joined/connected pads

[Cart]

is it ok for bridges to form on connected/joined soldering pads? like the 4 (8 pads) found in the center of this photo? and there is one more in the top right corner... making an elenco FM radio if curious.

if not how do i avoid them bridging? it seems impossible without using solder stop/mask and why would they construct the board this way if it they should not be joined...?

thank you for any assistance in this regard.

 

[(*steve*)]

yeah, that's perfectly fine.

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir Cart . . . . . . .

Don't get confused . . .since I have TOTALLY flipped your board HORIZONTALLY in order to coincide with the top component overlay placed just below.
Looks like you have successfully soldered on the R1 dropping resistor and the D2 diodes anode at RED A junction as well as the D3 LED anode at
RED C junction and its cathode at RED D junction.
However, it does look like you connected R1's left wire to the RED A land instead of the top one just above it, as shown, but don't worry, as the SAME
electrical connection is being made .
Then RED D then flows downward along the RED E path (Minor fine GREEN path)and picks up a few other components before eventually tieing
into the ground buss at pins 3-4 of IC2..

Now if my "eagle eyes" are not failing me I believe that those dirty birdies erroneously made their solder mask template, to have left GREEN resist on
the RED B land. Therefore, with you only getting micro points of solder adhesion on a few minor bared copper areas.
Looks like you have started a scrape on the left side of it, as I am seeing the shiny copper.

The Proper Fix:

Pull that D2 diode back out and do a complete scrape of that B circle and flux and tin the then shiny copper circle with solder and then tin the D2 diode cathode
lead and feed back thru and reflow solder the combination .
They designed a copper foil interconnecting path between RED B and RED C just like you see between the RED A and RED F at the top right.

Le Photo . . .deux :

73's de Edd

 

[Cart]

Thanks, steve for your insight.

Sir Edd, I unfortunately became confused about your considerations and it's not because of the orientation of the photo. I finished the radio and it works pretty fine and the light comes on and I didn't re-check this thread after steve. I am not sure what you want me to fix on my board because when i compare it to others online they generally all look very much mine and identical in regards to these specific components.

The picture on the left is my completed radio and the right is a comparison model. What would I change on my board now that the components are more evident in regards to their position?

Very much appreciate your insight.
Thanks, Cart.
(haven't trimmed down all the leads or cleaned the board with alc yet, as my last thing of alcohol seemed to leave a sticky residue behind for some reason. maybe ill upload that (foil side of board) later if i can get to that today.)

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir Cart . . . . . . . .


Since you posted when you just had only three parts on the board . . . . .
At that point in time of the comparison, you had not yet shown us the fully "stuffed" board.
I thought that you were sharing mounting holes of the D2 diodes wire and the down the power stream lead of the R1 resistor.
It now shows those parts being in their assigned mounting holes and all is coincident.
Also it certainly appeared that designated land B had green solder resist lacquer over it . . .thus necessitating scraping it down to bare copper to tin..

If the board is now completed and with yours being the left one . . . I only see discreptancies in the non presence of the C21 electrolytic at the front of
the U2 audio amp.
Also either C2 main filter electrolytic capacitor is being physically placed on the other side of the board, or there are only being clipped leads now in its mounting holes.

Musing back in time . . . .

And to think . . . . .that back in the early 2000's you could buy this FM receiver as a mini version using scaled down micro SMD parts and a "fly speck " U1 chip and it only driving an earphone . . .
at final clearance prices of One . . . . . . repeat . . . . . .One Amellican Dollar . . . . . at Dollar stores . . . . .and Wally World.
AND . . . . with it being resplendently complete . . . . . . with batteries and the earphones.

( My only fault found was the utilization of a combined wire lead in the phones line, for a quasi FM wire antenna, was being somewhat of
a limiting factor in weaker stations reception.
Working "blind" you also had to count incoming stations . . . to APPROXIMATE . . . and that's heav-ee on the approximate . . . a favorite
stations position within the series of re scanned stations.)

Thasssit

73's de Edd

 

[(*steve*)]

My only content is that you should be trimming the leads as you solder them.

Leave the cleaning tho the end. (I typically don't even bother)

 

[Cart]

Sir Cart . . . . . . . .
Since you posted when you just had only three parts on the board . . . . .
At that point in time of the comparison, you had not yet shown us the fully "stuffed" board.
I thought that you were sharing mounting holes of the D2 diodes wire and the down the power stream lead of the R1 resistor.
It now shows those parts being in their assigned mounting holes and all is coincident.
Also it certainly appeared that designated land B had green solder resist lacquer over it . . .thus necessitating scraping it down to bare copper to tin..

If the board is now completed and with yours being the left one . . . I only see discreptancies in the non presence of the C21 electrolytic at the front of
the U2 audio amp.
Also either C2 main filter electrolytic capacitor is being physically placed on the other side of the board, or there are only being clipped leads now in its mounting holes.

Sir Edd, well I am certainly glad there is nothing misplaced. C21 adds an unnecessary amount of gain and is therefore optional. Already tossed it in with my other electrolytic capacitors. Funny enough I was at the Doller store yesterday hoping to find some cheap electronics to mess with, like radios. Didn't find so much, though I did find a bag filled with 1000x or so resistors of various resistance and a couple breadboards. Went thrifting with my girlfriend yesterday, and now i got a waffle maker and a snowboard.

My only content is that you should be trimming the leads as you solder them.

Leave the cleaning tho the end. (I typically don't even bother)

Yea I typically do as well, quite frankly I was just concerned that it wasn't going to work and didn't want to lose any components because I cut the leads too short. Even though I had a loose screw on my iron and the tip was falling out when putting in the chip at U2, everything turned out just fine, thankfully

Cheers,
James

 

[(*steve*)]

I'm also concerned that it's often a bad idea to try to work on something like this with a screw loose.