Ok, so I'm trying to replace some joysticks on PS5 controllers. I've tried stuff like this in the past to mixed success. I have a cheap solder iron and solder pump. This is not fun. Soldering? Not that difficult. Getting the through mount device out? Kill me.
At this point I think my biggest problem is my crappy solder sucker. It's the cheap pack-in thing that came with my cheap iron. You probably know the type something like this. The engineer brand sucker seems highly recommended as its tip is flexible silicone and can thus make a seal around the soldering point and really suck it all out. See here.
But I've been wondering if one of these units that heats and sucks isn't worth the try. Seems a little janky, but there would be no motion to go from the iron to the pump where the solder can cool. $40 isn't cheap, but it's a lot cheaper than the $200 $300 unit I saw recommended from ifixit that is probably wonderful and provides continuous motorized suction, but is also pretty expensive for a guy that just tinkers with this.
So, any tips? Are either of the engineer sucker or the electric desoldering iron likely to be a let down? Because I just cannot get this stuff to detach. Someday I'd love to have a good desoldering gun and hot air rework station and decent iron, but it's not in the cards where I'm at with how much I actually do this work. Kind of a paradox where the cheaper gear works poorly making it hard to get into it to the point where you could validate the more expensive gear innit?
Or maybe I'm bad at this? I'm doing my best to have flux in there, add a little fresh solder and tin my iron, and then heat the component not the solder, but... Well I did one controller (12 or 14 solder points) in 2 hours. I've spent another hour on the next and made little real progress when I was hoping I'd have an easier time the second go.
The other problem is the unit seems unfortunately difficult to replace. It's not a simple resistor or something with only two contacts that you can take out one joint at a time. You can pull the two pots off individually and that's not too hard. But you're still left with a 6 or 8 peg through mount thing that you basically have to remove all the solder because it has to be pulled out as one piece.
At this point I think my biggest problem is my crappy solder sucker. It's the cheap pack-in thing that came with my cheap iron. You probably know the type something like this. The engineer brand sucker seems highly recommended as its tip is flexible silicone and can thus make a seal around the soldering point and really suck it all out. See here.
But I've been wondering if one of these units that heats and sucks isn't worth the try. Seems a little janky, but there would be no motion to go from the iron to the pump where the solder can cool. $40 isn't cheap, but it's a lot cheaper than the $
So, any tips? Are either of the engineer sucker or the electric desoldering iron likely to be a let down? Because I just cannot get this stuff to detach. Someday I'd love to have a good desoldering gun and hot air rework station and decent iron, but it's not in the cards where I'm at with how much I actually do this work. Kind of a paradox where the cheaper gear works poorly making it hard to get into it to the point where you could validate the more expensive gear innit?
Or maybe I'm bad at this? I'm doing my best to have flux in there, add a little fresh solder and tin my iron, and then heat the component not the solder, but... Well I did one controller (12 or 14 solder points) in 2 hours. I've spent another hour on the next and made little real progress when I was hoping I'd have an easier time the second go.
The other problem is the unit seems unfortunately difficult to replace. It's not a simple resistor or something with only two contacts that you can take out one joint at a time. You can pull the two pots off individually and that's not too hard. But you're still left with a 6 or 8 peg through mount thing that you basically have to remove all the solder because it has to be pulled out as one piece.
