Solder paste electrically conductive?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Bought some 138c low temp solder paste cause seems like attempting to use a solder wire will be a pain for trying to solder stuff that can move around since i dont got 3 hands to also stop the stupid thingy i wanna solder from moving around, also for future bga reballing when i get the $ to build a rework station cause chipped chipsets and northbridges are p a i n

 

kinda curious if its electrically conductive or not since i dont have any conductive ink or copper tape or anything like that for pad modding cpus, and when i attempted sktocc mod (bridge sktocc with vss) on my p7h55m-lx didnt seem to work since all the other bioses still give bullshit new cpu installed message, makes me doubt this stuff is electrically conductive but oh well i just need to bridge 1 of the vid pads for 1.2 -> 1.6v to prove if its conductive or not (garbage bios doesnt allow volt adjustment past 149 bclk)

 

Is it electrically conductive or no?

Also when screwing around with the pad mod i also noticed the solder paste has some clear liquid around it that seems to be similar to water, is that flux or just water?

[Godlygamer23]

Solder paste is absolutely electrically conductive. It has to be to form the electrical connections.

Did you clean the solder joints at all?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

13 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Solder paste is absolutely electrically conductive. It has to be to form the electrical connections.

Did you clean the solder joints at all?

No im not soldering it on the bloody cpu just putting some on the cpu like its conductive ink aka in unsoldered form

[Godlygamer23]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

No im not soldering it on the bloody cpu just putting some on the cpu like its conductive ink aka in unsoldered form

The liquid you're seeing is probably the flux that holds the solder paste together. 

Considering the composition of solder paste, it may not be the best thing to use it as a conductive ink. You might have to flow it a bit because of the potential inconsistencies. 

[mariushm]

Solder paste is tiny balls of tin and possibly lead (if it's leaded solder) suspended in flux and isopropyl alcohol and other substances (activators for flux, to make it more aggressive)

The balls will absolutely be conductive, the liquid may be conductive or partially conductive (high resistance but conducting some electricity)

RMA and RA (rosin activated and rosin mildly activated fluxes are generally not strong enough to continue to corrode pads and traces or to cause conductivity issues, but lots of solder pastes have much stronger fluxes and cleaning the flux residue with isopropyl alcohol or flux cleaners may be required.

 

[Needfuldoer]

42 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

No im not soldering it on the bloody cpu just putting some on the cpu like its conductive ink aka in unsoldered form

Solder paste does not work that way. You have to melt it in order for it to make a solid connection. Otherwise it's just conductive goo forever.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

13 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The balls will absolutely be conductive

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Solder paste does not work that way. You have to melt it in order for it to make a solid connection. Otherwise it's just conductive goo forever.

But itll still conducts electricity right?

 

42 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

The liquid you're seeing is probably the flux that holds the solder paste together. 

Considering the composition of solder paste, it may not be the best thing to use it as a conductive ink. You might have to flow it a bit because of the potential inconsistencies. 

So what can i use as a conductive ink or basically any conductive liquid that i can draw with?

[SupaKomputa]

1 hour ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

if its electrically conductive

absolutely! it's made from metal particles even in it's liquid state it is still conductive.

[Needfuldoer]

1 minute ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

But itll still conduct electricity right?

Learning how to solder is easier than bodging sketchy homemade workarounds that can and will fail in time.

 

Parts shouldn't move around when soldering them with a little technique. If you're talking about a surface mount chip, first solder two legs in opposite corners. Then you can drag solder the rest. Use flux, it will help the solder stick.

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Learning how to solder is easier than bodging sketchy homemade workarounds that can and will fail in time.

 

Parts shouldn't move around when soldering them with a little technique. If you're talking about a surface mount chip, first solder two legs in opposite corners. Then you can drag solder the rest. Use flux, it will help the solder stick.

i agree i soldered a lot of stuff (capacitors, resistors,  small microchips etc...) and things "moving around" was somehow the least of my issues... (actually i didn't really have any issues,  soldering is fun and takes about 5 minutes to learn lol)

what i would say is important is a *good* soldering iron at the right temperature and good solder (even the "leedfree" one can be good... its all we ever used) 

 

never really used flux, it was *in* the solder already somehow... just used pcb cleaner afterwards to remove any residue .

[IkeaGnome]

4 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

pain for trying to solder stuff that can move around since i dont got 3 hands to also stop the stupid thingy i wanna solder from moving around

Why not just make a 3rd hand?

You can get them for really cheap, but since you seem to like to DIY as much as you can.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

3 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Learning how to solder is easier than bodging sketchy homemade workarounds that can and will fail in time.

 

Parts shouldn't move around when soldering them with a little technique. If you're talking about a surface mount chip, first solder two legs in opposite corners. Then you can drag solder the rest. Use flux, it will help the solder stick.

Oh ffs im trying to pad mod my cpu (look up 775 bsel modding, basically what im trying to do but modding diff functions like volt or sktocc) not solder smds, though i will eventually get around to that once i get a heatgun/hot air tool which is also why i bought the paste, i might bga rework before soldering normal smds though cause currently i think ill find that a ton more useful since i have 4 boards with nuked northbridge/chipset (1 p43 neo that would definitely work if the nb wasnt nuked, can tell by postcodes), maybe once i start wanting to voltmod ill bother getting the equipment to microsolder

 

11 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

never really used flux, it was *in* the solder already somehow... just used pcb cleaner afterwards to remove any residue .

Thats called flux cored solder, mines also flux cored

 

 

And i may aswell ask other soldering questions cause it looks like microsoldering gear is actually something i can afford though i think buying used off fb marketplace will be a wiser choice than buying this china stuff

heres some new stuff, itll problably be mediocre so ill definitely try looking for used stuff off fb marketplace, i do know i can buy used since i did once find someone selling a ryobi drill for cheaper than a new china "weilai" drill (like one of those actually usable drills not those garbage hand drills that problably cant drill through weak ass drywall let alone solid concrete)

 

2 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Why not just make a 3rd hand?

You can get them for really cheap, but since you seem to like to DIY as much as you can.

Crap i forgot those existed, might look into that later

[Mark Kaine]

i actually liked desoldering even more, its kinda challenging and some pcbs died (rip) but it's so fun... like magic! lol

 

24 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Thats called flux cored solder, mines also flux cored

ah, yeah, those are really good... soldering is simple but you do actually need a ton of tools (because thats what makes it simple) tweezers, pcb cleaner, desoldering wick, a brush... that seem to be about the most important ones, besides the iron (get one with temps sensor, that's *really* important) 

 

i can't really help with the mod though because I don't entirely understand what it is, but seems the paste might not be the best option,  you'd most likely would need to heat it up first, and idk i can see that getting messy quickly (but then again I don't really understand this mod tbf)

 

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

15 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i can't really help with the mod though because I don't entirely understand what it is, but seems the paste might not be the best option,  you'd most likely would need to heat it up first, and idk i can see that getting messy quickly (but then again I don't really understand this mod tbf)

The mod im doing is quite literally just bridging pads, yes its that simple and basic