Resistors!




My first component soldered on!

My solder came in the mail today, so after the kids were in bed it was time for my first good soldering session! I have used a soldering iron before, but never on a PCB and never with any sort of neatness or accuracy. But I've watched a few online videos and read some tutorials, and isn't that all any of us need to be able to accomplish just about anything in life?

After about an hour, I had soldered on all the resistors. Well, almost all of them. There's one that I accidentally ordered only quantity of one and actually needed two. And another one they were out of stock and I had to order in a second batch with some other components. But they are mostly all on.

The big resistor in R1 is temporary. The design is to either use this resistor or a power choke. I'll try this out with the cheap resistor first, make sure things are working, then remove it later and add the choke when I want the amp to start to sound better.


Good progress...

The tiny ones are not much fun to solder. They all look the same and are just little guys. I like the big ones! It's quite satisfying to see neat little mounds of solder flow through the holes.

I chose to use 63/37 solder, since I read that it is a little better than standard 60/40 in how it solidifies. To help as I soldered, I used two books as props to hold up the board (two favorites:  The Joy of Mixology and Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking).

I have a word document on my computer that I've copied the parts list into and I mark each one off with an X as I attach it. Also, best tip ever:  when I ordered the parts from Digikey, they let you add a customer part number to each item. Then the components come in little baggies with a label describing the part and also with your own part number on it. This made it really easy to go in order down the parts list and match components to the location labeled on the board.

I also have updated my workspace to now include an extra lamp sitting up on a can of paint, and a larger box for my cat to sit in.

Overall, soldering was easier than I thought. Of course, these are supposedly easier components to add! I'll do the tube sockets next time.




PCB with all the resistors (almost).