Hi, I would like to start of saying that I’m in love with this site and the information it provides.

I need some help desolder stuff. These are larger items, such as USB ports, video conectors, etc.. that are on the Xbox 360 motherboard. Microsoft used lead free solder on the board, if that info is needed. I recently bought the Weller WES51 from this site, the SMD kit, and Chip Quik. This is for a custom build i’ve been working on. Any help would be awesome!

-CollinstheClown

Hey, thanks for the comments and order. You should be able to get away with lots of techniques for getting off the USB connector. With a solder sucker, you can suck off most of the solder from each pin, and then use pliers or a flat screwdriver to pry up one pin at a time while heating the left over solder. Solder wick will work too and probably be a little easier.

For the video connector, and I’m just guessing at this, but if it’s got lots of pins (20+), you’ll either need hot air, the chip quik desoldering kit, or if you don’t mind destroying it, cut each pin with an x-acto knife and then remove them individually with the iron. Hot air is the most fun, but also the most risky. Most heat guns for removing paint are much too hot for soldering, but if you’re careful (or aren’t too worried), you can certainly remove things with those. Hot air rework stations are the “right” way to go, but these are pricey. The cheapest route is to get an embossing tool. You can find them for $25 at an arts and crafts store, and we’re going to start selling them sometime soon.

Post a pic of the before and after :)

Thanks for the quick reply!

I’m still debating wether I need the connectors or not. I could just solder wires in the wholes. I will be posting progress shots and finished pictures. I’ll look up some shots of the mobo, no need to take more pics of the same board.

Here is a shot I took a while ago actually:
mobo

Things to be removed
Upper-right: Dual USB ports
Mid-right: Power button and ROL connector, 2 memory card slots
Mid-bottom: External HDD connector (data and power)
Lower-left: RJ-45 connector and USB port, A/V connector
Upper-left: Power connector

-CollinstheClown

I have an update. :)
Heres what I started with:

After a little work with the solder sucker and the wick I got here:

I didn’t get a picture after u sed the heat gun and solder sucker, but it eventually lead to this:

I know, very messy. I deffinatly left the heat gun on there for too long, but it was my first time so I was discouraged. I took some 1000grit and some rubbing alcohol to it and cleaned it up:

Not to bad in my opinion. Heres the connector (little blurry, sorry)

I also did the dual USB ports(pics) and the pwr button and ROL connector(no pics)

So far so good! I’ll be doing the rest soon.

Also, I read a tutorial a while back about using the heat gun to desolder and they recommended using tin foil to protect the surrounding components. I did it and it worked like a charm!

-CollinstheClown

Opps, I’m new to this kind of forum.. how do you get pictures to work?

-CollinstheClown

hey, you typed the right syntax for the pics,... apparently the code on the server is a little buggy when it comes to handling pictures with %20’s in the path. Until we get around that, you can use normal html for pics—>

'<img src="http://">'

Nice work on desoldering… did you actually get anything off with the solder suck and wick, or just use the heat gun? For connectors, I guess your only worry is frying the board with a heat gun.

Ah ok, I didn’t know html work with this.

After I used the iron and sucker combo I tried using the wick with the iron. I’m not to good with the wick yet, but I did get a little extra off. What worked the most I found was to put some flux on the connectors then use the heatgun to melt the joints. While the solder is molten I quickly used the sucker and it worked great. I was able to get a much larger amount of the solder out of the hole since there was no iron tip in the way. The lip of the sucker was able to create a much better vacuum and get more out. I’m about to do some more work, and I’ll try to get some more pictures in.

-CollinstheClown