soldering to IC pins....(help!)

[jamiewoody]

i am struggling with this. the solder does not seem to want to stick to one of these.

what could i be doing wrong? advice please?

[Gordonjcp]

You need quite a hot soldering iron, and you need to get the pin hot enough for the solder to melt properly to it.  The problem is, if you do this close to the IC package you can damage it...

When you solder something the surface needs to be clean, which is why solder has flux - it helps clean contamination off the surface.  You could try a wee spot of liquid flux, such as you'd use for soldering surface-mount parts.  It's important that the solder "wets" the part that you're trying to solder to.  You might get the solder to "stick" but it will break away if it hasn't wetted properly.  Look at the difference between raindrops on a freshly-polished car, and raindrops on a less shiny surface - on the polished surface it's a mobile "blob" which sits on top, but if the water "wets" the thing the surface tension is broken and it "sticks" to the surface.

[jamiewoody]

as far is this goes, i discovered 2 things. first, i was tinning my wires before soldering, which seems to be the normal practice.

i found (2nd thing) if i play "hooky" with my wires, then solder that helpes. if i tinned the wire first, it would not fit around the IC pin.

the things that sucks, as you mentioned, i think i may have fried the chip. no sound, just light static if you listen closely to the tiny speaker.

the thing i love about the bigger SK and MT series casios, is the larger circuit boards, and bigger solder dots, so  it is not even nessesary to solder to the IC itself. *sigh*.

note taken though, gordon. cleanliness is next to godliness. i need to get a big ole' can o' contact cleaner. that stuff is not cheap these days either!

it seems like an odd combo, extra hot soldering iron, but too much heat will fry the chip. it would take the wisdom of galolph the grey to know this delicate balance! 

[Circuitbenders]

it seems like an odd combo, extra hot soldering iron, but too much heat will fry the chip. it would take the wisdom of galolph the grey to know this delicate balance! 

be quick

and practice on something that doesn't matter.

[nochtanseenspecht]

if it is too hard to do, better solder to the connected traces on the board.. no risk of heating the ic

[jamiewoody]

the hard thing is i don't think there were traces on the sa2.