You've hit the nail on the head many times here. I can relate. Thank you for sharing your story.

I had a Megafile 30 that I pulled the hd (Seagate ST225) and installed a 70.5 megabyte hd. I partitioned into roughly 2 30 megabytes partitions. 1 for the Atari and 1 for the Mac running on a Spectre GCR cartridge. When I took it apart it was setup to except 2 hard drives except the current psu could only handle one.

You should be drowning it in flux. Forget expensive flux formulations, simple rosin dissolved in IPA is fine. Drown it in flux. Heat component legs and feed in solder. Clean it all in an IPA bath.

Looking much nicer. 👍🏻 Have you tried using a BC2 or BC3 tip? Sub'd. Keep up the good work. 👍🏻

Have you tried replacing the heating element yet? They can go bad sometimes. I had similar problems with my Aoyue 9378, it couldn’t heat the pads like it used to. The ceramic coating was coming off the heating wires inside, and although I initially couldn't see anything wrong on the outside, it eventually cracked and came loose. Before it completely failed, I was already having issues, so it was likely compromised inside and not functioning as a solid unit anymore. When I put the tip on a wet sponge for a short period, the temperature reading didn’t change. This makes sense because the built-in temperature sensor was measuring the heating element, which stayed hot since it couldn’t transfer the heat to the tip. Normally, the station should detect the temperature drop and start heating the element again. However, when the element is broken and can’t transfer the heat, the temperature reading remains the same. I used a thermocouple to measure the tip and let it cool down to about 250°C on the sponge, but the station still read 350°C. That's a good indicator that there might be something wrong with the element.

I have just sent you an email and also the same on FB. :)

I am 62 and a month ago I finally went to the doctors and told them I hear voices. 2 weeks ago I went to see a specialist who diagnosed me as having negative thoughts. I have suffered depression for over half of my life but since I was a kid, I never sought help about anything and always kept it to myself. I had suicidal thoughts, attempted a few times and since they all failed, I think and know it is a waste of time. I am like you, learned a lot by watching youtube video's. I have my hobbies that I like to do. I used to be a carf mechanic and a lorry driver. After a life saving operation twice in a week, I am refused sick pay and benefits from those at the dhss, even though I put into the system most of my life starting from 1978 when I started working. I am on medication for depression, diabetes, anxiety, stress and high blood pressure. I have no income and suffer with a bad back (have done for many years) and cant walk far but according to a lawyer and a doctor at a sick pay tribunal, because I can move a cup 6 inches, I am fit for work. I was a lorry driver lifting, loading my lorry and delivering rolls of fabric up weighing up to 40kg's and down the country. What I earn now and again is fully to me and nothing to the government.

The sponge lowers the temp of hte tip too much

With the loose fitting tips, a way around that is to put a thin copper foil around the ceramic heater core and put the tip on. It takes up the space and transfers heat faster as it touches both surfaces of ceramic and tip. Another tip I have done is to make my own tip tinner. Buying is expensive for the amount you get. To make a tip tinner, get some crap / or solder wire without the flux core, melt a lot of it into a big blob and let it cool down. Grind it down into dust with a dremel (or similar) and a grindstone or sanding disk / roll. MAke plenty of solder dust. Add it to citric acid and place it in a metal tin with screw lid. You can add flux into it to bind it all together if wanted. Makes a good tip tinner. I never use a damp sponge for cleaning hte tips, I use a brass or wire scrub sponge from tesco or sainsburys (I get me wife to buy them for me when she goes shopping) and if you want to make a holder for the scrub, a tin of carnation milk is an ideal size. I made a tip cleaner from toothbrush size brass brushes. Cut the heads off from the handles and glued them into a square and wipe the tip over them. Works just as well as the sponges.

My fave soldering station now is the Yihua 982. I bought it with the C210 handle and then bought the c245 handle and tips set for both. I use the c 245. It is very fast at heating up and goes to 200c when the handle placed in the rest. I have a few T12 kits and plenty of tips, few different displays for the T12 tips, Parkside soldering station which I bought off ebay for next to nothing as it didnt have a tip and a Draper soldering station too. I have the cheap 5w USB iron and also the TS101 portable with extra tiups and dont use it. I tinned it and made a case storage for it but never used it..

I wont use lead free solder. I always use flux cored leaded solder. Soldering station at 360c and around 400 for desoldering.

Great job! Great advice!

What is the story with the NON-STANDARD value 16pf caps. Just put a STANDARD 15pf & 1pf caps in parallel, it will work FINE, ...PROMISE! :) Depending on the circuit, just the 15pF on their own might be fine.

"Multicore" brand solder is great, try it!

The trick is to NOT NOT NOT put the solder onto the tip, ...put it on the pad and wire at the same time (mostly, with some ever so SLIGHTLY and SHORTLY touching the tip to start the melt & heat transfer cycle).

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Noob to Pro? Whom is this question even for? Why is it a question?

Get some Plato flush cutters. They're pretty cheap. They're what you use to clippie boards. As the Chinese girls used to say.

What I'm seeing is you're feeding the solder to the iron tip. That's not good. The iron is just there to heat up the joint. You're soldering the joint. So you feed the solder to the joint. Solder goes to heat. Just what it does. You have the iron on one side of the joint and you apply solder to the other side of the joint. Try it. Really if you're practicing heat control you really don't even put the solder tip on the part lead. You heat the pad and let the solder wick the joint. Just don't feed the tip. If you do the solder will just ball up on the tip. You want the solder on the joint. So that's where you have to put the solder. Sometimes you have to feed the tip a little to wet it for heat conduction. But mostly you're going to be feeding the joint.

do yourself a favor and get a T12 soldering station. saying this as someone who owns a yihua. its been quickly relevated to hot air only

Being there doing that One day after the other. Kudos to you for sharing.

You can get quite good cheap solder but it's definitely hit and miss, you need to test it to make sure it's good, you can usually tell by the amount of flux residue it leaves behind and the melting point. Also directly heated soldering irons like JBC T245 clones are miles better, no need to muck around trying to get good heater to tip contact it just works, you get near instant heating and can easily swap tips in seconds.

On the second leg of the transistor you got too fast on the third leg moving the second leg while it was solidifying, making the second solderjoint brittle. Also try to work faster, adding a little more solder the first time. To not overheat the component, apply a 4 second rule max. of soldering the joint. You can, for example, place multiple components and switch between every leg soldered to give the component time to cool. Furthermore, 360 degree celcius is way too hot. Check the specs of the solder and look at the size of the pads/tracks. You might need a little higher temperature only when the groundplane is very large.

Just getting caught up as i have been away but yes cheap solder is utterly useless, it maybe worth going over a few of the previous soldering if you’re not happy. Practice makes perfect with anything and you’re getting buddy. Looking forward to the finished result. Thanks

Quality of flux and solder makes a huge difference.

Something to bear in mind regarding the soft drink can shims: They are coated on both sides - outside with paint/print, and inside with a thin coating of plastic to act as a barrier between the often acidic drink and the metal of the can. If you can't source any un-coated metal to use as a shim, give both sides a brush with a wire wheel in a Dremel to get rid of a source of fumes and potential damage to the iron's heating element.

Cheap solder is like cheap tires on a car. Don't do it. I only use good 60/40 solder from Mouser or DigiKey. Also, I never use lead free. Only use leaded with a fan to suck the fumes. The piece of aluminum you use, sand the paint off so that the heat transfers better. Great improvement on your work!!! Thanks for sharing

I never gave the solder I use a second thought, mainly because I got it well over 20 years ago - probably from Maplin. When the reel finally runs out you can be sure I'll follow your advice - something so core ('scuse the pun!) to working on electronics deserves to be an investment 👍🏻⭐

You could try the cheap solder on the hotter temperature and see how it flows, because a lot of cheap solder acts like lead free solder where a hotter iron is needed to get a good solder joint. On the iron itself measure the heating elements outer diameter and get tips with the inner diameter is nearest to the diameter of the heating elements outer diameter.

great work- like 8

The problem with the cheap solder on ebay & amazon is that you can never know if it's what it says it is! I have seen solder advertised on amazon as "60/40 lead free" - which is an oxymoron! I use the loctite multicore crystal 400 (60/40 3% 'no clean' flux) stuff available from CPC/Farnell in the UK as well as Mouser and the like for reasonable price, and can't remember the last time I used external flux during soldering! I had the same epiphany as you coming from a cheap lead free reel. It really is night & day both in terms of ease and the nice shiny result. Welcome to soldering nirvana :)

This was incredibly brave and selfless. Well done. Good things can happen to good people.

Thank you for sharing this - I think it's so important to do something one loves and finds rewarding, which is why it's awesome that the support you got to surmount your personal challenges means that you can share what you love to do and build a community of nearly a thousand (and I'm sure many more in the future!) like-minded people who, like me, love a bit of retro tinkering - cheers!

Awesome story 😁👏. You have another subscriber today my friend. I didn't suffer from depression but a bit of a midlife crisis. I too got back into retro computing over the last couple of years and love my collection and carrying out upgrades and fixes etc.

Thanks for this. I work in mental health & have my own first hand experiences. Are you going to Kickstart Commodore Amiga Uk Expo - KS02? If so, I'll see you there!

Thanks for this Great Video. Simple and to the point. Very Good Camera shots !! I've had this unit in a shopping cart since yesterday while doing research (which is how I found you) as to the quality of said unit. I'm heading to check-out NOW, as I found it for $73.00 U.S. Thanks Again... Subscribed.

Much respect sir. When I created my channel it wasn't at a high point and it was nice to have something to put energy towards that gave me a positive feeling. We do indeed love to see what you're doing. Keep up the good work.

simon I want to thank you so much for making this video and for caring enough to do it!I'm going to re group and try harder..most of my family is gone..but I have a fantastic mother who has always been there for me...she is getting older now and has had some health issues which scared me to death...but she is OK now...I love collecting retro games and hardware it is a passion I have had since 1982...and I love your videos!! thanks again simon!😊 ..

Good job love the videos and thanks for the advice. 53 myself and love the retro scene even thinking about picking up a soldering iron myself because of you. Barry

Thanks for sharing your personal experience and story. It will help others. Glad the channel, yes this great channel, is helping. Cheers!!

Thanks for sharing. As a none native English speaker, i need to ask what G.P. is short for, you used it when explaining who you talked to, around 3.50 into the video. How long did you think about making a video about kicking the taboo of a mental sickness, great courage from your side, and probably a fine way to help the healing process.

Complete respect for sharing your story. I also suffer from Depression, I realised that I always had it with varying levels of severity. But things became severe when my Mother died some 16 years ago. I started having what I call dark thoughts and developed a sleeping problem which got more and more severe. After losing my job because of these problems I was eventually diagnosed which Depression about 10 years ago. Back then there was some sort of Mental health care on the NHS, but now it has almost disappeared. The only help I get now is from a mental health charity called MIND and that service has been reduced over the last couple of years! That's why I use retro computing as a hobby, its help remind me of happier times.

Thank you for sharing this story. It will do more good for people than I think you realize.

Hats off to you. Being 50 myself, I've see the effects of mental health in my own family. Hard times but with the help from others there is a light at the end of the tunnel as you said. oh and 948 subscribers isn't too bad at all. I have 1 subscriber and that's my daughter 😊 Goes with the 1 video I have up. 1 for 1 as they say. Take care and see you on the next video.

Respect for doing this video, I hope you can leave the tunnel, at least most of the time.

Add the board details to PCBWay or something similar so people can have one made?

Did I miss the competition winners for these PCBs? Guess I wasn't a winner?

It's all coming together! So much patience required.. looking forward to the next part! 🙌🏻

Nice work. The chip for the BeebSID is a NanoSwinSid. It’s an AVR SID chip.