Antony Gelberg wrote:

Hi,

I know this should be simple but isn't. I need to resolder a DC power
connector on a laptop, due to dry joints.

I can't find my old, rarely used soldering iron, so I went to Maplin and
bought their cheapo 30W soldering iron.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...32909&doy=13m6

I would have thought that is good enough for PCB soldering, but I can
barely
get the old solder on the board to melt, let alone re-solder the joint. I
can't work like this, I'm going to arse about for hours and still not get
it
done properly. Is the problem likely to be the fine point nib that it
came
with? I have always used flat-tip bits in the past. Or is the Maplin
iron crap, and should I have bought the Antek 30W instead -
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...ce=14&doy=13m6 ?
Yes and No:
Yes the one you bought looks like it is crap, but no that particular Antex
one also looks pretty bad.

I suggest that if you want to buy an Antex iron for general use then the
tyle C, CS, XS etc are better than the one you listed above, though all are
fairly low powered. See how the bit surrounds the element on the better
Antex ones, whereas the worse ones look like a screwdriver tip that is
inserted into a hole in the element. For your job probably none of these
are powerful enough anyway.

They also do a temperature controlled version (all built into the handle),
look for BA14Q on Maplin. Because the temperature control will prevent it
from overheating, they can increase the heater power to 50W, which is
better. That iron might have enough power for what you want.

None of these irons will be very good on a multi-layer laptop board unless
you are quite lucky / well practiced. You really want a Metcal MX500 but
that is expensive.

In any case you can get some old scrap circuit boards of similar
construction, and practice on those until you are confident.

Chris