4 ms·
This was quite a wakeup call for me too. I was always into hobby electronics but a couple of years ago I got into multicopters. A _lot_ of parts were these tiny
by Sirened 4y ago
This was quite a wakeup call for me too. I was always into hobby electronics but a couple of years ago I got into multicopters. A _lot_ of parts were these tiny SMDs. I remember having to figure out how to attach FETs and even (once) a little BGA microprocessor. It was a very steep learning curve and nobody else in the hobby scene here had really done anything with it, so it was a lot of trial and error. Industry has moved on, there are so many things now that are practically out of reach for hobbyists nowadays :/
- Animats 4y agonobody else in the hobby scene here had really done anything with it Sparkfun has tutorials.[1] There are surface mount practice kits, where you get a little board and a bunch of dud parts to practice on. It's not all that hard, but it takes practice. It takes a while to get skill with tweezers under a microscope. Cheap USB microscopes are very useful. Figure on ruining a few of those cheap practice kits. It's not rocket science, but to do consistently good assembly you need the right tools and some reasonable hand tool skills. [1] https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/category/2 https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/category/2
- Sirened 4y agoAh, no, I was more referencing my local community. We have a fairly vibrant electronics DIY community but the technical skill caps out at around SMD stuff. Thankfully though while the community is largely stuck in the 70s, we aren't actually stuck in the 70s and have the internet to try and figure things out.
- Animats 4y agoWe have a fairly vibrant electronics DIY community but the technical skill caps out at around SMD stuff. I had that experience in the heyday of TechShop. Which I felt was embarrassing for Silicon Valley. Not enough people making stuff.