What boards do not have lead-free solder

[socketa]

Finished perusing this article Rollback the Lead-Free Initiative

Can one determine if a board has lead-free solder by a visual inspection?

When did computer motherboards and GPUs start to be manufactured with lead-free solder?
i.e., what were the first series of AMD motherboards and GPUs that used lead-free solder?

I want to keep as far away from lead free soldering as possible

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

company's can use lead free at any time they want,
but they had no choice after 2006.
so pre-2006 it was up to the company's.

there is nothing wrong with lead-free btw, it gets a bad rap because of poor choice of flux, bad soldering equipment, and a few company's selling products with inadequate cooling (mainly microsoft)

btw, if a board has a sybmbol that looks like the letters Pb with a cross or slash through them it is lead-free.

[socketa]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

It's hard to find info on this.
"VIA announced today that their AS-1210 motherboard will be the world's first lead-free motherboard." - From an article dated April 2004
And from the Asus website: "ASUS produced the world's first lead-free and Halogen – free motherboard" + "2004: Launched lead-free motherboards"
So who produced the first Pb-free motherboard? VIA or ASUS?
And when?

Can't find any info for Gigabyte.
Going by the user manual copyright (if that's anything to go by), it seems that socket A manufacture is around 2002-2003,
and socket 754 and 939 is in the vicinity of 2004 - 2006
But when did Gigabyte make the switch?
Are all of these 754 and 939 boards Pb-free, or did they make the switch sometime in between?

Also, isn't it best to determine the type of solder on the board before using an iron on it?
Because i read that it can lead to contamination of the tip.

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

firstly it's worth pointing out that china has it's own lead-free rules that are more strict than RoHS.

as for soldering, what do you mean by contamination?
you can clean the tip.

[socketa]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

Ok that's a consideration

So any board that was manufactured prior to 2006, that does not meet the European RoHS specification, may, or may, not be Pb-free?
And, in that case, the only way to find out is by checking the temp that it melts at.
It seems that the European RoHS predates the Chinese RoHS which began to be phased in in 2007
No Mention of EU or China RoHS, in the Mobo Documentation, means that there's a good chance that solder job is Sn/Pb

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

well lead costs more than tin.

and tin/copper solder works fine with the correct temperatures and flux.

so a lot of company's switched to leadfree as soon as the flux was ready.
flux was the big holdup that took years to solve - it's still the thing that makes a big difference between solder brands.
you cant just use rosin desolved in IPA on unleaded solder - it burns and makes a mess.

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

btw, contary to what that guy in the link says, it's easy to detect lead in solder.
there are chemical test-sticks.
you wipe the solder with them and if there is any lead they change colour.

they are used by process inspectors.

[mariushm]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

It's not quite that simple.

You have to be careful when you read the wording of such press releases. One company may mean that they didn't use leaded solder when soldering all the components to the PCB... but they don't say if all the chips they placed on the boards had the leads tinned with lead free solder or some solder with lead in it.
Some ICs could have solder with lead inside, depending on the package.

Also, under RoHS there are plenty of exceptions where you can use solder with lead.



I want to keep as far away from lead free soldering as possible

I don't see why. Lead free soldering is just a bit more difficult, due to the higher temperatures required to melt the solder. A small negative for lead free soldering would also be the fluxes which have to be just a bit more active, powerful, because they have to do their job in much shorter time, before heat from soldering iron burns them out.
As long as there's some ventilation in the room and you use a good soldering iron, there's nothing wrong with lead free soldering.

If you're concerned about using soldering iron tips advertised as lead free on boards that aren't rohs, don't be. It's not a big deal, the contamination of a lead free board with leaded solder during repairs and so on is acceptable and doesn't really cause problems in reliability (or other ways)

So again, what's the real reason you're asking these questions?

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

the contamination of a lead free board with leaded solder during repairs

can be minimised by simply wiping the tip with a brass-wool cleaner and a wet sponge between jobs.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

If you want to be a purist about it then use different tips and cleaners, one set for each. But I see no reason for much concern about it.

[socketa]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

"what's the real reason you're asking these questions?"

because i am from the pleiades and crashed here on this god-forsaken planet, and i need to fix the circuitry inside my spaceship so that i get the heck out of here.

slightly more seriously,
after reading the threads in the forum, it is quite obvious that Pb-free is the most preferred method by most members, and there would have to be a a good reason for that

and from checking out other webpages:
higher temp is bound to lead to shorter tip life
the stuff doesn't flow as well
more prone to fracture
produces 250% more toxic airborne particles
the component is subject to higher temp
the growth of tin whiskers
etc...

So if i have a choice between two boards, it makes sense to choose the lead-free one.

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

1: higher temp is bound to lead to shorter tip life
2: the stuff doesn't flow as well
3: more prone to fracture
4: produces 250% more toxic airborne particles
5: the component is subject to higher temp
6: the growth of tin whiskers

1 - no.
2 - wrong again - just need the right flux in the solder.
3 - fracture over tearing, but stronger than lead before it cracks.
4 - that's down to the flux, i'v seen some pretty nasty fluxes in leaded solder in the past.
5 - maybe - different people solder at different temperatures, i solder lead-free at 310 - i'v seen forum members use 350 on leaded solder sometimes.
6 - never seen it, i suspect you need specific enviromental conditions.
the wiskers cant actually "grow" btw, that would require extra tin - it must be some form of migration effect.

[ben7]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

1 - no.
2 - wrong again - just need the right flux in the solder.
3 - fracture over tearing, but stronger than lead before it cracks.
4 - that's down to the flux, i'v seen some pretty nasty fluxes in leaded solder in the past.
5 - maybe - different people solder at different temperatures, i solder lead-free at 310 - i'v seen forum members use 350 on leaded solder sometimes.
6 - never seen it, i suspect you need specific enviromental conditions.
the wiskers cant actually "grow" btw, that would require extra tin - it must be some form of migration effect.

My thoughts on your points:
1. Agreed.
2. Mostly agree. (I haven't used lead-free solder much, so not experienced with it as much as I could be)
3. Mostly agree. It does take longer to cool too (needs higher temps in the first place), so keep that in mind while soldering.
4. Agreed! Some smell really strongly. Some also leave a residue that is conductive, and some leave a residue that is hard to remove.
5. Partly agree. I've never had any issues with heating parts up for long times. I obviously don't heat electrolytic caps up for long, you know why LOL. But that's not to say that heating parts up for a long time could damage them.
6. Partly agree. Most tin whiskers apparently are very thin, you likely won't be able to see them with the naked eye. Now, if there are a LOT of them, you can see the "fuzz" then. Yes I've heard that for some reason, electroplated tin can cause tin whiskers. Not sure why, and I'm not 100% sure if that is true.

Just my 2 cents.

-Ben

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

electroplated tin will leave a layer of tin sulphate on the surface when you remove the current,
the item really should be washed and polished afterwards - i bet they arent!

the same applies to any other electroplating.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

"what's the real reason you're asking these questions?"

because i am from the pleiades and crashed here on this god-forsaken planet, and i need to fix the circuitry inside my spaceship so that i get the heck out of here.

slightly more seriously,
after reading the threads in the forum, it is quite obvious that Pb-free is the most preferred method by most members, and there would have to be a a good reason for that

and from checking out other webpages:
higher temp is bound to lead to shorter tip life
the stuff doesn't flow as well
more prone to fracture
produces 250% more toxic airborne particles
the component is subject to higher temp
the growth of tin whiskers
etc...

So if i have a choice between two boards, it makes sense to choose the lead-free one.

I'm sorry but something isn't making sense to me here. You're pointing out all the negatives of using lead-free while saying it's better to use lead-free. ?: |

[stj]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

shhhhhh.......

[eccerr0r]

Re: What boards do not have lead-free solder

I thought tin was around $7/lb, lead around $0.80/lb today: tin is much more expensive.
60 Sn/40 Pb was made because eutectic 63Sn/37Pb had more tin and thus more expensive.

Lead was added mostly to prevent whiskering, plus lower melting point and well defined melting point makes it a lot easier to work with. It also made solder cheaper, to boot! Three birds with one stone!