A few weeks ago, I wanted to mess around with the FadeCandy LED driver. Before I could program anything though, I had to solder some wires and headers to the board, LED panel, and power supply.

I haven't soldered in like three years so I was rusty and it took like twice as long as I expected. There were solder explosions and the solder itself wasn't sticking to the damn joints.

I think my main problem was that the tip wasn't getting heated, probably because it was getting oxidized

So here's what I learned:

• make sure that the tip is screwed on tightly to the iron
• ALWAYS tin the tip. That is, leave solder on the tip between soldering jobs
• ALWAYS leave solder on the tip when you put it away
• use the lowest temperature possible so you don't eff up the tip
• use helper hands!

Things I knew I should be doing but need constant reminding:

• heat the joints, not the solder. You want the solder to flow from the iron to the joint. This wasn't happening last night due the sucky tip.
• clean your iron between uses on a wet sponge

That said, I think the soldering tip that came with my iron is sucky and probably too small for most through-hole jobs and we'll probably order a new one. The one I'm looking at has flathead tip, and kinda looks like a screwdriver.