Yes. Play with temp and amount of flux on clean copper until it flows well and joints almost suck in the solder. Also pre tinning wires can help make quick joints good.
Remember you aren’t melting the solder on the iron. You are using the iron to make the wire hot enough to melt the solder on to it.
here’s what I do. Set soldering iron to 350C, then tin the wires and the contacts in the PCB/whatever then just put the wire on top of the tinned contact and put the soldering iron on top of the wire and done!. Don’t be affraid of temperature ruining your PCB, it won’t unless you let it a long time on top heating the contact you are soldering. Practice Practice Practice
It’s one of those things you just have to get a feel for, but it doesn’t take much to get there. Get some scrap wire and parts and just play with it. You have to burn yourself a few times before the solder fairies 🧚‍♀️ come to bless you.
Some tips that helped me early on: you’ve got to heat both the thing you’re soldering and the thing you’re soldering to. If you just heat the wire, the solder will stick to just the wire, if you just heat the pad the solder will stick to just the pad, you’ve got to heat them both at the same time so the solder will stick to both. When the wire/pad are hot enough your solder will melt when it touches the wire/pad; you don’t want to be just melting the solder on the iron and then trying to sort of wipe it off on the things you’re soldering. The solder wants to stick to what’s hottest, if your iron is hottest then that’s what the solder will stick to, also that statement isn’t exactly true but you’ll do a lot better if you pretend it is. Also, flux will clean the surface to help solder stick to it. Heat needs the solder to travel through, a dry iron heating a dry wire or pad isn’t going to work well because the heat won’t transfer. This is why you tin your iron and why you tin the parts you want to solder. If the solder won’t stick when you’re trying to tin them, use some flux. Your solder will have some flux in it, after a while of having your iron hot, the flux in the solder you used to tin your iron will burn off, so if everything is going well and then suddenly the solder stops sticking, clean the solder off your tip and re-tin it with fresh solder. Generally I solder at 720°F and I’ll cut it down to like 680°F for more sensitive stuff. If you’ve got large chunks of metal or heatsinks you’ll need to go higher in temperature to heat it up enough to get it to melt solder. If you’re using lead free solder you’ll have worse experience but maybe live a little longer.
Get some flux, and some tip cleaner. Flux is what us in the industry call, and this is a 100% technical term, but we call it ‘liquid magic’. Get some, and use it always. ALWAYS. It will make your solder joints much much cleaner, and it will be far easier to focus on the quality of your solder joints since you won’t be fighting against the physics of metal+heat=oxides
You get better at it yes. But also important is the tools and material you use. From the looks of those joints, you had no or little flux and a cold iron.
You do get better over time+flux is a literal lifesaver. For smth like this I’d also recommend securing the object to your work surface with like painters tape to ensure that it doesn’t flop around while you’re tryna solder. Tin your wires too if you haven’t and that should help!
Something nobody seems to have mentioned yet- you can use a slightly larger iron tip for better heat transfer. These joints look like they’ve been done with a small one.
I keep Sn:Pb on hand for ‘nice’ joints and have a low eutectic solder paste that I use when there’s something I want to demount and the pin pitch is too high.
Otherwise, yes one will improve with time: you *will* make better joints more quickly with less thermal damage to other parts.
Flux, pre-tinning, solder applied to the joint, and a nice hot iron: all are key.
Yes. Play with temp and amount of flux on clean copper until it flows well and joints almost suck in the solder. Also pre tinning wires can help make quick joints good.
Remember you aren’t melting the solder on the iron. You are using the iron to make the wire hot enough to melt the solder on to it.
Yup. You do.
Flux everything, tin both sides first, melt together Hot and quick. Practice.
You’ll get there.
are those thru holes that you did **not** put the wire thru? it does not work that way.
Soldering is my favorite thing in electronics.
Just practice, but in this case don’t be too hard on yourself because those led strips are always a pain to solder stuff to.
here’s what I do. Set soldering iron to 350C, then tin the wires and the contacts in the PCB/whatever then just put the wire on top of the tinned contact and put the soldering iron on top of the wire and done!. Don’t be affraid of temperature ruining your PCB, it won’t unless you let it a long time on top heating the contact you are soldering. Practice Practice Practice
It’s one of those things you just have to get a feel for, but it doesn’t take much to get there. Get some scrap wire and parts and just play with it. You have to burn yourself a few times before the solder fairies 🧚‍♀️ come to bless you.
USE FLUX BRO
Just get better at preparing your solder.
In this case, it’s highly probable that solder is surrounded by strip’s original varnish.
Use isoptopyl alcohol to properly clean contacts, light 1800 sand paper to scratch copper surface for better flux deposit, etc…
If you have dedicated fluids (flux cleaner notably) it’s better
Yes.
“bigger the blob, better the job”
But also yes. Practice makes perfect. Even after 20 years, I still make mistakes. We’re all human. You’ll do fine.
More flux and more heat. The Flux will give a better flow and more heat (not longer heat) will counteract the pcb heatsinking effect.
Same way you get to Carnegie hall.
Some tips that helped me early on: you’ve got to heat both the thing you’re soldering and the thing you’re soldering to. If you just heat the wire, the solder will stick to just the wire, if you just heat the pad the solder will stick to just the pad, you’ve got to heat them both at the same time so the solder will stick to both. When the wire/pad are hot enough your solder will melt when it touches the wire/pad; you don’t want to be just melting the solder on the iron and then trying to sort of wipe it off on the things you’re soldering. The solder wants to stick to what’s hottest, if your iron is hottest then that’s what the solder will stick to, also that statement isn’t exactly true but you’ll do a lot better if you pretend it is. Also, flux will clean the surface to help solder stick to it. Heat needs the solder to travel through, a dry iron heating a dry wire or pad isn’t going to work well because the heat won’t transfer. This is why you tin your iron and why you tin the parts you want to solder. If the solder won’t stick when you’re trying to tin them, use some flux. Your solder will have some flux in it, after a while of having your iron hot, the flux in the solder you used to tin your iron will burn off, so if everything is going well and then suddenly the solder stops sticking, clean the solder off your tip and re-tin it with fresh solder. Generally I solder at 720°F and I’ll cut it down to like 680°F for more sensitive stuff. If you’ve got large chunks of metal or heatsinks you’ll need to go higher in temperature to heat it up enough to get it to melt solder. If you’re using lead free solder you’ll have worse experience but maybe live a little longer.
when you start cleaning your tip and start using flux, yes.
[basics](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqvHogekDI4)
Get some flux, and some tip cleaner. Flux is what us in the industry call, and this is a 100% technical term, but we call it ‘liquid magic’. Get some, and use it always. ALWAYS. It will make your solder joints much much cleaner, and it will be far easier to focus on the quality of your solder joints since you won’t be fighting against the physics of metal+heat=oxides
What i wanted to add: don’t use chip solder or flux. Buy high quality brands. Especially as a beginner.
You get better at it yes. But also important is the tools and material you use. From the looks of those joints, you had no or little flux and a cold iron.
I mean… you certainly can.
It’s all about practice! Don’t get too down on yourself if you aren’t good yet. You’ll get there with enough practice!
You do get better over time+flux is a literal lifesaver. For smth like this I’d also recommend securing the object to your work surface with like painters tape to ensure that it doesn’t flop around while you’re tryna solder. Tin your wires too if you haven’t and that should help!
Something nobody seems to have mentioned yet- you can use a slightly larger iron tip for better heat transfer. These joints look like they’ve been done with a small one.
Use a lot of flux and clean tips..
That’s the best thing.
This is ARGB? I bought for my pc and messed up soldering after moving it too much need to do it again
Always heat the wire with iron first then put solder on wire. Otherwise you could mess up your soldering tip.
Some people do, I definitely worked with some dudes that never did.
Low temperature solders can also be a boon.
I keep Sn:Pb on hand for ‘nice’ joints and have a low eutectic solder paste that I use when there’s something I want to demount and the pin pitch is too high.
Otherwise, yes one will improve with time: you *will* make better joints more quickly with less thermal damage to other parts.
Flux, pre-tinning, solder applied to the joint, and a nice hot iron: all are key.