Specifications

About Soldering Your Remote Switch…
Assembling your Remote Switch kit isn’t that hard, but we recommend that you don’t choose it
as your first kit project. You must be able to solder small components using fine solder and get
nice shiny solder joints. If you have never soldered before, you need to learn anyway, because
if you are going to do rocketry electronics you’re going to be doing some soldering. If you
want to get into advanced projects like telemetry, you’re probably going to be doing a lot of
soldering. We recommend that you get a few small kits from Ramsey or SparkFun, put them
together, and hone your skills on them first. There’s a lot of fun stuff out there, so go for it!
The Remote Switch uses a number of Surface Mount Technology (SMT) parts, they are large
by SMT standards, and are within the realm of being hand-solderable. In order to help make
your assembly successful, we have included some very fine (.020”), very low temperature
(about 180°C), no-residue solder. This is not the stuff that you get at Radio Shack… it’s
designed for soldering small temperature-sensitive parts without transferring much heat to the
part itself.
Important Note on using flux: Be VERY careful about your choice of any extra flux.
You really don’t need to use any, but if you do choose to do so make sure that you use a liquid
“no-clean” type of flux such as Kester 951. DO NOT use any kind of rosin or similar organic
flux, it is almost certainly going to be incompatible with the flux in the no-clean solder and
make a big mess. Extra flux may require excessive heat in order to boil off the flux, possibly
damaging the sensitive components in the kit.
For soldering components on a board like the Remote Switch, we recommend a small pencil
soldering iron, about 15W. If you are only going to use it occasionally, Weller makes a decent
cheap 12W iron, it’s about $15. There is also a similar iron that’s sold by ECG. We like those,
but the copper tips seem to oxidize and corrode rather quickly compared to some more
expensive irons; fortunately, the tips are replaceable and cheap. Better would be a fancier
soldering pencil with iron tips; those run about $30, but they’ll last forever. The best iron
would be a temperature-controlled solder station; they typically start at about $50 for a cheap
one and can go to a few hundred dollars if you want to get really fancy. Weller makes a good
one for about $50, if you make the investment that will probably be the last soldering iron you
will ever need to buy. These solder stations usually have a little well with a tip-cleaning
sponge, so they end up taking less room on your workstation too. Get the smallest tip you can
find, preferably with a conical tip that’s about the same width as the smallest pad. .032” (.8
mm) conical tip is ideal. We do NOT recommend that you use an extremely-fine “needle
nose” tip, we have found that they may not conduct enough heat to the pads to allow the solder
to flow out well.