3 ms·

Soldering BGA is not all that impressive, routing proper pcb for one is. Contrary to popular belief soldering SMD in general is way easier than dip, all you ne

• jrockway 12y ago
  Yeah. I actually prefer prototyping with SMD these days, since everything is super cheap, easily available, small, and easy to solder. You basically apply flux liberally, heat up the pins, apply solder, and surface tension does the rest. (The whole "never melt solder with your iron, heat the pin and let it melt the solder" no longer applies. You can put a big ball of solder on your iron and just sweep it over the component you're soldering. There's plenty of flux in play because you drowned everything in flux.) BGA is outside my abilities, however.
• thrownaway2424 12y ago
  It's a shame the way the impedance-controlled traces on this board turned out all janky though. I get boards done at Sunstone and I guess the price might be higher but the results are good. I think most people under-estimate the degree to which you can click a button on your computer and get manufactured goods in the mail. Even for small runs like ten boards I can cost-effectively get the boards fabricated and stuffed and delivered to my desk in a day or a few days depending on how much I'm willing to pay.
  • conesus 12y ago
    How much are you paying per in^2 to have Sunstone fab a board? Are you paying for assembly? OSH Park, as used in the article, is only $10/in^2 for 4-layer.
    • thrownaway2424 12y ago
      It strongly depends on how many you order, since nearly all the cost is in the setup. A 10 in^2 2-layer board is ~$300 for ten boards.
    • InclinedPlane 12y ago
      Don't forget: http://dirtypcbs.com/ http://dirtypcbs.com/