TRINITY PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tuning advice

[Orangeprofessor]

I figured I might as well make this thread to avoid any frustration longer down the road. I have recently placed an order for a CR4 Xl and before it gets here, I just wanted to check and see if my soldering is up to par. I compared my soldering to the soldering in Ubergeek's CR4 installation guide, and it looks decent. If my soldering looks off to you guys, how can i improve it? (besides using more flux) A there a good tips & tricks you guys could suggest to form a better connection.

Besides having perfect soldering, how can I achieve the 1,1,1.... boot time? Should I use the double shielded pro cable, an IPEX cable, or just some standard kynar wire? As for DIP settings, what are the recommended DIP settings for a Trinity mobo. What does each DIP switch control? (e.g: dip 5 controls "xzy" length and shortens "abc" time to 23ns). I have another whole series of questions about RATER, but i'll get to that when my CR4 comes in. Thanks in advance.

btw: I've already dumped my nand and there are no bad blocks.

Pics of soldering:

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

EDIT: I just cleaned up DB2G3 with some IPA as I though it was a bit messy.

EDIT 2: I just realized I had misspelled tuning and now I can't change it :frown:.......ok now.:smile: .......Thank u sherlock

 

[jligg]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Post is on the wrong point

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Post is on the wrong point

Oh, ok. Fixing that now.

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Post is on the wrong point

Updated POST connection:

 

[jligg]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Much better

 

[gavin_darkglide]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Looks decent enough to me. I have seen worse soldering, that has worked.

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Looks decent enough to me. I have seen worse soldering, that has worked.

Thanks galvin. Any suggestions for my DIP questions?

 

[keil423]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Db2g3 looks a little bad. Once you confirm that it's working properly I would probably glue it down.
Myself I would resolder it regardless. Overall decent install.

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Db2g3 looks a little bad. Once you confirm that it's working properly I would probably glue it down.
Myself I would resolder it regardless. Overall decent install.

I re positioned DB2G3 and secured the wire with some elec tape. I then cleaned up the connection with some IPA.

 

[ablegepu]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

It looks good enough to try with the wires that come with the cr4xl. Those big wires are likely to cause problems, like a post pad being ripped or a cpu-rst. but if you do the same solder job with the new wires you should be fine.
Now I'm not trying to be picky so don't even go there, but the first thing I saw after reading the first post was this little solder ball or something in between the 2 caps. I'm sure it fell out after flipping the board but I would check anyways because you never know what a little thing like that could screw up.
I would get 4 good dumps of the nand before installing the cr4 and make sure they match, then you will be set. And make sure to copy your nands into a different folder somewhere they will be safe.

Oh and let me guess... CAT5 ethernet cable? The CR4-XL is TINY and you asked for advice so make sure to trim the wire down after it is stripped and tinned with solder, then trim the wire down to 1-2mm or 1/16 of an inch. you dont need 1/4" of wire stripped back to solder to the pads plus after you trim it and solder it to the pad the insulation is going to shrink down a little so try to cut it short as possible, leaving just enough to hit with your soldering gun.

As for dips and which wires to use, my personal Trinity Cr4 is HERE so you can try some of the settings the way I found success Or you can start with the recommended settings in the install guides, and if you are not satisfied you can go through the CR4 XL SUCCESSFUL TEST REPORTS section of the forum and check out what settings other members have had success with on Trinity motherboards. Happy modding!

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

It looks good enough to try with the wires that come with the cr4xl. Those big wires are likely to cause problems, like a post pad being ripped or a cpu-rst. but if you do the same solder job with the new wires you should be fine.
Now I'm not trying to be picky so don't even go there, but the first thing I saw after reading the first post was this little solder ball or something in between the 2 caps. I'm sure it fell out after flipping the board but I would check anyways because you never know what a little thing like that could screw up.View attachment 32252
Also have you read the nand yet? Or have you not gotten that far? I would get 4 good dumps of the nand before installing the cr4 and make sure they match, then you will be set.

Oh and let me guess... CAT5 ethernet cable?

Nice eyes you got there ablegepu, I never noticed that solder ball. And yes, I am using some CAT5e cable I had lying in my basement. I'll use the wires that come with the CR4 when it comes in.

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Db2g3 looks a little bad. Once you confirm that it's working properly I would probably glue it down.
Myself I would resolder it regardless. Overall decent install.

Is there an alt point on the board that I can test the continuity for?

 

[ablegepu]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

yes there is an alt. point directly under it on the bottom side of the boad you could check it with but im sure it will be fine once you resolder it with the new wire.
But from the look of those wires it seems like you have gotten them pretty hot, just make sure to use a little bit of flux on the wires when you go to tin them and always on the pads so that you only have to touch the pad for a second and then just move the wire into the pool of solder on the pad then take the heat off of it. some of these can be easily pulled up by overheating so use flux get in get-r-done n get out.

 

[Orangeprofessor]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

yes there is an alt. point directly under it on the bottom side of the boad you could check it with but im sure it will be fine once you resolder it with the new wire.
But from the look of those wires it seems like you have gotten them pretty hot, just make sure to use a little bit of flux on the wires when you go to tin them and always on the pads so that you only have to touch the pad for a second and then just move the wire into the pool of solder on the pad then take the heat off of it. some of these can be easily pulled up by overheating so use flux get in get-r-done n get out.

I have a feeling the iron I'm using it too hot. Is a 25W Weller too much?

 

[keil423]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Doubtful. You just need to use some flux paste.

I've soldered with 15w 25w 30w and digital adjustable 60w irons. All are capable of getting the job done.

 

[briggs01]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Doubtful. You just need to use some flux paste.

I've soldered with 15w 25w 30w and digital adjustable 60w irons. All are capable of getting the job done.

I agree on both points , mine is 25w I use for this , you can never use too much flux , and try and keep wires trimmed down a bit more

 

[Rowtronx]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

Solder Tips. Use the Radio Shack 15W Solder Iron. It's a fine tip! Works wonders... Trust me.... I started as a noob. Get the Tinner to tin your tip as well as steel wool to clean your tip. I use the .22 or smaller solder lines. My Trinity that instaboots is DIP 1 and 4. 10 Ohms or 0 Ohms. Good luck!!! I love that motherboard.

 

[ablegepu]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

I think you are right about the 15w radio shack iron, it is good for beginners. because of the low heat and small tip it us actually a very good all around iron but if trying to solder a big ground plug into a header or something it may take a while to melt the solder even with flux. If you are doing a demon cr4xl install, you can do all of it with the 15w iron. But there are lots of other things you are going to want to do later on down the road that the 15w won't be hot enough for. So I suggest just like with a multimeter instead of buying 4 or 5 until you find the right one, just go ahead and get a good adjustable soldering station and be done with it.

 

[keil423]

Re: PRE-CR4, How's my soldering?+Tunning advice

I'd say it's goes either way with the 15w. It's great because of the small tip. The low level of heat can be both good and bad. I prefer to run my iron hot so I can get in and out quick. With the 15w you tend to have to leave it in place longer to get the solder flowing. For people who solder dry and refuse to use flux it makes it easy to get pads like the stby-clk to stick to the tip and pull right off.

It's also very difficult to do the NAND pins with a 15w. Especially the ground point or yellow wire for the nandx. I still sometimes have trouble getting that flowing even with my big iron set at 370c.

It can be done but I would still be inclined to recommend a 20-25w iron over the 15w.