A lot of people who are new to electronics often find themselves intimidated by soldering and working with printed circuit boards (PCB). You needn’t be. Circuit boards are not nearly as fragile, “high-tech,” and complicated as they superficially appear. The process of working with them can be very straight-forward, as long as you follow some simple preparations, procedures, and precautions.
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We’ve covered the basics of soldering countless times here on Make:, so we won’t touch on that here. What follows is a collection of tips and tricks for working with PCBs beyond just soldering the components (called “populating”) onto the board. Some of these are basics that are too often missed, others are more advanced trickery. Hopefully, they will all be helpful, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned wirenut.
When you first get into electronics and start putting together kits, those kits usually come with a components check list and each step in the build process is designed to be ticked off as you progress through the project instructions. You are always highly encouraged to inventory all of the parts in the kit before you start and to mark off each step as completed. This is a great habit to never get out of. A lot of the perceived complexity of electronics work is thanks to lots of tiny little parts to track and dozens (and dozens) of solder joins to lay down onto a tiny and over-populated PCB. By just being careful, methodical, and organized, you alleviate a lot of the problem. Taking the time to set up a PCB project, inventorying and sorting the parts into temporary parts bins or bags, reading through all of the instructions, and sort of blocking out the build in your head will all pay off in the end.
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When you first get into electronics, it seems counter-intuitive that you have to expose your circuits to cleaning solutions, but cleaning your PCBs should always be part of your circuit-building regimen. And you want to clean the board before you populate it and after. Make: contributor Ross Hershberger writes: “Cleanliness is next to solderliness. Freshly scrubbed copper takes solder with less heat and wets more thoroughly, so always scrub or otherwise de-oxidize your boards before soldering. I use isopropyl alcohol and a fine abrasive like a Scotch Brite. Or a pen eraser followed by alcohol. For bad corrosion, use a glass fiber “pen.” Steel wool may leave fibers that can cause shorts.” Here’s a brief piece on Maker.io about options available for board cleaning, but in the end, for most of us, it comes down to using rubbing alcohol and the exes’ toothbrush.
Populate Lowest to Highest
PCBs can be very tightly populated on a board and can soon become very crowded, leaving you with little room for getting your components, your iron, and your solder wire to the area where they are needed. One way of improving your board-soldering mojo is to plan how you’re going to populate the board beforehand. Solder on your components, across the board, starting with the lowest (usually the resistors) and moving up. That way, big components won’t get in the way when you’re trying to install low-lying ones right next to them.
Use a Pair of Tweezers
Get yourself a pair of electronics tweezers. Even if you’re not mainly working with surface-mount components, which are tiny enough to require such tweezers, adding through-hole components to the board is much easier with tweezers than trying to get parts in place with your fat and meaty end-effectors.
Use a Component Lead Tool
Component lead bending tools, often branded by a supplier and given away as swag, are a great little addition to your electronics toolbox. Along with pre-planning and organizing, having the discipline to keep your circuits neat, tidy, and tight to the board, will pay off in the end. Precisely bending component leads to the proper lead width can help in that process.
More on PCBs
Skill Builder: Fabricating Project Boxes from PCB Cladding
Circuit Skills: Circuit Board Etching
Different Types of Circuit Boards
We’ve covered the basics of soldering countless times here on Make:, so we won’t touch on that here. What follows is a collection of tips and tricks for working with PCBs beyond just soldering the components (called “populating”) onto the board. Some of these are basics that are too often missed, others are more advanced trickery. Hopefully, they will all be helpful, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned wirenut.
When you first get into electronics and start putting together kits, those kits usually come with a components check list and each step in the build process is designed to be ticked off as you progress through the project instructions. You are always highly encouraged to inventory all of the parts in the kit before you start and to mark off each step as completed. This is a great habit to never get out of. A lot of the perceived complexity of electronics work is thanks to lots of tiny little parts to track and dozens (and dozens) of solder joins to lay down onto a tiny and over-populated PCB. By just being careful, methodical, and organized, you alleviate a lot of the problem. Taking the time to set up a PCB project, inventorying and sorting the parts into temporary parts bins or bags, reading through all of the instructions, and sort of blocking out the build in your head will all pay off in the end.
pcb box build assembly services
When you first get into electronics, it seems counter-intuitive that you have to expose your circuits to cleaning solutions, but cleaning your PCBs should always be part of your circuit-building regimen. And you want to clean the board before you populate it and after. Make: contributor Ross Hershberger writes: “Cleanliness is next to solderliness. Freshly scrubbed copper takes solder with less heat and wets more thoroughly, so always scrub or otherwise de-oxidize your boards before soldering. I use isopropyl alcohol and a fine abrasive like a Scotch Brite. Or a pen eraser followed by alcohol. For bad corrosion, use a glass fiber “pen.” Steel wool may leave fibers that can cause shorts.” Here’s a brief piece on Maker.io about options available for board cleaning, but in the end, for most of us, it comes down to using rubbing alcohol and the exes’ toothbrush.
Populate Lowest to Highest
PCBs can be very tightly populated on a board and can soon become very crowded, leaving you with little room for getting your components, your iron, and your solder wire to the area where they are needed. One way of improving your board-soldering mojo is to plan how you’re going to populate the board beforehand. Solder on your components, across the board, starting with the lowest (usually the resistors) and moving up. That way, big components won’t get in the way when you’re trying to install low-lying ones right next to them.
Use a Pair of Tweezers
Get yourself a pair of electronics tweezers. Even if you’re not mainly working with surface-mount components, which are tiny enough to require such tweezers, adding through-hole components to the board is much easier with tweezers than trying to get parts in place with your fat and meaty end-effectors.
Use a Component Lead Tool
Component lead bending tools, often branded by a supplier and given away as swag, are a great little addition to your electronics toolbox. Along with pre-planning and organizing, having the discipline to keep your circuits neat, tidy, and tight to the board, will pay off in the end. Precisely bending component leads to the proper lead width can help in that process.
