[NTLK] eMate Hinge Repair Questions

[Mark Crutch]

Before trying to desolder leads from an eMate, I would recommend
practising on something less precious. Any old dead circuit board from
the 80s through to the early 90s is likely to have large enough
components that it will provide a good target - dig around in the
garage for that old PC or child's toy.

In my experience the best way to learn to solder is to practice
DEsoldering. You'll learn a lot about how solder melts and flows by
trying to remove existing components - and then you can try soldering
them back in place. The "solder sucker" pumps that are available for
desoldering are okay, but in my experience "desolder braid" gives
better results - just push it onto the joint with the tip of the iron,
ensure that it and the joint are both heated sufficiently, and it will
wick the solder away leaving you with clean joints to re-solder onto.


All this is probably overkill for just removing and replacing speaker
wires, but a bit of practice beforehand will make the job a lot
easier. Knowing how to clean up with desolder braid and then re-make a
connection afresh will make you more confident that you can recover in
the event that things do go wrong.

I used to teach basic electronics to kids, and getting them to
desolder and re-solder on otherwise useless old circuit boards saved
us a lot of expensive mistakes by the time they got to the real
components ;)


Mark

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