I'm now going to advise generally that if you believe you have some sort of issue with the soldering of the IDE header, DO NOT try to solder it yourself, unless:


OK, I think I'm doing this about right, except I have a few questions (see attached picture for details) These are the proper tools for opening it up, right? I had a heck of a time getting that lid off.



- you are highly experienced with a soldering iron


Oh, sure -- I solder the ends of the cables on my mountain bike all the time. Keeps 'em from fraying.

- you have a 0.5 mm, ball-tip soldering iron

I'm not all that good with metric stuff -- does my soldering iron look to be about half a millimeter? I guess it's kind of a ball tip -- I mean, the end is somewhat rounded.

- the iron is a temperature controlled, set to around 350 - 375 degrees centigrade

How can I tell when my iron is at 375 degrees? If I hold a meat thermometer against it, will that tell me? I guess I can just wait until the tip of the iron glows a nice orange-red color, that'll be hot enough, won't it?

- the iron is a core earthed professional unit

I scraped most of the dirt ("earth" - is that some kind of British technical term?) off my iron before I started. Does that mean it's a "professional" unit?

- you are using a silver based high-quality solder, 0.6 mm

I don't have any silver-based solder, but I do have some lead ingots that the plumbers left here when they fixed my drain pipes last year. That'll work, won't it? I'm sure that those ingots are at least 0.6 mm, so that ought to be big enough to do the job.

- you are using a high-quality liquid flux with non-corrosive qualities

What is this "flux" stuff? I generally use a mixture of dish soap and battery acid to clean things before I solder them, works a treat! Don't know just how "high quality" the dish soap is, but it's a name brand, and it's for sure liquid. Non-corrosive, too, as long as you don't spill any on you.

Finally, just what is this "IDE Header" thing you're talking about, anyway? What the hell is an IDE? I've heard of "...the IDEs of March..." but that's still weeks away. I don't get it, so I'll just heat up anything I can find that looks shiny, and that oughta take care of it. Right?

I don't know why you're so worried about DIY repairs, Rob. This really doesn't look all that hard to me.



tanstaafl.