Soldering ICs or voltage regulators

[Farthing]

Can someone advise on  the correct way to solder the kind of voltage regulators found in amps ? ie; TDA 2050. Some suggest earthing the body to ground and then there is the question of the correct soldering iron temp.

[J M Fahey]

Hi farthing.
I think you should learn and practice soldering in a general way, until you feel comfortable with it.
Google "soldering tutorial", read and watch them, and practice on a spare or junk board, so you risk nothing.
Beyond soldering, you´ll also have to learn de-soldering which is trickier.
Both skills are necessary to succesfully replace parts, which require to first safely removing them from the PCB without damaging it.

[polo16mi]

Hi:

By the way, this de-soldering pump is very usefull.  Cheap and reliable.


While desoldering component of PCB, be carefull of dont heat so much the tracks, just enough heat to smelt the tin. They lift up very easyly.

[Jack1962]

use a desoldering iron or desoldering pump to remove the part , do not leave iron on pad any longer than it takes to melt the solder (over heating will damage the pad on the PCB and possibly cause the traces to lift . when replacing the part , the same applies . 

[joecool85]

use a desoldering iron or desoldering pump to remove the part , do not leave iron on pad any longer than it takes to melt the solder (over heating will damage the pad on the PCB and possibly cause the traces to lift . when replacing the part , the same applies . 

6 years ago I repaired an old Fender bass amp for my brother, lifted the tracks, then they ripped off.  What a pain.  I "rebuilt" the circuit with a special pen from Radio Shack that has metallic ink for that purpose.  It worked well, but I wouldn't want to do it again.

[J M Fahey]

I alwats tell everybody to pamper the PCB.
For me, the PCB "is" the amp, everything else can be bought over the counter.

[GarageDharma]

I've used a desoldering bulb for some time and it's been good, i'd be lying if i said i hadn't ruined a few traces in my day, but the bulb is nice for most things i do, my only issue is for tight spaces, but then i ussually use the  wick for that

[Minion]

Can someone advise on  the correct way to solder the kind of voltage regulators found in amps ? ie; TDA 2050. Some suggest earthing the body to ground and then there is the question of the correct soldering iron temp.

You don"t want to tie the body of a voltage regulator to ground , the Body usually carries the output voltage on it so tieing it to ground will destroy the regulator and cause some sparks and even do other dammage ......
If the regulator needs to be heatsinked to the chassis then you should isolate the chip from the heatsink useing a sil/mica pad and an isolation washer for the mounting bolt and test that there is no continuity between the chip body and the chassis .......

Most all transistors , power amp IC"s and regulators need to be isolated from ground unless the IC has a plastic package .....

[J M Fahey]

unless the IC has a plastic package .....

Make that a "fully" plastic package, meaning you see no metal whatsoever on the surface which touches the heatsink.
Otherwise, *all* are "plastic", even if the back is metallic.