partial P112 kits

On Jun 21, 2010, at 1:51 PM, Dave McGuire wrote: I've had the right tools. I don't buy cheap RadioShack soldering irons. I have a very nice digital temperature controlled Weller soldering station with the right tips. I can do it, I just don't like to, and I have a high enough failure rate to make it an exercise in frustration when dealing with large-pin count flat-packs. It does require different skills than through-hole soldering. Not everybody is up to the task. I build on average two-three kits a year: at that pace, SMD just isn't a skill I get enough practice using. I can probably dress and lace telephone and datacom cable faster than you can, I'd wager.. but I wouldn't expect your home network to have all the cables dressed and laced, either, because you probably have never laced cable in your life (I'm assuming you don't work in the telecom sector like I do). Different people have different skills and abilities. Also, not everybody wants to invest in $300 worth of soldering equipment to build a $120 kit. For some people it is just a hobby, they don't need (nor can they justify) spending a lot of money on tools. I agree that the "right tool makes all the difference" in general, but I'm not going to ask the average electronics novice to spend more than the kit is worth on expensive tools they don't really need for anything other than my kit. The whole point here is to create an accessible, entry-level kit... if people have SMD skills and equipment, more power to them. SMD components were designed to be picked-and-placed by robots. By that measure, the "right tool" for the job is an industrial robot designed to pick-and-place SMD parts. I don't have a problem with letting a robot do the hard stuff I can't quite do with 99.999% accuracy. If you can, great. Please enjoy building kits that challenge your skills. That's not what P112 is.