CHAPTER #3
MAKERbuino, it's time to meet your maker! (pun intended)
Soldering basics
Have you ever soldered before? If your answer is “yes”, you’ll probably know what you’re doing and you can just fastly skim through this intro
paragraph.
In case
you’ve
never soldered before, please take 10 minutes of your time and look at one of the following how-to-solder guides:
•
video tutorial featuring Collin Cunningham - https://youtu.be/QKbJxytERvg
•
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering
•
https://youtu.be/f95i88OSWB4
•
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-solder-through-hole-soldering
To sum all of these tutorials up, making a good soldering joint is very important and can be quite easy is you follow this simple rule:
your soldering joint has
to look like a small “volcano” and mustn’t be a tiny ball or blob or soldering. A bubbly blob
-like soldering joint is a sign of
too much solder or a need of more heat (you have to resolder the joint).
All of this is shown on this awesome picture by Adafruit industries (thank you Adafruit!):
Motivational tip from Albert (the guy that designed the MAKERbuino)
Soldering is an essential skill if you want to become an electronics ninja one day.
Your soldering iron is a magical wand, only instead of enabling you to fight black magic, it gives
you the power to create unique intelligent electronic devices from scratch.
Don’t get frustrated by soldering failure, it’s just a matter of practice. You’ll get better in it over
time by soldering kits like MAKERbuino and working on other fun projects you decide to make. I
know how frustrating it can be when something doesn’t work from the first try. The truth is,
you’ll have to get used to it because you’ll get lots of that in the world of DIY electronics.
And pleas
e, don’t worry, In the worst case scenario (your MAKERbuino not working) we’ll make it
work together.
Good luck and keep making!
