3 Dec
2008
3 Dec
'08
3:28 p.m.
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
John Floren wrote:
I have done plenty of work with 1206 and 805-sized parts and a few
0.5mm-pitch QFPs (IOB6120, among other projects). I myself don't mind
SMT, but I know that some kit builders shy away from it either because
of lack of proper tools, lack of experience, or vision issues. I
understand Bob's desire to stay with as much through-hole as possible,
but it won't be long before that just isn't practical due what parts
are out there.
It was extremely easy for me to solder dozens of SMT boards on day one
at one of my jobs, even though I had never done SMT before...
I'll add my support for this statement. The combination of a good soldering
station, liquid flux, and small solder is the difference between night and
day....
> The decision to do SMT depends on your intended consumers. Will they
> have a good station and a bottle of flux? If so, do it because SMT is
> great. If not, SMT is probably pretty evil. I'd also say that if there are some unavoidable
SMT parts (newer uCs with
larger footprints are only available in SMT), then you should consider
making the project SMT (the end user will need to buckle down and get SMT
equipment to solder up part of it, why not take advantage of SMT across the
design? Some developers will sell a board with just the main SMT
uC/CPLD/FPGA/etc. soldered, and the rest is through hole, which I suppose is
an OK compromise.
I've seen those sorts of mixed projects, but never assembled one.
Of course, if the design is not a kit, then I vote SMT
all the way.
Sure.
My personal preferences is for kits, SMT or no, but in large part
that's because I have a large amount of resources to keep my costs
down (I usually buy just a bare PCB or a bare PCB and a core set of
difficult-to-find parts like CPU/MPUs if that's handy). I realize
that I'm not representative of the majority of kit builders, but I'm
happy when it's possible to just get the board. I also enjoy
assembling them, something my friends have equated with buiding ships
in bottles.
SMT makes things like this possible:
www.jbrain.com/vicug/gallery/uIEC/
An entire CBM IEC compatible drive in 1.5" by 1.5" :-)
Boards came today and parts should be here tonight, I hope.
Very nice! I think I should see about getting one of those.
-ethan