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I started soldering one of these one night (ordered enough parts for 9 of them) and realized that these things are really, REALLY tiny. Even with a magnifying g

I started soldering one of these one night (ordered enough parts for 9 of them) and realized that these things are really, REALLY tiny. Even with a magnifying glass, it's hard to even tell where the pins are, but I got about half of it soldered.. looking forward to the other half. :) Huge thank you to Conor for building this whole thing and open sourcing it and even providing links to pre-fab PCB's. Incredible work. Also the PCB's look really cool. I think I'll buy a few to go along with the one I just made.. :)

StavrosK 10y ago
You hand-soldered a QSOP package? How did you manage that? :)
- mcpherrinm 10y ago
  It's not too hard if you have a proper PCB with solder resist. The surface tension of the solder causes it too glob onto your part's pins and the pads below them. The solder resist is really key here, or else it's essentially impossible. You will have to test for solder bridges between pins, and maybe use some solder wick to get any excess out. It's not super fast, but it's absolutely doable with an hour or two of practice. Solder paste and a heat gun is the next step up, which I find more difficult to get right (I'm bad at applying the paste).
  - jon-wood 10y ago
    If you're using solder paste the trick is to get a stencil along with your PCB. It has holes where solder should be applied which you place over the PCB, smear the whole lot with solder paste, and then drop the components into place. You've now got solder exactly where you need it and nowhere else.
    - mcpherrinm 10y ago
      I find stencils hard to use ... I always end up smearing them when removing the stencil. Mind you, I have pretty minimal experience, so maybe I just need to try more and get the hang of it. Unfortunately without owning a hot air gun or reflow oven, I'll just keep avoiding bga parts and doing everything else with an iron.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    Ah, I don't know if DirtyPCBs have solder resist, but soldering pins that are too close together has been problematic for me.

StavrosK 10y ago

You hand-soldered a QSOP package? How did you manage that? :)

mcpherrinm 10y ago
It's not too hard if you have a proper PCB with solder resist. The surface tension of the solder causes it too glob onto your part's pins and the pads below them. The solder resist is really key here, or else it's essentially impossible. You will have to test for solder bridges between pins, and maybe use some solder wick to get any excess out. It's not super fast, but it's absolutely doable with an hour or two of practice. Solder paste and a heat gun is the next step up, which I find more difficult to get right (I'm bad at applying the paste).
- jon-wood 10y ago
  If you're using solder paste the trick is to get a stencil along with your PCB. It has holes where solder should be applied which you place over the PCB, smear the whole lot with solder paste, and then drop the components into place. You've now got solder exactly where you need it and nowhere else.
  - mcpherrinm 10y ago
    I find stencils hard to use ... I always end up smearing them when removing the stencil. Mind you, I have pretty minimal experience, so maybe I just need to try more and get the hang of it. Unfortunately without owning a hot air gun or reflow oven, I'll just keep avoiding bga parts and doing everything else with an iron.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  Ah, I don't know if DirtyPCBs have solder resist, but soldering pins that are too close together has been problematic for me.