Bought a Marshall Guvnor kit, how does a newbie begin?

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jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
Any resources on electronics & soldering?
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  • randomhandclapsrandomhandclaps Frets: 20521

    How much experience of actually soldering do you have?

    My muse is not a horse and art is not a race.
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  • jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
    None...
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  • handsomerikhandsomerik Frets: 1005
    You tube has helpful videos on how to solder. 

    Also when you're putting components into the pcb You should start with the shortest in height and work up to the taller ones. I also find it helpful to use masking tape to hold components onto the pcb once in place so they don't fall out when you turn it over to solder.

    Take it slowly and carefully. It's a great feeling when you finish a pedal and it works :-)
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  • jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
    Cheers for that @handsomeerik
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  • randomhandclapsrandomhandclaps Frets: 20521

    Good advice from Rik.  A mallish crocodile clip is also handy for holding components in place.  Try and get a bit of practice be going for the board.

    Two real soldering basic that catch many out though and to always keep in mind -

    • Always keep your soldering tip clean or you will start burning things rather than soldering.
    • If a joint takes more than a few seconds then stop and recheck everything as something isn't right and may need cleaning off for a good and damage free joint.
    My muse is not a horse and art is not a race.
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  • ElectroDanElectroDan Frets: 554

    When you are ready to solder a joint; tin your iron. This means adding a little solder to the tip. Then all within a couple of seconds you want to introduce the iron so that it simultaneously contacts the leg of the component and the pad, add solder from the other side until you see it flow around the joint ( completely filling/covering the hole ), take away the hand holding the solder, then remove the iron. Allow it to cool/harden naturally (instead of blowing on it).

    Get some copper strip board and cheap resistors and do a load for practice.

    If you then get into the habit of adding a bit of solder to the tip before replacing the iron into the stand, you will get through far less tips. Same before you turn it off, the solder hardens and protects the tip from oxidising. Of course clean the old solder off, and re-tin before making a new joint.

    Use lead free solder too. Don't worry about the reports of it being harder to use. Lead is bad stuff to get into your body.

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  • GuyBodenGuyBoden Frets: 733
    edited July 2014
    Spend a lot of time just looking at the layout, knowing each component's value and knowing exactly where everything fits. Keep double checking the layout and each component valve, until you get a picture in your mind of how it all fits together.
    "Music makes the rules, music is not made from the rules."
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  • jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
    Thanks for tips chaps
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    ElectroDan said:

    Use lead free solder too. Don't worry about the reports of it being harder to use. Lead is bad stuff to get into your body.
    I agree that you don't need to use leaded solder, but if you use lead-free, make sure it's the more expensive kind with added silver. (Maplins sell it, it's not hard to get.)

    Plain lead-free is really much harder to work with, especially if you're inexperienced - because it's not only trickier to get a good clean joint with it, it's harder to tell when you have because even good joints look a little 'cold'. Silvered solder looks and behaves much more like leaded - well worth the extra money.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    Out of interest (Guv's are my favourite pedal) what kit is it please?

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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  • Phil_aka_PipPhil_aka_Pip Frets: 9794

     Lead is bad stuff to get into your body.

    It is, but the amount you're using makes naff all difference. ROHS is more about what happens when you've dumped loads of pcbs in the landfill and eventually the lead leaches out
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    Phil_aka_Pip said:

    ROHS is more about what happens when you've dumped loads of pcbs in the landfill and eventually the lead leaches out
    No, it's more about politicians coming up with knee-jerk legislation which makes it look like they're doing something, but which is actually the wrong solution to the wrong problem.

    Stopping leaded solder going into new products does absolutely nothing about the leaded solder in all old electronics made in the last century and which is mostly destined for landfill even if it hasn't gone there already. Properly sorting the waste would, and if done it wouldn't matter that there was lead in the new stuff too since it would also get sorted! But sorting is expensive.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • robkayrobkay Frets: 11
    edited July 2014
    Use a piece of sponge/ foam cut to the size of the pcb  and a piece of thin ply or hardboard the same size, a couple of rubber bands and it will hold the components in the board while you solder them......
    rob.
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  • jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
    Cheers for all the tips, got a week off work in august so am gonna start then. Its a General Guitar Gadgets clone kit
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  • ecc83ecc83 Frets: 1589

    Re lead:

    We used to fix radios and TV with fag in one hand, tea, solder and a wad. Guess what killed off most TV techs?

    Then, I used to shoot on a range that has been in continuous use since WW1. You cannot turn sod one without find a bullet or case. And yet the trees grow, the flower bloom and the rabbits are bloody pest.

    Yes, lead is toxic but only if you eat it or vaporize it in fuel! Solder with 60/40 if you need to, don't eat, drink or smoke and wash hands afterwards.

    I am knocking on 69 and have a LOT of health issues but despite a lifetime of lead solder Pb poisoning is not one of them!


    Dave.

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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    edited July 2014
    I think the legislation is more to do with heavy metals ending up in landfill, polluting the surrounding land and finding their way to the water supply Dave!
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    ecc83 said:
    Yes, lead is toxic but only if you eat it or vaporize it in fuel!
    I didn't know this for a long time, but it's also *extremely* toxic as airborne particles - for example from using a grinding wheel/Dremel etc on leaded solder joints. Luckily I found out about it before I ever did anything like that.

    I think the legislation is more to do with heavy metals ending up in landfill, polluting the surrounding land and finding their way to the water supply Dave!
    No, it's definitely about politics. Banning leaded solder from new electronics products does absolutely nothing to stop lead entering the water supply from landfills, because there is a nearly a century's worth of old lead-content products either in them already or destined to end up there sooner or later. Stopping new products from containing lead will only begin to have a reducing effect at some point in the future, but it will never eliminate it completely.

    It's not only closing the stable door after the horse has long gone, it's ignoring the fact that the stable is open at the other end and the horse got out that way.

    The only way to stop the lead from already-landfilled products getting into the water supply is to dig up all the old landfills and remove the lead. The only way to prevent more lead getting into current landfills is to thoroughly sort and separately recycle anything containing it. Both these things are massively expensive, so the politicians and/or their advisors came up with a way of seeming to have tackled the problem so they can improve their 'green' credentials, and move on to something less difficult.

    I wouldn't be surprised if the silver which has replaced the lead isn't all that benign in the environment either.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    Well, the RoHS/WEEE is an attempt to make the world a better place for future generations and I can't see that as a bad thing. Silver, like most metals used historically for jewellery is relatively inert and has low toxicity.

    I must read up on that theory that we live in a less violent society now since lead was taken out of petrol... 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    edited July 2014
    Well, the RoHS/WEEE is an attempt to make the world a better place for future generations and I can't see that as a bad thing.
    Except that it won't work, for the reasons I gave. Worse, it gives the *impression* that they've done something useful, when they haven't. If you want to achieve what the legislation is supposed to achieve you have to stop simply dumping rubbish in the ground, and sort it very thoroughly before recycling all the potentially harmful stuff. Which perhaps usefully would go some way to reducing unemployment as well, since it would be very labour-intensive… and even that wouldn't get rid of all the lead which is already in old landfills. The only way to really sort out that mess is to dig them all up again - which is never going to happen.

    Silver, like most metals used historically for jewellery is relatively inert and has low toxicity.
    It is fairly inert, but I'm not sure it's low toxicity if it does get into a form where it can be ingested. I'd have to read up on that.

    I must read up on that theory that we live in a less violent society now since lead was taken out of petrol... 
    Quite possible. Putting lead in petrol is a completely different thing than putting it in solder though - that gives it a direct path into the environment in one of the most dangerous ways. It was absolutely right that it was stopped - especially as its presence was simply to allow the use of lower-quality engines without hardened valve seats. The problem of pre-ignition which it was originally put in to cure was solved much earlier.

    The lead in solder is harmless while it's in the product.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
    Less violent society? Nah people drink more coffee than ever before so they all want to kick off. I work in the rail industry & every operator is expanding their security side.
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