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15 August 2026

M. T. Kimmins edited this page Aug 16, 2026 · 4 revisions

The PCB

I am nearly done making the hardware for the LTSDM project! I have one more connection to solder and I’m done (I had missed a connection and the continuity testing revealed they weren’t connected)! This is my best work yet — albeit still very novice. For a while there, I noticed that the MISO and CS pins were continuous when checking with my multimeter (how you would check if your solder actually connects everything), but turns out I accidentally melted their wire loops on the top together through their plastic shielding, causing a short circuit. I have taken a decent amount of pictures, so I aim to post them afterward as well.

Soldering Tips

If I was teaching someone to solder, I would definitely buy a 30$ iron from Amazon first. It will be garbage, but will still allow the basics of soldering to be learned: tip care, and applying solder. This cheap iron would be great when learning tip care as it is a high chance one’s first tip will be oxidize to death. I would say, must haves for starting out: tip tinner, and flush snips.

Protoboard spacing

I’ve learned that soldering immediately adjacent is difficult without connecting them. Conversely, soldering bridging between two holes without a wire bridge is harder than I thought.

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