Soldering basics

Have you ever soldered before? If the answer is “yes”, you’ll probably know what you’re doing and you can just quickly skim through this intro paragraph.

In case you’ve never soldered before, please take 10 minutes of your time and look at one of the following how-to-solder guides:

• Adafruit’s video tutorial featuring Collin Cunningham– a tutorial featuring Collin Cunningham, a super charismatic electronics guru
• Adafruit’s standard soldering tutorial– A great and thorough video tutorial. An absolute must-read, even if you know how to solder. Make sure to check the “common soldering mistakes” section at the end.
• Sparkfun’s video soldering tutorial– Another well made how-to-solder video tutorial.
• Sparkfun’s standard soldering tutorial– A well written tutorial made by SparkfunTo sum all of these tutorials up, making a good soldering joint is very important and can be quite easy if you follow this simple rule:
  
  your soldering joint has to look like a small “volcano” and mustn’t be a tiny ball or blob of soldering.
  
  A bubbly blob-like soldering joint is a sign of too much solder or a need of more heat (you have to resolder the joint).
  
  Here are the pictures that can help you recognize good and bad solder joints:
  
  

Motivational tip from Albert (Ringo’s hardware designer)

Soldering is an essential skill if you want to dive into the world of DIY electronics.

Your soldering iron is your best companion when it comes to creating something new. It gives you the power to create unique electronic devices from scratch. Nobody is born a soldering genius. It’s a skill just like any other and you need to practice it in order to become better at it.

Also, I know how frustrating it can be when something doesn’t work from the first try. The truth is, you’ll have to get used to it because DIY electronics is all about the trial-and-error process, all while learning something new.

And please, don’t worry, In the worst-case scenario (something not working) we’ll make it work together.

Good luck and keep making!

Albert, the creator of Ringo

Pro tip

We suggest that you start assembling the Ringo when you’re fresh because the process of assembly can take up to 5 hours depending on your soldering skills. (In other words, don’t start building it at 2 AM.)

If you're using your soldering iron for the first time or need help with cleaning its tip, check our video tutorial.