 2-channel 200 MHz scope. Honestly, it pisses me off less than the TDS3034 (though the 3034 has a somewhat better front end). As a side note, the fact that you can get a 200 MHz scope for under $1000 is absolutely insane. If you don't need the 200 MHz bandwidth, there are some options in the $250 - $300 range.