A video on soldering 7135 chips to a NANJG driver

This is just my method. Others have different methods. The method I use, to hold the chips on the driver for soldering, is the real reason I wanted to share the video.

The "Hemostats" talked about in the video, are properly called "Allis Tissue Forceps" and they work fantastic for holding the chips in place, while soldering. They are very expensive, but the link above will show some "budget prices".

I have always had "issues" with soldering these chips on, but I have learned that they just take some practice. Anyone with a good soldering iron can do this and it's an easy way to up the amps on these NANJG drivers.

Veeeery interesting, thank you very much O-L !

I feel so confident now, due to your most excellent video, I am going to chip my drivers now, thanks! 8)

Thanks for sharing!

Excellent video O-L! One extra thing I do is to solder the tab (the fat pin on the other side) down as well. This is where the bulk of the heat is extracted from when the 7135 is regulating. If it’s not soldered to the PCB, I think that it would run extra hot.
If you do this, you do not need to solder that tricky middle pin down at all.

Thanks O-L, I tried a couple of times before watching this video to solder some of these chips and failed miserably, thankfully I don’t have a swear jar. :wink: I’m sure I’ll try again, when I do I’ll be sure to reference your video.

The second video today to make soldering look easy. Dumb question. When I get the tip hot with a variable temp iron the very end goes black with what looks like slag from welding and it does not matter what i clean the tip with, if I dip the tip end in flux does not help I always end up with a tip that solder will not adhere to. A couple of mm from the end is fine.

I dont need glasses and I use a magnifying glass when I do what your video shows. What are you using that is not shown in the video?

Sounds like the tip is shot to me. I would clean the tip, when cold, with fine steel wool and then try to find some of the stuff to “tin the tip”. Heat it and tin it. See if that sticks. If it doesn’t, then I would get rid of the tip. I use Tip Tinner and Cleaner, from Radio Shack. I would imagine you could find something like that.

Also, you might try running the heat down a little and see if it still turns black like that. It might be the flux burning up. Mine does to some extent and I wipe it off with a paper towel each time I go to use it. I wipe all the black off. If the black does not come off, then refer to the first statement I made.

I do not use anything close up. I wear glasses, but when I really need to see something close up, I take them off. I can see minute stuff better close up, with just my eyes. Binocular vision close up. Better than a 3x loupe.

Glad to hear someone else saying that four letter word ...

FLUX

When a tip goes black on the end like that, it’s usually time for a new tip. Tip tinner can work as a temporary fix, but it will usually come back. I keep a few extra tips around so when one goes bad I can just swap it out.

Tip for loading up just the right amount of solder onto a cleaned iron - snip off the right amount with your nail clippers (everybody should use nail clippers for snipping solder!), then pick up the little cylinder with the iron. If it's too much/not enough, snip off a longer/shorter piece and start over.