17 Oct
2012
17 Oct
'12
4:55 p.m.
On 10/17/2012 11:24 AM, David Riley wrote:
I suppose. I've had terrible luck with bridging,
but I never
really kept at it long enough to get much good at soldering
fine-pitch parts. My wife got me a pretty decent iron as a
birthday present recently, though (I picked a good one!), so
I may be doing a bit more in the not-too-distant future (more
so if my QBUS board ever gets off the ground, because I don't
really feel like paying for assembly).
Speaking for myself only, soldering TQFP isn't terribly difficult--I
could almost solder an 0.8 mm lead pitch QFP without my glasses. 0.5 mm
for me requires a binocular loupe and careful checking with an
inspection microscope. But I've done a lot of it and had zero
casualties, much to my surprise.
What I find more of a problem are SMT transistors and other tiny
multi-lead components. It takes a fairly steady hand to get them just
right. For two-leaded components, you can just let the component find
its own place floating on two molten solder pads.
Hey, if I can do it, anyone can. I started with a 100W American Beauty
iron wiring point-to-point (lesson to be learned: Look before you
grab). PCB was a learning experience and SMT yet another one. I still
don't know the right way to handle BGA packages doing manual assembly,
so I steer clear of those.
FWIW, I've got a motherboard here (386 or 486--I don't remember) where a
QFP CPU is mounted on a carrier that plugs into a PGA socket. The thing
was purchased in that configuration.
--Chuck