SMD solder practice kits

[Wozzaaah]

Anyone ever had a play with one?
Quite fancied having a bash at smd soldering so bought one on eBay for £3.
Ummm.....it's a bit smaller than I was expecting.

 

[MattH]

I've used solder paste in the past and stuck the lot in the oven.

 

[Kayos]

I've used solder paste in the past and stuck the lot in the oven.

Did you put some chips in at the same time?

 

[WorkshopChris]

Looks interesting, have done a few mods in the past with paste and a miniature hot air gun.
This guy does a few videos with smt.

 

[zx9]

Interesting lots of different techniques to experiment with. What are you planning on using, an iron and solder or solder paste and a hot air station or tinning the board with an iron and re melting with hot air.

 

[Wozzaaah]

The only thing I've got is a solder station and solder so I'll have a bash with that and see how I get on.
It's about 1/4 the size I was expecting it to be so it's going to be an interesting challenge.

 

[armalites]

I have friend who owns a PCB assembly company, had a look round a couple of weeks a go. He got me to hold out my hand tipped some resistors out of a strip, they were like grains of sugar in my hand and even at that size they all have individual IDs so the machine placing them knows when something is missing. After the placing machine they go through what looks like a pizza oven but it blows hot air. The machines places them at an alarming rate and it even knows if there is enough solder coverage. The solder pads are primed in what looks like a screen printer.

 

[graffian]

I bought some chips meant for running stepper motors. They were tiny, TSSOP maybe?
I have soldered SO8 chips without any problem but the Alegro stepper ics were abosoolutly
tiny; so tiny that I was going through the envelopes and binning the empty ones, seems I
chucked the stepper ics away.

I happened upon a YT video by louis rossman, he fixes ipads, I liked watching the soldering, who knew
it was a spectator sport. I then watched a vid of the old chick at ipad-rehab pyramid reballing a chip from
a samsung phone! You watch the videos and don't get any idea of the scale of the ICs, then you see
them waving the huge circuit boards around and mrealise how small everything must be.

 

[the snooper]

Think you'll need a really good illuminated desk magnifying glass and a nice fine tip with my eyes at the me I'd be out I guess think it's time for another eye test

 

[voipio]

Avoid drinking coffee before trying to put down 0603 parts. Good magnification is a must, and can reduce hand tremor quite a bit.

 

[daleyd]

My first job when I left the navy was installing and repairing screen printers for the surface mount electronics industry - they used to print the solder paste on the bare boards then they got passed to the component placers and then onto the solder ovens.

The pitch on some of the smaller components (iirc some of the chip pads were the finest) was unbelievably small - I couldn't imagine trying to manually solder some of that stuff!!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Yeah, I'm starting to think it was £3 wasted.
When you have to hold a newspaper at arms length and close one eye I think SMD soldering is probably going to be pretty difficult.
I have an illuminated magnifying headset so I'll recce it before actually having a go.

 

[the snooper]

Yeah, I'm starting to think it was £3 wasted.
When you have to hold a newspaper at arms length and close one eye I think SMD soldering is probably going to be pretty difficult.
I have an illuminated magnifying headset so I'll recce it before actually having a go.

its our age woz, good eyes are a distant memory

 

[Wozzaaah]

According to the optician my eyesight is actually ok but it's just the usual age-related muscle degeneration that's causing me problems.
Off-the-shelf +1 glasses do the trick though I was told they are actually a bit strong, I should really be wearing +0.5.

 

[the snooper]

According to the optician my eyesight is actually ok but it's just the usual age-related muscle degeneration that's causing me problems.
Off-the-shelf +1 glasses do the trick though I was told they are actually a bit strong, I should really be wearing +0.5.

think ive got +0.5 off the shelf need to go get tested really

 

[the snooper]

yeah its not good its hard to do some of the stuff youre used to doing such as woz's project when earlier on it life it would be a doddle eyesight wise

 

[WorkshopChris]

yeah its not good its hard to do some of the stuff youre used to doing such as woz's project when earlier on it life it would be a doddle eyesight wise

A cheap usb microscope makes things much easier to see.

 

[the snooper]

i was gonna look for one of those big magnifiers that clamp on the table but what you suggest maybe better, connect it to a 32 inch screen and we're in with a chance

 

[the snooper]

thats terrible, the rest of us just take normal movement for granted, we dont know what we have until its taken away such as 100% eyesight

 

[skotl]

Avoid drinking coffee before trying to put down 0603 parts. Good magnification is a must, and can reduce hand tremor quite a bit.

A former neighbour of mine is an ocular (eye) surgeon. She wouldn't drink alcohol within three days of an operation, or coffee/tea within 24 hours, for this exact reason. As an owner/operator of two eyes, I must admit that I appreciate her dedication.