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XC3754 Soldering Guide
This should be an easy soldering job, as the flat tabs of the IC sockets absorb heat very
well, so try to rotate the project so the iron comes from the top of the board and touches
the entire pad and socket tab at the same time.
You should see that the tab gets hot almost immediately. Don’t hold the heat too long,
because IC sockets are notorious for melting quickly, and it can become a bit of a mess.
2 seconds max, but these are great to practise on so see how fast you can do a whole
row of them. They don’t always follow that volcano shape, so if the solder is not going
into
the joint too much, don’t worry.
Solder all tabs in for both sockets.
Capacitors
The capacitors are the easier components to solder, and there’s only two of them.
The little one is a ceramic capacitor and can go in either way. The larger black capacitor
is an electrolytic, and has a polarity similar to an LED. You will notice that this too has a
longer lead indicating positive, and a marked strip indicating negative.
The ceramic goes into
C2
on the PCB board, which is next to the larger
IC2
socket. The
electrolytic goes into
C3
which is next to the smaller
IC1
. If you asked “which way?” then
congratulations, you’re catching on. The supplied installation notes mention:
“Capacitor (C3) must be installed with the negative side down & short leg in the lower
hole.”
Bend, snip, and solder in place.
Connecting the header pins
The header pins can be a little strange to work with, as they are too thick and strong to
try to bend once they are in position. However, you can use the alligator clip from the
third hand tool (or whatever tool you’re using to hold the PCB in place) to grab both the
PCB and the header pins, while you dab just one connection on.
