Homeade soldering iron tip for memory cell install

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bb911

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I'm going to attempt to replace the memory cell in my old Yaesu FT 26 (2m only) with a homeade soldering tip. It's meant to be used on SMD parts.

The link on how to make and use it : Making a Fine Tip for Your Solding Iron for SMD Soldering

I got the old cell out. It was a nightmare using the large tip I had handy. It seems that I didn't do any heat damage. Has anyone used this technique or similar? How did it work?
 

wrath

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No has ever introduced you to to a box of paperclips and a locking forceps, you can grind the point what ever way you need for the job , I don't go anywhere without a gas iron and paperclips .You always have the right tip !

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SCPD

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I've used a very similar technique, BB.
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It takes a steady hand and good eyesight (today I work on such circuits with +3 diopter reading glasses.)
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SM technology is really great- until you have to solder something !

Oh, and don't forget to use a wrist grounding strap least a static spark zap's something in the process..... :)
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.......................CF
 

bb911

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Thanks for the 2 responses!

I've used a very similar technique, BB.
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It takes a steady hand and good eyesight (today I work on such circuits with +3 diopter reading glasses.)
.
SM technology is really great- until you have to solder something !

Oh, and don't forget to use a wrist grounding strap least a static spark zap's something in the process..... :)
.
.
.......................CF


If that isn't the truth. Plus, I have a tremor in my right hand and have a horrible problem seeing close up. I managed to get the cell out, but can't get a new one back in. I thought I destroyed a diode removing the cell but it turned out to be ok. I was probably very close to having the lithium cell exploding from the heat.
 

SCPD

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I have replaced those memory batteries (little buggers !) more times than I can remember.... Like you experienced- removing the battery is one thing- replacing it is another !
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In some case where there was a chance of making a perfect muck of the circuit board, I have moved the battery to some other location, and used very fine wires to connect back in. There is/was usually a spot somewhere it could be reposition'd to......with a dab of silicon cement to hold it in place. "Ugly Construction"- but no one will ever see it, and by that point I don't give a Fig !..... Ah !... so often this saves both the circuit and my sanity.... lol
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............. :)
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...............................CF
 
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bb911

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... I have moved the battery to some other location, and used very fine wires to connect back in. There is/was usually a spot somewhere it could be reposition'd to......with a dab of silicon cement to hold it in place...
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............. :)
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...............................CF
That's what I've been thinking also. There's a cell phone repair business nearby that looks like it does some soldering -- in addition to replacing broken screens. Maybe they will do it for a few bucks. Have I mentioned that the cell is mounted vertically off of the board!? Anything short of a near perfect 90 degree install and it wont fit the empty space that it's designed to fit into.
 

SCPD

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Hi BB.... :)
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I don't know exactly what you are facing- the size and the vertical placement of the battery- but you are probably doing the right thing by taking it to the guys with the the good eyes, steady hands-- and the right soldering stuff.
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But lacking this working out- you might consider modifying the replacement battery- as in using a different one. The voltage is the important thing, but anything you can fit in that spot easier may be something to consider. I don't think a smaller battery will make any difference- the nano-amp draw from them is so insignificant that the difference in their live's won't matter.
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The biggest thing is not to destroy the circuit board !......... (Oh, don't me get me started there...lol :) )
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.........Good luck !
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.
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......................CF
 

SCPD

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Hi BB.... :)
.
I don't know exactly what you are facing- the size and the vertical placement of the battery- but you are probably doing the right thing by taking it to the guys with the the good eyes, steady hands-- and the right soldering stuff.
.
But lacking this working out- you might consider modifying the replacement battery- as in using a different one. The voltage is the important thing, but anything you can fit in that spot easier may be something to consider. I don't think a smaller battery will make any difference- the nano-amp draw from them is so insignificant that the difference in their live's won't matter.
.
The biggest thing is not to destroy the circuit board !......... (Oh, don't me get me started there...lol :) )
.
.........Good luck !
.
.
.

......................CF
 

majoco

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+1 on what CF said - except I used double-sided foam tape to attach the cell to a bit of bare chassis nearby. The way the battery was soldered in almost covered the solder pads and I wasn't confident that inspection would reveal a satisfactory job. The original battery must have been soldered in with the board out of the chassis - all those wires to unsolder - not brave enough!

I have no need for an SMD soldering kit - I don't have SMD eyes or fingers any more!
 

bharvey2

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While I haven't performed the method described in your link, I have chucked tips up into a drill and turned them down to size then, filed to shape. I wouldn't attempt such a soldering job today without benefit of a nice, lighted magnifying glass. I'm not sure what's going on with these manufacturers these days but it seems that every small item they make is blurry. - They just don't make 'em like they used to! ;-)
 

bb911

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I gave up for now, but thanks for all the good ideas about home brew soldering and soldering iron tips. Even if I had done a perfect job soldering, I finally decided that I wouldn't be able to get the cell back into the space where it is supposed to go. Using long leads of fine wire wouldn't even solve the problem because one can't be sure where the wires would go as the case is slowly closed.
 

SCPD

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Probably we've come to the end of the road on this topic. but I finish my contribution with this photo-- work related method of handling teeny tiny little blobs of matter.... note the microscope connected to the video monitors....
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......... and note the oh- so steady hand of the some nameless person (who now sports a different hair style.... :) )
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..............CF
 

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bharvey2

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Probably we've come to the end of the road on this topic. but I finish my contribution with this photo-- work related method of handling teeny tiny little blobs of matter.... note the microscope connected to the video monitors....
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......... and note the oh- so steady hand of the some nameless person (who now sports a different hair style.... :) )
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..............CF

I never considered a different hair style. All though it seems you have more to work with than do I. (Well, maybe this isn't the "take-away" from this story) I do envy you the toys however.
 

majoco

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I'd thought of 'investing' in one of those cameras to mount over a work platform and view on a monitor, I might have to experiment. Perhaps I'll dye my grey hair back to the mousy brown it was when I was forty-ish, maybe that will improve my eyesight.... :)
 

SCPD

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Smiles, BHarvey and Majoco..... :)
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(I don't remember what we were doing that day,: "Dopping" an IMPATT Diode maybe..... but that was a PR photo....)
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...............CF
 

bharvey2

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I'd thought of 'investing' in one of those cameras to mount over a work platform and view on a monitor, I might have to experiment. Perhaps I'll dye my grey hair back to the mousy brown it was when I was forty-ish, maybe that will improve my eyesight.... :)

As have I. The proper lense would be critical though. I have however, been know to use the camera in my cell phone as a electronic magnifying glass. Crude, but effective in a pinch.
 

bb911

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Murphy's Law

Thanks everyone! I think I should start a new thread: "How does one keep from losing tiny screws that hold HT circuit boards together?". D***, I can't believe that they got "lost". Magnets and small bottles aren't good enough.
 

wrath

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So far in almost 27 years electrical tape has been a good friend what ever I take out gets stuck to the inside of the case until I need it again, what's really more frustrating about having all the pieces, is when you reassemble it and have extra's left over ?

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SCPD

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Drop'd and lost screws, oh don't I know!
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Long ago I learned to never work on anything with small parts over a rug (might as well be a jungle,) -- that the tiny'est falling screw can generate the most remarkable kinetic energy- and bounce off into space (and the attendant Black Hole) with the ease of a minor god. Today anything that remotely approaches such a risk I do with almost as much attention to the possibility of such an accident, as the operation itself - or usually.........usually..............
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I say that, for just this past Fall I forgot my little paradigm.
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We have this neat, old remote group cabin -site'd high in the mountains, way above timberline- at an old mine. Its a great place to watch the evening alpen-glo of the sun that has dip'd below the far western mountain ranges; or to hike their peaks during the day---- but also a place to go to target shoot.
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One weekend a bunch of us went up there to kill a couple crates of clay pigeons. After a day of shooting, I got this wild idea I'd take apart my 20Ga. pump shotgun ('field strip" it, I think is the proper term)-- and clean it.
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This idea may have been motivated by the bottle of Jack Daniels that was pasting around the warm woodstove... the manual dexterity and judgement of a certain party was certainly influenced a by that bottle.
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You can imagine what happen'd next
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------------ it was a small spring that zing'd out into the nether-world-- lost somewhere into the dark myriad of cracks and crevasses of that ancient cabin. I knew approximately where it landed, but even with a group searching with bright pressure lanterns- Nothing.
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Needless to say I was now feeling foolish, and a bit sick to my stomach.
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In my despair, and about to give it up, my friend Barbi said-
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"Let's try one more thing." ...........and she went out to her Jeep and return'd with a battery power'd vaccum cleaner-- a "dust buster."
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She vaccum'd every square inch of that (suspect) area.
Then while we all gather'd around her, she empty'd the contents of the 'buster' onto a piece of newspaper................................
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There was my Spring !
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____________________________________________________
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Today at work we have one of those powerful Shop- Vac's (your tax dollars at work ...;) ) sitting quietly over in a closet, awaiting its hopefully-never-to-be-call'd upon rescue mission. :)
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..................CF
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bharvey2

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+1 on the use of tape and of avoiding work over carpets. I use both methods. Another excellent tool in the arsenal is a locksmithing mat. It is a rubber-like mat that has a pattern of small, raised cylindrical dots molded into the mat. The dots limit bouncing and rolling. You do need a small pair of needle-nosed pliers to pick up little screws out from between the dots. The mat makes parts much harder to lose. If anyone is interested, Google it. You know: picture = 1K words.
 
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