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I have a jbl clip 2 here which is not charging. I opened it up and saw that these 2 wires were poorly soldered and the red one was not even touching. So in the end I was left with these two unconnected wires, i don't have a solder I was wondering if I could glue them to their place? I tried heating screwdriver and tried to heat the old solder but it didn't work.

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EDIT: How can I solder such a tiny piece then?

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    \$\begingroup\$ No ............. \$\endgroup\$
    – brhans
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ Why? Because of the insulation of the glue? Can you give me some alternative methods to connect the wires? \$\endgroup\$
    – ardasevinc
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ I suggest changing the title to "Can I solder a wire to a PCB without a soldering iron?". The answer like brhans said is negative. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ About the edit question: It takes some getting used to. You should experiment a bit on a broken piece of electronics you don't need and only try to solder this when you feel more comfortable with it. I will edit this into my answer to make it more complete. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:22

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Soldering makes a strong bond between the two metals with resistance that is as small as possible. I am unaware of any other bonding method that works equally well, especially if you consider its mechanical properties. A glue-type solution might hold for a while but might fall off later on because of vibrations.

In addition, any glue will go between the two metals and will not form a continuous conductor unless it is a conductor itself. There are some conductive adhesives but I expect them to cost more than a cheap soldering iron and I wouldn't be able to tell you how well it would hold without having tried it. Also, as the linked wiki says, it is consisted 80% of conducting material so I would expect some added resistance which in turn could cause extra heat.

If you decide that you're going to have an attempt to solder it, you should become familiar with the soldering iron first. A broken piece of old electronics you don't need could make a good practice board.

Keep in mind that there are two (more actually) types of soler - leaded and unleaded. You can't tell just by looking but the later melts at a higher temperature.

There are two things I can't stress enough about soldering: surface cleanliness and stability during soldering. You can achieve 'cleanliness' by cleaning the surface with isopropyl alcohol or acetone. Some flux will also help remove oxides from both surfaces. Flux is applied before solder. Most solder has some flux in its core these days but you can't go wrong if you apply some to each surface before applying solder. Finally regarding flux, many types require cleaning afterwards (usually with isopropyl alcohol or acetone) otherwise they will corrode the solder joint after some time.

Stability will take a little bit of practice but if you hold the pcb down and have something hold the wire in place (like tape or blue tack) it's actually not that hard.

One last tip, always pre-tin (apply solder to) both parts before joining them and have the soldering iron tip wet with solder when you try it. This helps with heat transfer and make the whole thing faster which in turn means less stress on the PCB.

There are some really good videos online that can demonstrate all these points in a nicer way than text. This is an example that I consider a very good one.

If this is valuable to you and you don't feel comfortable with a soldering iron, you should take it to a technician. This shouldn't take him/her more than a few of minutes.

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    \$\begingroup\$ @metacollin Additionally, it isn't really fair to point out cold joints or other such things to show how unreliable solder connections are. Thats what happens if you do it wrong. Would it be fair for me to wire wrap poorly and then complain about how bad and unreliable wire wrapping is? \$\endgroup\$
    – Matt
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:44
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    \$\begingroup\$ @metacollin I provided two examples of worse ways to join two conductors in my earlier comment: 1) Set wire on pad and hold together with the weight of a rock. 2) Glue them together. Here are some more: Tape the wires together, use a rubber band to hold the wires together, set the wires on top of each other and drive a nail through them, I can do this all day... \$\endgroup\$
    – Matt
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ Hmmm. Not a word about flux - which is probably THE major problem with successfully making a solder joint without the proper tools/supplies (ie, solder with fresh flux, or at least some flux alone - merely having a hot thing is hardly sufficient.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ @metacollin Hmm. I've never heard this, but you might be correct. I found that crimped terminals usually come loose or detach, especially if the fit is less than precise. Solder is less conductive than copper, but solder joints have have more surface area contact. In an environment where there is a lot of vibration, such as machinery, where the connection can break loose. \$\endgroup\$
    – user148298
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ Wire wrapping is not an option here; soldering is. Going down a rathole about the relative merits of soldering versus wire wrapping is the kind of thing that gives stackoverflow a bad reputation. None of this helps answer the question. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 15:20
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They make conductive adhesive for low volt applications (search Amazon) but they cost about as much as a cheap soldering iron which will do a better job.

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