11 Aug
2006
11 Aug
'06
9:25 p.m.
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Friday 11 August 2006 23:32, der Mouse wrote:
This works "adequately" with gull-wing packages. But, Jlead,
BGA, etc. it's easier to just shoot yourself in BOTH feet
before even getting started!
Admittedly, that could be a lack of tools. Given
a stereo loupe,
pantographic waldos, and a really fine-point soldering iron, it quite
possibly wouldn't be all that tough. But those ain't cheap, and I
think needing significantly more expensive equipment counts as
"harder".
All you need is to use lots of flux and a chisel-tip soldering iron. With the
correct technique (which is one of the few useful things I learned in my ECE
classes), it's fairly easy to do.
Basically, you tack down the corners of the chip, and then draw the chisel tip
across the pins, along with the solder. Using plenty of flux is essential
for this to work, and it'll probably take a couple of tries to get the
technique down. Trying to solder the pins individually, and avoiding
bridging them (like if
you didn't use enough flux) is a complete pain in the ass, and just a bad
idea.
Passives are a bit trickier, but if you use a hemostat or pair of tweezers to
hold onto it, that shouldn't be too difficult either (hint: tin the PCB pads
first).
Solder paste and hot air are infinitely easier.