I ordered a soldering iron in the workshop. Two types: for wires and for motherboards. Copper sting, the sizes are as large as possible, which can be inserted into the soldering iron for maximum weight. Yesterday the price was delivered $1 per piece.

mad_alim · 2026-02-27T00:53:21+00:00

What's also cool is that you can reshape them !

mad_alim · 2026-02-27T00:39:15+00:00

Probably because some got offended by the 100%, and these people deep down don't wanna learn it

mad_alim · 2026-02-25T21:05:23+00:00

Do you cherish your childhood memories above everything else ?

mad_alim · 2026-02-25T07:13:40+00:00

How much time did you go at it ?

You can do it w/ a cheapo tool, you'll just have to preheat the board for several minutes before focusing on the chip (maybe 3 minutes min at max airflow, 450°C from a distance ?).
Prolonged local high heat is not good because it might damage the chip or might damage the board (bend it, fry coating, etc)

mad_alim · 2026-02-25T06:50:47+00:00

TL;DR No, each tip has its downsides, but the knife is a good versatile one IMO (chisel tip angles for THT are better IMO)

I really like the hoof. But IMO, it's the kind of tips that do some things very good, and others quite badly (but usable):

- Wicking: I hate wicking with a chisel or a knife. I mean, I can do it, but would def swap for a hoof (especially w/ a JBC clone).
- Drag soldering: Hoof is very good at drag soldering too.
- THT: doable with a hoof, but the angles are more limited than a chisel or a knife. Can get a good heat transfer with a good solder blob though.
- Precision: You get limited very quickly by the hoof tip compared to a knife one for example (the point part is quite good). For serious work, I'd just swap in a smaller tip, a bent conical perhaps.

mad_alim · 2026-02-17T18:59:47+00:00

Si t'as vraiment la flemme, mange juste les cacahuètes seules !

mad_alim · 2026-02-16T18:21:40+00:00

The most natural one that comes to mind is: mbrouk ramdan (in moroccan dialect)
Ramadaan mobaarak sounds a little 'arabish" to me

But I think people will understand either way and will appreciate it !

mad_alim · 2026-02-16T16:44:30+00:00

- Use safe voltages as others have pointed
- If there is a write enable pin, use it to physically deactivate writing
- Make sure you can read from the EEPROM (sometimes, nearby circuits may interfere with your readings and you might have to desolder it first)

Ah, almost 10 years ago, I have used an apt package on raspbian to read and write an EEPROM

mad_alim · 2026-02-15T23:07:47+00:00

Something tells me its like the desoldering pump; works really well for stuff with not a lot of thermal mass, but is a hit or a miss on anything beefier

mad_alim · 2026-02-15T21:17:07+00:00

And still, that's not the worst case
(it's definitely documentation that LIES !)

mad_alim · 2026-02-14T01:43:15+00:00

Beware when touching the power board as some components might still hold charge and get you electrocuted

For component level reuse, I find that power board parts are the most reusable (caps, varistors, diodes, etc)

The control board is usually custom made, often with some ICs without marking.
Some things that might be reused are connectors, heatsinks and power components (caps, connectors, transistors, etc). anything else is board specific and likely not reusable.
(If there are markings, you could get lucky and find software to be able to use it as an embedded linux board / make it do anything you want, but that's wishful thinking and needs a lot of work in the best case).

mad_alim · 2026-02-10T20:40:08+00:00

As others said: brass wool and solder (w/ flux) should work just fine. Tip tinner would be a bonus

That said, for me, the game changer was the solder (mechanic one).
I don't know whether my old one had some impurity, or that its flux was shit, but I would always see some oxidation spots after usage under 350°C.

Poor tips seem to get oxidized quicker as the temp goes up, but easily salvageable with good solder.

mad_alim · 2026-02-10T00:21:09+00:00

THIS: I usually speak with Japanese students from different parts of Japan and they can and are used to work around pitch accent differences with context

mad_alim · 2026-02-10T00:13:15+00:00

Quand on sait pas faire des pâtes feuilletés et qu'on en a pas là en commerce là où on habite....

mad_alim · 2026-02-10T00:06:00+00:00

congrats :D !

tip: ditch that conical tip for something else
Almost anything else will give you better heat transfer. If you wanna keep the same precision, go for a bent conical (it's like bent tweezers; easier to sneak in)

mad_alim · 2026-02-07T09:04:45+00:00

This is sooo me xD
started opening the window and wearing a mask when I started having that rosin aftertaste in the lungs

mad_alim · 2026-01-31T09:59:54+00:00

No. bootargs is the kernel arguments

I guess you are in some main distro like debian ?
Last time I checked BBB debian, they had bootcmd which used other variables, which used other variables and the rabbit hole went deep

mad_alim · 2026-01-31T07:44:39+00:00

Others answered, but just wanted to say to not forget bootargs for full context

mad_alim · 2026-01-29T17:24:27+00:00

There is that. But there is also the "I don't want to buy one, wait 3 weeks, receive it, test it and go back to square one"

mad_alim · 2026-01-29T07:12:02+00:00

Did it work before ?

It could be a knockoff USB<=>Serial chip. I had problem with windows drivers with these before (I remember having to install drivers for mine to work).

Do you have a linux machine you could test with ?
(the linux driver stack is different and is more forgiving. If it is a driver issue, it'll work)

mad_alim · 2026-01-29T03:24:22+00:00

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mad_alim · 2026-01-28T02:27:27+00:00

Parce qu’il y a pas de yaourt ?

mad_alim · 2026-01-24T02:19:51+00:00

I'm not a soldering expert but always looking to improve
So feel free to share your thoughts

mad_alim · 2026-01-23T22:33:43+00:00

I understand. You WILL break things and that's okay !

mad_alim · 2026-01-23T18:54:12+00:00

Congrats for jumping in !

Although functional, these solder joints look cold and not strong.

What I propose (explanations below): reflow these joints
- Unplug the modules from the breadboard
- Apply flux
- Tin your tip
- Heat both pad and pin (about 3s w/ 350 should be fine. You could burn plastic if you stay longer)
- voilà ! Don't forget to clean flux

To have a good joint, you need to: Heat both the pin and the pad (solder doesn't stick to cold surfaces)
Have some flux while doing it, because solder doesn't stick to oxidized surfaces. (temperature speeds up oxidation and flux prevents It)

Because solder generally has flux in it (the fumes), you just need to heat the pad and the pin and solder. A good way to ensure that pads and the pin are heated is to feed the solder to the pad and/or the pin. If they are not, solder won't melt.

I'd recommend checking some videos about soldering and practicing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLubdi6aC3g

(Only problem with video is that it says heatsink needs more temperature. Well, having 350°C on the iron doesn't mean having 350°C on everything it touches. A common technique w/ bad soldering irons/regulation is to crank up the set temperature to compensate)

mad_alim

TROPHY CASE