soldering question

[kenholloway]

I tried to add a patch bay to the sound chip on my Furby - overkill I know but I was hoping to make a table of what each possible connection does for future use   .

I'm doing ok with the soldering but its so fiddly that its a nightmare. I spend half my time removing solder that I've accidentally put between pins.

Does anyoe have any cunning tips or methods of how to solder on 20 or so wires to a tiny Furby chip? 

shakey hands don't help....

[Circuitbenders]

use a smaller soldering iron tip?

[kenholloway]

I was thinking that. My one goes to a point at the end, but the solder refuses to go there, prefering to clump in big blobs on the side... Are the pointy ones better (mine is like a cone shaped one), or the ones that end in a chisel/wedge?

[nochtanseenspecht]

or wind some solid copperwire round the tip of your iron, and let the end stick out a bit. now you have a small tip.
works perfect 

[Signal:Noise]

If solders not sticking to your tip, by some tip cleaner/re-tinner, soon as it starrts blobbing, just use a mini file to get any cack off and re tin, will work like a charm then.

[creature]

One trick I have tried recently, is to blue tack 2 razor blades either side of the pin you are soldering too, to help avoid overspill onto other chip pins. Sounds barmy, but it seems to work quite well. Especially when you have shaky hands like me :-)

Also, the most important bit of kit in my tool box is a roll of celotape. I tape all wires into place first, and tape to the desk before I solder, so the lead sits still.

btw, I did a furby bend recently, pics on my site:

http://thehauntedhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Circuit%20Bending%20Audio%20Recording

I just love the sound of a furby going crazy. I built a remote control box for it in the end, containing 2 glitch switched and a 1/4 inch jack socket.

Steve
www.hauntedhouserecords.co.uk

[kenholloway]

Nice, thanks for all the handy tips everyone, some combination of those should lead to success...

creature:  That Furby's sounding good, my most recent one hardly makes any recognisable furby noises at all, just gibbers and sprays madness all over the place, sometimes it sings a lullaby though. Need to add a line out so I can put up a recording.

Two more Furby's on the way for the patch bay project and, something else, not sure what I'll do with the second one - probably hide it from my girlfriend and pretend I never bought it 

[creature]

Yeah I wouldn't mind bending another furby. They are a total pain in the arse getting the case off though. In the end, once I got into the thing I taped it to the desk by his ears to stop it moving around :-)

My current proejct is a major morgan I got off ebay for 3quid. So far I have put a LDR on his head to turn him into a theramin. Sounds quite cool. I'll stick up some pictures once I have finished and made some recordings.

Steve
www.hauntedhouserecords.co.uk

[kenholloway]

major Morgan eh? Just looked up what that is and now I'm bidding for one on Ebay 

I think I'd also like one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ROBO-BABY-tiger-electronics-with-bottle-carry-cot_W0QQitemZ330099280031QQcategoryZ2662QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 - by the makers of furby... evil baby, heheheh

[creature]

The morgan is pretty cool. so far i have the theramin on his head, a strange portamento/strangled cat glide (which happen by accident as i messed up the soldering on the chip pins). Going to try a voltage crash tonight too, to see if it does anything :-)

Not a lot of room inside the case for mountnig switches though, so have started a breakout box.

Steve
www.hauntedhouserecords.co.uk