Hi Alex
Welcome to the group and thank you for your very first post! I'm still practicing and grateful for any advice.?
Thank you for your detailed soldering tips, but I think the problem here wasn't the soldering task. Essentially, I made several mistakes when testing a smaller bamboo housing. Firstly, the hole for the Mogami microphone cable was a bit too narrow. With the result that the cable could only be pushed through with effort. I liked that it was very firm at first. I soldered the capsule and after a while pulled it slowly back into the prepared capsule hole. It fit quite well. I connected the SimpleP48 to the audio interface and on first listen it sounded really good. From then on everything went wrong. Maybe I should have mentioned it in more detail beforehand, to avoid misunderstandings. I'm sorry for that..
I pushed the capsule back out of the capsule hole to apply some (E6000) glue to the cable ends and solder pads. Then I pulled the capsule right back in and tried to adjust the position a tiny bit. At this point I heard a slight ¡°crack¡± sound and immediately knew what was wrong¡
The whole operation was a bit amateurish. I just played around and tried to get used to the different materials. And after everything went wrong I wanted to at least fix the solder pads (with your help¡). Hopefully I learned my lesson.
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make the mic cable hole slightly bigger next time¡
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don¡¯t hurry, test the functionality of the SimpleP48 after soldering and before doing anything else¡
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After testing and everything works, apply glue and let it dry¡
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When the glue is fully dried, pull the capsule slowly and carefully into the prepared housing¡
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don¡¯t try to adjust the position of the capsule in clockwise or counterclockwise direction after it has been pulled into the prepared housing¡
Using bamboo roots as a lav like housing is just an experiment... Maybe it's not the best idea.
I'm working an another bamboo housing right now and keep you informed.
Many thanks!
On Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 04:15 AM, Alexander Gaudio wrote:
Hi Heinz,
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A couple soldering tips:
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I would suggest for future soldering experiments to tin the wires before soldering.? Also add a very small glob of solder to the pad,? especially if they are not already soldered or if your soldering iron is too low temperature to melt the pad's solder. Last, make effort to minimize heat by using a vise or metal block to hold the capsule, only touch the solder for minimal amount of time, and set your iron to a minimum reasonable? temperature (i use 312C with an unleaded solder).? I can solder them with literally a split second touch of the iron when everything is just right.? I'm no expert - I have only soldered about 20 electret capsules so far, and I still make many errors.? ?If you mess up, take your time to let things cool down.? ?Buy extra capsules to experiment on :)
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I will take note myself of the very good advice on this thread to use smaller wires.? A friend mentioned to me that if the wires are too small, they can break easily or introduce signal noise.? I would imagine you could isolate just a small portion of strands from a large wire and solder that portion the pad, but I have not tried that.?
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Also, not sure how much it actually matters, but I try to minimize ESD discharge by grounding myself and tools before touching the capsule.? This probably matters if you try to solder on top of a carpeted floor.
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The dataset for your capsule may have similar instructions or specifications.?
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Good luck,
Alex
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This is my first post.? What a great group to join!
