Equipment and materials for electronics repair.

Hi everyone!

In this article I want to go over the main technical means and materials that you will need if you are planning or already engaged in repairing electronics and printed circuit boards, sometimes a lot is forgotten. I will intentionally not give specific links to equipment. Everyone has different capabilities, but the repair principle is unchanged.

I apologize in advance for the abundance of links to videos, but they are intended for those who are encountering this area for the first time and it is better to prepare in advance for future tests and studies. It is also useful for experts to brush up on the material part. I do not pretend to be the truth and do not impose anything on you, you have the right to solder as you see fit.

Let’s go!

Technical equipment.

1. Hood. Any soldering is accompanied by the release of harmful smoke, so an exhaust hood is necessary. Not a filter with a fan, but an exhaust hood to the street. Take care of your health.
2. Soldering station. It usually includes a soldering iron and hot air. Or you can use a separate soldering iron and a separate hot air station. There are a huge number of soldering station modifications, from expensive professional ones to cheap ones from Ali.
3. a) Soldering iron. Comfortable work depends on its quality. Choosing a cheap soldering iron from Ali, you save money, but you will be annoyed by quickly burning tips and not very good quality workmanship. A professional soldering iron with temperature control costs 10 thousand. If it is expensive, then buy the soldering iron that will satisfy your wallet and toad.
4. b) Soldering hot air. Necessary for dismantling and assembling electronic components. There are no special requirements.
5. c) Thermal tweezers. In addition to the soldering iron, it would be great to have thermal tweezers. With its help, it will be much easier for you to solder and desolder any SMD components. Modern thermal tweezers can work with sizes from 0201 and above.

3) Microscope. There are a lot of different ones. Choose by price but remember that if it is an analog binocular microscope, then your vision and comfort of work depend on its optics. Good optics make them very expensive. You can replace it with a digital microscope with a camera and display from Ali. Not bad for repairs.

4) Hot preheat table. Used to heat printed circuit boards during soldering with both a soldering iron and hot air. Makes it more comfortable to change components. It is advisable to buy fluoroplastic stands for boards for the preheat table.

5) Lighting. When repairing, your eyesight is always strained and the better the light on your table, the less tiring your work will be. Choose high-quality diode lamps with a color temperature of 5500-6000 lm. Better 2 on different sides of the table to eliminate shadows.

6) Computer. Needed to search for information about boards and components. It is easier to work with a diagram or documents for components on site than to run to the next room.

7) Infrared soldering station. Needed to replace BGA chips. Expensive and important for work. Will pay off on large volumes of repairs and the technician will already have to have knowledge of soldering profiles.

8) Multimeters/Oscilloscopes. For measuring PCB circuits and electronic components.

PCB Repair additional materials.

1) Solder wire. The main soldering material. There are a huge number of alloys, but you need lead: Sn63Pb37, Sn60Pb40 or lead with silver Sn36Pb62Ag2. Also Pbfree alloys like a Sn97Ag2 and etc. Solder wire with is dry flux inside.

2) Soldering paste. For reballing BGA chips and soldering new printed circuit boards. I recommend the same paste alloys as tubular solders. A syringe of high-quality soldering paste costs $30.

3) Soldering flux. 3) Soldering fluxes. Without false modesty, I will say as an engineer-technologist that there are not many high-quality soldering fluxes. The most important thing is to pay attention to the type of flux and look for ROL0. If you approach the issue illiterately, you can accidentally buy an active soldering flux. If you don’t clean it properly, you’re dooming the PCB to corrosion from the soldering flux residues. I recommend the Diamond Flux FN231 gel soldering flux and the Diamond Flux FN232 liquid electronics soldering flux.

4) Tweezers. Several different ones. The most popular tweezers are with narrow sharp tips.

5) Tinner for tips. It is also a tinner for soldering iron. Old or worn tips will hold, to be additionally tinned when soldering becomes impossible, and the solder does not stick to the tip of the soldering iron tip.

6) Sponge for tips or shavings. For cleaning tips during everyday work.

7) Stencils for BGA microcircuit. They will be needed only if you have sufficient qualifications for reballing microcircuits. Experience is gained. Try it.

8) Desoldering braid. It is needed in cases when you need to remove excess solder from the connection on the board. There is also a solder sucker, but it is much more expensive.

10) PCB cleaner. The type of liquid is selected based on the flux you use when soldering. Some fluxes are no-clean and will not harm the board even if they are not washed off. However, many soldering fluxes must be washed off thoroughly to prevent subsequent corrosion and leaks on the board. In repairs, no-clean fluxes ROL0 are usually used, and FluxOff local cleaning fluids or Vigon EFM liquids for complete immersion of boards are used under them.

Many people make a huge mistake when using glycerin and some acids when soldering. Don’t use these materials.

Many people use ultrasonic baths, but this is a key mistake from ignorance of the production technology. Ultrasound destroys some components on the PCB board.

In my opinion, all this is enough for repairing and soldering of printed circuit boards. Thanks for reading.