22 Jan
2012
22 Jan
'12
9:02 p.m.
On 01/22/2012 03:56 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Many hobbyists seem to be deathly afraid of soldering
SMT,
particularly fine-pitch (0.5 mm) QFPs.
I've never understood it. I'm now deep into the through-hole pass on
an assembly job I'm doing, and I'm hating every second of it, while the
SMT parts were a breeze. The world is full of backward people, it
seems. The fear of SMT is a knee-jerk reaction with no foundation in
reality.
It's not that bad, even with
a regular soldering iron, but a microscope or other aid to visually
inspect the result helps a lot.
Translation: Use the right tools for the job. :-)
At some point, someone offered adapter cards with, for
the want of a
better term, employed a "trench" for each lead, so that
misregistration was almost impossible. I don't know if they're still
made or even how difficult it would be to fabricate such a thing on a
circuit board--but it might bear investigation for future kits.
Yes, Schmartboard makes those. They sent me a sample a few weeks
ago; I haven't tried it yet.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA