Project Dashboard TAZ 6 RAMBo_patch Workflow

1 Purpose of the patch

For compatibility, some older RAMBo boards need the addition of a capacitor in order to work with the TAZ 5/6 Z-axis setup.

This is only necessary if the board being worked on was manufactured prior to 2013 (TAZ 1-2).

Patch notes

2 Gather materials

For this you will need:

  • Soldering Iron
  • Cotton swabs
  • 0603 package 100 pF capacitors
  • RAMBo to be reworked
  • Flux
  • Tweezers
  • Isopropyl Alcohol
  • Canned air
  • Solder (optional)
https://ohai.lulzbot.com/media/uploads/DSCN0078.JPG
Optional mag light
Optional tip tinner

3 Plan

These are the two sets of pins to which we are going to add capacitors.

back of RAMBo with arrows to pins where the caps go

4 Make flux puddle

Make a little puddle of flux in a small container

Depress the tip of the flux pen to dispense flux

5 Dip cap in flux

Dip the cap to be added to the pins into the flux

Dip it

6 Clean tip

Clean the tip of your iron by rubbing it on a wet sponge. You can optionally dip it in the tip tinner at this point too.

Clean it

7 Solder left pin

Hold the cap with your tweezers and flow the solder onto one end of the capacitor

Solder it

8 Solder right pin

Hold the cap in place with the tweezers and flow the solder onto the left side of the capacitor.

Flow it

9 Dip swab in alcohol

Get plenty of alcohol on the swab

Dip it

10 Clean area

Clean all the flux residue. Add more alcohol as needed.

Clean it

11 Blow dry the area

Blow away the alcohol with canned air

Blow dry it

12 Dip another cap in flux

Dip another cap in the flux you dispensed earlier. Add flux as needed.

Dip it

13 Clean tip again

Clean any oxidation and/or flux residue off the tip of the iron. Optionally, you can dip the tip in tinner.

Clean it again

14 Solder left pin

Hold the cap with tweezers, and flow the solder with the iron tip.

Flow it

15 Solder right pin

Flow solder to make the joint.

Flow it

16 Clean area

With the cotton swab from earlier, clean the flux residue off the board. Use more alcohol and a fresh swab as needed.

Clean it

17 Blow dry

Use the canned air to blow dry the area.

The picture shows what it should look like before drying. After drying, it looks very similar -- only dry.

Before blowing dry

18 Pro tip

If you are really good, you can flow both pads of solder at the same time and then drop the flux'd up capacitor onto the pads and make both joints at once. This is good because it is faster, cleaner, and just plain cool. Try it out.

Done! Take me home