On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Mark Tapley wrote:
Plan for tonight is probe some more (as above), then
replace the
comparator. My wife did actually pick up replacement comparators. She
said the guys at the electronics place gave her a really funny look. She
walked in with the 2-year-old and the 6-year-old (offspring), and asked
by number and name for the IC's I wanted - without referring to her
notes. Guess that doesn't happen too often. Anyway, I now own $1.30
worth of spare comparators, and I'd rather solder on the IC than on the
SMD's for my first effort. Besides which, I don't yet own replacement
SMD resistors, or caps, or whatever the heck they are.
If you plan to touch the SMD devices at all, make sure you have the right
solder, and use the smallest tip you can get for your iron. I've had
fairly good luck with a 20W iron using a 1/32-1/16" tip and some silver
bearing solder for touch up work, but since I don't have a better setup,
I've outsourced things like replacing QFP chips and the like.
If no joy with the new comparator, I can try to
retouch solder joints on
everything connected to the voltage divider. Anything to look out for
when dealing with SMD's with a cheapo soldering iron? :-(
Erm, I just hope the iron is of fair quality, and is in the range of
20-25W. Anything larger is likely to damage the board, especially those
awful soldering irons Radio Shack sells (or used to?).
-Toth