Another "rate my soldering" post

1_rick

Supreme [H]ardness
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Hope nobody minds. I'm trying to build a keyboard. The way I'm making it involves low-profile switches, so the diodes are installed on the opposite side from the switches, and soldered on the diode side, not the leg side, to minimize the leg protrusions on the switch side. The pictures aren't perfectly in focus--partly that's me, probably, and partly that's my camera: all I have is a Galaxy S9 and it doesn't seem to be awesome for this kind of close-up stuff. Anyway, I tried to use a lot less solder for each joint. The diodes aren't perfectly flat on the board--I think I would need a sturdier helping hand than the $15 special I got at Hobby Lobby, or else to redo the individual joints, to get a better job (and probably some practice.)

If anyone's got constructive criticism on improving my close-up camera technique I'd appreciate that, too. :)
 

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They look decent to me (not trained- try not to glob everything). The top of D12 might be a little under, but if it's solid and looks good on the other side I'd say it's probably good...
 
They look decent to me (not trained- try not to glob everything). The top of D12 might be a little under, but if it's solid and looks good on the other side I'd say it's probably good...
Agreed. It's generally proper to ensure the entire pad has solder on it, but I would be more concerned with a concave and shiny solder joint moreso than complete pad coverage.

Practice makes perfect.
 
About 6/10 on the first set, and 8/10 on the second set.
The first you had some pretty substantial gaps (especially the bottom of the middle resistor), you got it filled a bit better on the second go around.

While you don't want to much, you don't want too little either risking poor contact or a weak join where it might fall off if bumped wrong.
Don't be afraid to shove the resistor flat and stick the whole leg through the hole, you can alway snip/trim the back side after finishing.
Keep at it!
 
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